BACKGROUND

In March 2025 the NMC Council agreed the culture transformation plan together with the annual corporate plan and budget that sets out the activity we plan to deliver, starting in 2025-2026 to provide transparency about our focus to ensure that we remain accountable to our professions, the sectors, people who use services and other stakeholders.
We identified five priority areas of work that includes our commitment to:
Maintain our other core regulatory functions, including developing our standards to support nursing and midwifery professionals and protect the public. Further details can be found here: NMC publishes culture transformation plan - The Nursing and Midwifery Council
This means we will maintain our focus on setting and evolving our standards to meet the needs of today’s workforce, while ensuring the standards remain fit for the future. Our other core regulatory functions are education quality assurance, registration (domestic and international) and revalidation.
We will progress four key areas of work that are fundamental to nursing and midwifery professional practice: the Code, revalidation, practice learning and advanced practice. To ensure we protect the public through modernised standards, we are sequencing our work to make sure we can collaborate widely and effectively with our stakeholders and the public.
We have independent chairs in place for our practice learning review and additional regulation of advanced level practice work.
About the role of Independent Steering Group Chair of the steering group for the review of the Code and underpinning guidance and revalidation review.
We are now seeking an independent chair to oversee an external steering group made up of stakeholders from across the four countries of the UK, who will oversee our review of the Code and underpinning guidance and revalidation review. We have begun the discovery phase to begin work to modernise the Code and revalidation in 2025–2026 and aim to consult between July and October 2026
The steering group is intended to bring different perspectives to bear on these reviews and where possible, to build consensus. Our Chair and Steering Group will need to be comfortable working within some design principles, about which we will be transparent at the outset of our work together. The reviews will be conducted by NMC staff and decisions will be taken by our Council, but the group will have good opportunities to influence and shape the outcomes of our work.
We expect the time commitment for this role to be approximately two/three days per month and this will be subject to discussion with the successful candidate. It is for an initial period from August 2025 to March 2027 with an option to extend until Spring 2028. This will enable the independent chair and steering group to be involved in our research as well as the subsequent engagement and shaping the options for Council to consider.

The independent chair must be able to demonstrate:

• Experience of working in a senior strategic position in nursing and midwifery at a national level
• Detailed knowledge of the nursing and midwifery professions, spanning education and practice.
• Experience of leading complex projects and programmes in the health and care sector and chairing strategic meetings with a range of interest groups
• Expertise in effectively chairing strategic stakeholder meetings that enables groups to understand the evidence base, opportunities, challenges, and risks to build consensus and inform recommendations.
• An understanding of professional regulation and the role played by the Code and revalidation as regulatory tools.
• A history of meaningful patient and public engagement
• To consult regularly with other independent chairs to collaborate and drive consistency and shared consensus for recommendations within related and interdependent steering groups.

The NMC team is based in London but we expect that meetings and engagement events will be held both in person and virtually and will include all four countries of the UK. We will discuss the overall time commitment and appropriate remuneration with the successful candidate.
The role is open to those with current registration or who retired from the register in the past two years. If you are interested, please apply below. Your application should outline your motivation and relevant experience and a copy of your C.V.
We will shortlist candidates based on their skills and experience and interviews will take 18th/19th August 2025.

ABOUT US

Our core role is to regulate. First, we promote high education and professional standards for nurses and midwives across the UK, and nursing associates in England. Second, we maintain the register of professionals eligible to practise. Third, we investigate concerns about nurses, midwives and nursing associates - something that affects a tiny minority of professionals each year. We believe in giving professionals the chance to address concerns, but we’ll always take action when needed.
To regulate well, we support our professions and the public. We create resources and guidance that are useful throughout people’s careers, helping them to deliver our standards in practice and address new challenges. We also support people involved in our investigations, and we’re increasing our visibility so people feel engaged and empowered to shape our work.
Regulating and supporting our professions allows us to influence health and social care. We share intelligence from our regulatory activities and work with our partners to support workforce planning and sector-wide decision making. We use our voice to speak up for a healthy and inclusive working environment for our professions.
Check out our NMC LinkedIn page here for an insight into the NMC, our vacancies and the world of healthcare regulation.

Please refer the Job description for details