The chair of council for the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Dame Janet Finch, who has been in post since January 2015, will not be seeking reappointment when her current term of office ends.
The current term will end in April 2018 and a new chair will be selected in a process beginning this autumn.
At an NMC meeting on 5 July, it was agreed that the role of the next council chair will be amended to give them a time commitment of three days per week. This will be an increase from the current two-day committment.
A spokesperson said the change ‘recognises the greater demands on the organisation and brings the NMC into line with many other regulators.’
The decision will take effect from May 2018 when a new chair will take up the position. An appointment process has been agreed by the NMC’s Council and will begin in the autumn.
Dame Janet was previously Vice Chancellor of Keele University from 1995-2010 and in addition to her NMC role is also a member of the Medical Research Council and an honorary professor at Manchester University.
Jackie Smith, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, said: ‘Dame Janet has provided strong leadership of the NMC’s Council during a time where the organisation has made huge strides towards achieving our ambition of being a truly dynamic, leading regulator.’
Dame Janet Finch said: ‘It has been a great privilege to serve as the Chair of the NMC for three and a half years, as it will be when my term of office comes to an end in April 2018.
‘It has been thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable, but over this period we have experienced ever greater demands on the organisation and the role of Chair, increasing my time commitment to the NMC. This is likely to increase further in the next few years. I believe that it is now right to seek a Chair who is able to devote more time to this important task than I would be able to commit to in the future.’
