The UK’s nursing and midwifery regulator has delayed its “landmark” public consultations on a new draft Code and refreshed revalidation process.
Two public consultations, one to develop a new code of conduct for nurses and midwives, and another to review the revalidation process nurses and midwives use to re-register, have been deferred by weeks and months respectively.
“It’s vital that the Code and revalidation process reflect contemporary practice”
Donna O’Boyle
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said that this was because it needed “sufficient time” to go over and incorporate new feedback it had received.
The consultations are part of the NMC’s ambition to revamp and “modernise” its services, in line with nurses’ and midwives’ “evolving” role and “today’s health and social care landscape”.
Announced in July, they are meant to inform how the NMC will change its code of conduct, and how to “strengthen” the revalidation process staff undertake every three years to re-register.
The NMC said in July that the Code and revalidation consultations would take place from September to December 2026.
According agenda documents for the NMC’s next council meeting on 23 September, the Code consultation has now been delayed by four weeks.
The consultation into revalidation has been deferred by “at least six months”.
Different reasons were given for each delay.
The council documents said the NMC was delaying the Code consultation because it needed “sufficient time” to incorporate “comprehensive feedback” from “key stakeholders” before releasing provisional ideas for the Code publicly.
The delay to revalidation was related to the final report of the Thirlwall Inquiry being published this week.
More time was needed to fully “consider” and incorporate the “lessons” of the inquiry in its pre-consultation review, documents showed.
The inquiry found this week that the NMC’s revalidation process allowed Lucy Letby to re-register as a neonatal nurse in 2017, despite suspicions having been raised about her.
Letby was later convicted of killing seven babies and harming seven others.
The chair of the inquiry called for the NMC to strengthen its revalidation processes in light of her findings.
The NMC papers confirmed that the revalidation consultation would now be delayed by at least six months “so that lessons from the inquiry can be fully considered and included”.
Meanwhile, the NMC said new advanced practice standards would be introduced earlier than planned, in late 2027, as part of a separate programme of work that has also faced delays.
The regulator said it was “prioritising areas where additional regulation is most needed”.
Reviews into Code and revalidation reforms began in summer 2025. The NMC sought approval for the “landmark” consultations in mid-July 2026, and they were greenlit by the NMC’s governing body on 22 July.
When first announcing the Code and revalidation reforms, the NMC called them “fundamental to safe and effective nursing and midwifery practice”.
It said that that the Code revisions would incorporate more “equality, diversity and inclusion” in workplace standards, and would adapt to the workforce’s increasing “digital transformation”.
In a statement from June, acting executive director of professional practice, Professor Donna O’Boyle, said: “We have received valuable feedback on elements such as the use of artificial intelligence, the embedding of equity, diversity and inclusion, and people’s behaviour outside of practice.
“It’s vital that the Code and revalidation process reflect contemporary practice and meet the expectations of both professionals and the public,” she concluded.
The goals for revalidation included making re-registering a more thorough and nuanced process, to better protect the public and make revalidation more accessible for disabled nurses.
Strengthening the role of the confirmer – a third-party who corroborates a revalidation applicant’s good performance and 450 hours of clinical activity – was another focus point.
Under its previous timeline, the NMC was aiming for its new Code to go live in October 2027, with updates to the revalidation process beginning to kick in from April 2028.
The delays come as the NMC recently said it was “committed” to improving its services following criticism from the Thirlwall Inquiry.
Read more about the NMC reviews
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