NMC agrees to regulate nursing associates in Wales

Today, the regulator’s governing council gave the green light for the introduction of the band 4 role in the country, with the aim that the first nursing associates in Wales will begin training in autumn 2025.

“I think it’s our job to try, insofar as we can, to facilitate the ambitions of the Welsh Government"

Emma Westcott

It comes after the Welsh Government announced earlier this year that it intended to introduce nursing associates.

The role, which currently only exists in England, is designed to sit at a level between a nursing assistant and registered nurse. As of October 2023, there were 10,505 nursing associates on the NMC register.

In December 2023, the Welsh minister of state for health and social services, Eluned Morgan, approached the NMC and asked it to regulate nursing associates in Wales.

During a meeting of its governing council today, NMC council members unanimously agreed to regulate the role.

Emma Westcott, assistant director of strategy and insight, explained that this time the NMC was “more secure about the benefits” of undertaking this work, as it already regulates nursing associates in England.

“We now have some lived experience of nursing associates in England, of their education, of their deployment and their benefits to people who use health care services,” she explained.

Ms Westcott said that the NMC regulating both nursing associates and nurses “facilitates good teamwork within multidisciplinary teams” because the standards for both roles were aligned.

In addition, she argued that the NMC wanted to be “facilitative of labour market mobility”.

She cited the fact that there were nursing associates living in Wales, who qualified in England, “who can’t currently use their high-level skills in the labour market which are badly needed”.

Now that the NMC has agreed to regulate nursing associates in Wales, this is set to change.

Ms Westcott noted that the Welsh Government’s initial goal was to start nursing associate programmes in autumn 2025.

“I think it’s our job to try, insofar as we can, to facilitate the ambitions of the Welsh Government, because obviously that has a bearing on when these colleagues are going to be in the workforce,” she explained.

Wales has opted into the pre-existing model for a nursing associate that currently exists in England, meaning it will be a standalone profession that can also be a progression route into becoming a registered nurse.

“Scotland and Northern Ireland are fully engaged and will be watching today’s decision with interest"

Emma Westcott

The academic qualification associated with the role will be equivalent to a foundation degree, typically involving two years of higher education.

The NMC will now look to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in Westminster to amend the NMC’s legislation so it can regulate nursing associates in Wales.

It has already had exploratory talks with DHSC and the Welsh Government about how this might happen.

Meanwhile, NMC council members also discussed the situation of nursing associates in the other devolved nations.

Nursing Times revealed earlier this year that Scotland was also exploring the idea of introducing a nursing associate role, while Northern Ireland will not be doing so at this time.

In its council papers, the NMC confirmed that it had been directly involved in discussions on the matter with both countries over the past year.

Ms Westcott echoed this at the council meeting and said the NMC was “keeping very close in touch” with the chief nursing officers in the four UK countries on the issue.

She said: “We’ve been bringing together colleagues from across the four countries, not just the three countries who don’t have any [nursing associates] yet, to discuss the potential of those kind of band 4 roles.

“Scotland and Northern Ireland are fully engaged and will be watching today’s decision with interest.”

Despite the enthusiasm from some nurse leaders, there has been some push back in Wales about the introduction of a nursing associate role.

The Royal College of Nursing in Wales has expressed concerns about the move, given that there has been no public consultation on whether the role should be introduced in the first place.

Earlier this week, RCN Wales wrote to the new first minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, calling for him to only “responsibly” introduce registered nursing associates to the country.

RCN Wales director, Helen Whyley, said: “New nursing roles are fantastic, but patients need to understand what that means for them – and, crucially, they need to be funded properly.

“Any risk to patient safety from registered nurses being inappropriately replaced is completely unacceptable.”