NEWS
NMC warns of registration fee hike if forced to pay for its own regulator @katkeogh
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has warned that registration fees could rise again if the government goes ahead with proposals to make healthcare regulators pay for the authority that oversees their work. The Department of Health no longer wants to foot the bill for the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which oversees UK health and social care regulators, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Medical Council and General Dental Council. Instead, it wants regulators to pay an annual fee to cover the PSA’s running costs, which stand at more than £3 million a year. Those with a larger register would pay a greater share, meaning the NMC could have to cover almost half that amount. The NMC has warned that it may have to increase the registration fee – already set to rise from £100 to £120 next March – to cover the payment. It estimates the extra amount it would have to pay could be as much as £5.74 per nurse.
Council’s 267,000 and the General Dental Council’s 104,000. The NMC pointed out that despite having a smaller register, the GMC generates nearly 45 per cent more in registration fees than the nursing regulator. The GMC charges £390 for registration with a licence and £140 for registration without a licence. The RCN said it was unfair to expect nurses, who are paid less than doctors and dentists, to shoulder the burden of this proposal. It added that many already regarded the £120 NMC fee as too high, and that it would be unjust to allocate a portion of this to another authority
while the NMC was trying to correct ‘past financial mismanagement’. RCN head of policy Howard Catton warned that the government proposal, which would come into effect on April 1 next year pending parliamentary approval, could provoke a backlash from nurses. ‘It is unfair that nurses should be expected to pick up the tab for red tape and bureaucracy at any time, let alone at a time of financial hardship for many,’ he said. ‘An organisation like the PSA, as a regulator’s regulator, is adding another level of bureaucracy that nurses have never asked for.’
ARRON HOARE
By Kat Keogh
Untimely proposal
In response to a consultation on PSA funding, the NMC said: ‘We believe the proposed way forward is untimely and unfair. ‘Our registrants will be unduly affected by the proposed changes and we will be forced to either raise the registration fee or reduce fitness to practise (FtP) activities – compromising our effectiveness and public protection – to pay the proposed levy.’ The PSA assesses the performance of nine regulators. It audits and reviews all final decisions made by FtP committees. The NMC has a 680,000-strong register, dwarfing the General Medical
CHIEF NURSE RUNS DEMENTIA TRAINING A leading nurse swapped hospital wards for the corridors of power to provide dementia awareness training to prime minister David Cameron and the cabinet at Downing Street. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust chief nurse Eileen Sills (above) and Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes co-hosted a training session for ministers to learn more about dementia and what can be done
to help those living with the condition. The training was part of a drive to make London a more dementia-friendly city, and comes as the government pledged £15 million towards dementia research. Professor Sills, who is also the clinical director of the London Strategic Clinical Network for Dementia, said: ‘I am passionate about making London the first dementia-friendly city, and I am delighted to have been able to provide this training.’
NURSING 10other :: voluses 29 no 15 :: permission. 2014 13 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personaldecember use only. No without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
NMC warns of registration fee hike if forced to pay for its own regulator @katkeogh
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has warned that registration fees could rise again if the government goes ahead with proposals to make healthcare regulators pay for the authority that oversees their work. The Department of Health no longer wants to foot the bill for the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which oversees UK health and social care regulators, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Medical Council and General Dental Council. Instead, it wants regulators to pay an annual fee to cover the PSA’s running costs, which stand at more than £3 million a year. Those with a larger register would pay a greater share, meaning the NMC could have to cover almost half that amount. The NMC has warned that it may have to increase the registration fee – already set to rise from £100 to £120 next March – to cover the payment. It estimates the extra amount it would have to pay could be as much as £5.74 per nurse.
Council’s 267,000 and the General Dental Council’s 104,000. The NMC pointed out that despite having a smaller register, the GMC generates nearly 45 per cent more in registration fees than the nursing regulator. The GMC charges £390 for registration with a licence and £140 for registration without a licence. The RCN said it was unfair to expect nurses, who are paid less than doctors and dentists, to shoulder the burden of this proposal. It added that many already regarded the £120 NMC fee as too high, and that it would be unjust to allocate a portion of this to another authority
while the NMC was trying to correct ‘past financial mismanagement’. RCN head of policy Howard Catton warned that the government proposal, which would come into effect on April 1 next year pending parliamentary approval, could provoke a backlash from nurses. ‘It is unfair that nurses should be expected to pick up the tab for red tape and bureaucracy at any time, let alone at a time of financial hardship for many,’ he said. ‘An organisation like the PSA, as a regulator’s regulator, is adding another level of bureaucracy that nurses have never asked for.’
ARRON HOARE
By Kat Keogh
Untimely proposal
In response to a consultation on PSA funding, the NMC said: ‘We believe the proposed way forward is untimely and unfair. ‘Our registrants will be unduly affected by the proposed changes and we will be forced to either raise the registration fee or reduce fitness to practise (FtP) activities – compromising our effectiveness and public protection – to pay the proposed levy.’ The PSA assesses the performance of nine regulators. It audits and reviews all final decisions made by FtP committees. The NMC has a 680,000-strong register, dwarfing the General Medical
CHIEF NURSE RUNS DEMENTIA TRAINING A leading nurse swapped hospital wards for the corridors of power to provide dementia awareness training to prime minister David Cameron and the cabinet at Downing Street. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust chief nurse Eileen Sills (above) and Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes co-hosted a training session for ministers to learn more about dementia and what can be done
to help those living with the condition. The training was part of a drive to make London a more dementia-friendly city, and comes as the government pledged £15 million towards dementia research. Professor Sills, who is also the clinical director of the London Strategic Clinical Network for Dementia, said: ‘I am passionate about making London the first dementia-friendly city, and I am delighted to have been able to provide this training.’
NURSING 10other :: voluses 29 no 15 :: permission. 2014 13 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personaldecember use only. No without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
