Nursing and Midwifery Council offered £20m grant from Government

The Nursing and Midwifery Council, (NMC) has been offered a ‘one off’ grant of £20 million by the Government to improve its performance, Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter has announced.

The Government expects that this support will allow the NMC to protect nurses and midwives from the full impact of a proposed registration fee rise of almost 60 per cent.

The NMC plays an important role in protecting patients and is an independent body responsible for the regulation of nurses and midwives, including dealing with complaints and fitness to practise hearings.

In order to work in the UK, nurses and midwives must register with the NMC. Annual registration currently costs every nurse and midwife £76 per year, but the NMC has recently consulted on increasing its annual fee to £120, meaning nurses and midwives would have to pay an extra £44 every year.

Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter said: “I am pleased to be able to offer £20 million of support to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, because the NMC is an important body with an important role to play in protecting patients.

“Following a period when we have heard of so many terrible abuses in the care of older people and vulnerable patients, it is important that organisations like the NMC are in the right shape to properly perform their job of protecting patients.

“I am also mindful that in these times of pay restraint, it is not right that hard working nurses and midwives are burdened with the full financial cost of improving the NMC’s fitness to practise function.

“We want to support the council and its new leadership in getting back on its feet financially and operationally, and I hope that it will accept our offer.”

The NMC Council will decide whether or not to accept the Government’s offer of a grant.