We are encouraging providers of adult social care that employ nurses to support their staff with the revalidation requirements that will come in for the profession from 1 April.
In less than three months’ time, all nurses and midwives will be required to renew their professional registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) every three years. To do this, they will need to demonstrate to the NMC in a number of ways that they are practicing safely, such as by showing they are up-to-date with their professional training and development, are abiding by the Code of Practice, and that they have sought practice-related feedback.
As a significant employer of the nursing workforce, we encourage adult social care providers to engage in the process with the nurses they employ, including by familiarising themselves with the new requirements and by identifying their renewal dates.
While this is not something that CQC is specifically required by law to check on its inspections, Regulation 18 (2) (c) of the Health and Social Care Act states that employers should: “make sure that staff are able to meet the requirements of the relevant professional regulator throughout their employment”; and so supporting nursing staff with their revalidation could be one way of demonstrating this (for other ways, please refer to our guidance).
The revalidation requirement is one that the NMC expects of all registered nurses, regardless of where they are employed.
Within adult social care, our most recent State of Care report found that nurse vacancy rates can be as high as 20% in home care and 11% in residential care services, which can have the potential to affect the ability of providers to deliver safe and effective care.
On top of this, we are continuing to find that people are receiving poorer care in nursing homes, compared to other types of adult social care – we have rated 51% of the nursing homes as good or outstanding compared with 68% for residential homes that do not provide nursing while 6% of the nursing homes have been rated as inadequate so far, compared with 4% for residential homes that do not provide nursing.
We are committed to supporting providers to make sure the staff they employ are competent and able to provide people with the safe, high-quality and compassionate care they deserve.
For further information on the requirements, please refer to the NMC’s website.