NMC introduces specialist team to speed up ‘sensitive’ FtP cases

A new specialist team has been put together to help resolve ‘sensitive’ fitness to practise (FtP) cases in a ‘more timely’ manner.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has invested in a new team, the Sensitive and Complex Casework Team (SCCT), to provide specialised legal advice and support on complex cases at the screening stage.

The regulator said sensitive cases could include those connected to major public inquiries into health and care failings, such as those arising from public inquiries, major regulatory or criminal investigations, neonatal or maternal deaths, and matters where coroners have made findings.

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The team will be expanded over the next several months with new investigators and legal experts so it can directly investigate FtP cases. It is hoped this will help reduce caseloads and pressure on other teams at the screening and investigations stages, the NMC said.

It also aims to support ‘faster, consistent decision-making’, so that the FtP process is ‘more efficient and fairer for registrants’.

Lesley Maslen, executive director of NMC’s professional regulation, said: ‘It’s important that we continue investing in our people and ensure they have the resources to deliver a faster and more effective fitness to practise process for everyone involved.

‘The expertise of our specialist team for sensitive and complex cases is invaluable, and we are keen to strengthen this work by enabling them to directly manage and investigate appropriate cases.

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‘This will improve consistency in decision-making and streamline our processes, easing pressure on other stages of FtP while helping us reach decisions more efficiently and fairly.’

The news follows NMC’s announcement in December that it is entering a ‘new phase’ after a year of reform, pointing to faster case handling and planned changes to education and standards.

Paul Rees, NMC’s chief executive and registrar, said FtP cases were being resolved at their fastest rate in five years.

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The NMC has also been consulting unions and a group of senior black, Asian and minority ethnic nurses and midwives on how it can remove ethnic and gender bias from its FtP process. 

It comes after a damning independent review of the regulator in 2024, which outlined a ‘dangerously toxic culture’, highlighting incidents of bullying, racism and burnout among staff.