NMC strategy signals further changes for fitness to practise and regulatory oversight

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has approved a new Midwifery Regulation Strategy for 2026-2030, setting out plans to strengthen patient safety, tackle inequity and embed anti-racism across its regulatory work. The strategy places particular emphasis on improving how the regulator identifies risks, responds to concerns and uses regulatory intelligence, including information gathered through fitness to practise processes.

Announced on 25 September 2026, the strategy commits the regulator to making midwifery regulation safer, more equitable, anti-racist and trusted. According to the NMC, the programme has been informed by national maternity and neonatal reviews across the UK, many of which have highlighted concerns around leadership, escalation of risk, education standards and disparities in care experienced by women and babies.

While the strategy focuses specifically on midwifery regulation, several of its proposals are likely to be of interest to registrants and legal professionals involved in NMC fitness to practise proceedings.

One of the clearest fitness to practise-related commitments is the NMC’s intention to make greater use of intelligence gathered from across its regulatory functions. The regulator says it will bring together information from fitness to practise, education and other sources to improve its ability to identify emerging risks earlier and determine where regulatory intervention may be required.

The strategy also commits the NMC to providing “fair, equitable, consistent, timely and informed regulation” supported by relevant midwifery expertise. Importantly, the regulator says it will strengthen the role that midwifery expertise plays in fitness to practise policy development, decision-making and organisational learning.

Another area likely to attract attention is the NMC’s continued focus on equity and anti-racism. The regulator has identified listening, learning and advancing equity and anti-racism as one of its five strategic priorities. The strategy forms part of wider work by the NMC to address disparities within healthcare regulation and professional practice and follows the introduction of anti-racism principles for nursing and midwifery education and practice earlier this year.

The NMC has also confirmed that it will publish a formal response to relevant maternity and neonatal reviews within the next six months. This work will include evaluating how existing standards of proficiency for midwives and education requirements are operating in practice, including preceptorship arrangements, practice learning and transition to registration. The regulator says it will only consider formal changes to standards where evidence identifies a genuine regulatory gap.

The latest announcement sits alongside the NMC’s broader organisational strategy, which already includes a commitment to improve the fairness, quality and timeliness of fitness to practise decision-making. The regulator has previously stated that it intends to reduce delays, improve consistency, strengthen safeguarding and address disparities linked to ethnicity and gender within its fitness to practise processes.

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