Regulation and standards with Andrea Sutcliffe

Following careers in provider leadership and the Care Quality Commission, Andrea has led the NMC for the past five and half years. As the regulatory body for nurses and midwives, there are 848,000 on the professional register.The NMC protects the public through the standards of registering professional to have a licence to practice; regulates the standards of professional education to terrain our clinicians and quality assures the programmes that are provided in educational institutions. The organisation has changed alto of the past 5 years - 20% of the register are people that trained outside of the UK; users and professionals are involved as a critical eye and friend in how the organisation works and the use of data/insights is far more prevalent. By far the largest number of referrals received about clinicians are from the general public, not employers. The NMC has worked hard to ensure they are able to advise and support employees, not be the first reaction to something that could have gone wrong for a registrant. Andrea described the hard road in making cultural change in any organisation, including the NMC and reflects on her personal impact as a leader.She leaves the organisation with unfinished business due to her needing urgent and pressing treatment from the NHS that will take some time to recover from. We all wish Andrea well in her recovery. Matthew Winn, podcast host and an experienced leader in healthcare in the UK.