Nursing and Midwifery Council receives findings of research into the regulation of healthcare support workers

Date:30/07/2010

The findings of commissioned research on the regulation of healthcare support workers has been produced

In February 2010 the Nursing and Midwifery Council commissioned the National Nursing Research Unit at King’s College London to research the regulation of healthcare support workers. They were given three objectives:

  • assess the evidence of risks presented to public protection from an unregulated healthcare support workforce
  • identify and consider key questions to be addressed in developing models of regulation
  • make recommendations for further work required in taking healthcare support regulation forwards 

NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes said:

"I would like to thank the National Nursing Research Unit for this report. The complex issue of regulating support staff has been debated for many years. This report makes clear the risks associated with patient safety if healthcare support workers continue to remain unregulated. 

 "Healthcare support workers (and assistant practitioners) provide a vital service to help ensure person-centred care. They are a central part of a diverse workforce that is becoming more complex as the role of nurses continues to develop and new environments of care emerge. We now have a comprehensive UK wide evidence base to inform the discussions with our key stakeholders which will allow us to consider how we take this important work forward. 

"Any future model of regulation for healthcare support workers must be proportionate and flexible enough to work across all of the UK's healthcare settings without compromising patient safety. The public need to have confidence that the people who care for them are competent and that there are robust systems in place to address issues of poor conduct or competence. We will therefore be taking a risk-based approach in order to ensure that the public are appropriately safeguarded.”

To read the report, click here [PDF].