Role Description – Executive Director of Professional Practice

Job Title: Executive Director of Professional Practice
Directorate: Professional Practice
Department: Executive Team
Grade: Director Level
Standard/Premium: Standard
Reports to: Chief Executive and Registrar
Team Management: Yes
DBS Status: Enhanced check

Role purpose

The Executive Director, Professional Practice provides strategic leadership, professional authority and corporate accountability for the NMC’s Professional Practice directorate. The post holder ensures that the organisation’s regulatory standards, professional frameworks, safeguarding responsibilities and professional engagement activities are credible, proportionate and effective in protecting the public and supporting the professions.

This role will lead and enable the directorate to deliver its portfolio of work with specific strategic oversight of Education Quality Assurance, Safeguarding, Casework Support, Registrations and Revalidation, Employer Liaison Service and Midwifery leadership.

The Executive Director provides senior professional leadership, expert regulatory insight and organisational accountability for:

• The design, development, implementation and evaluation of professional standards, regulatory tools and professional frameworks for education and practice.
• UK-wide national outreach, engagement and risk-intelligence activity that informs upstream regulation and supports senior leaders in health and care settings.
• Organisational safeguarding governance, ensuring proportionate, person-centred and legally compliant responses to safeguarding, wellbeing and system-risk concerns across all NMC functions.
• Strategic leadership of midwifery professional regulation, standards development and engagement with the midwifery profession and senior external stakeholders.
• Oversight of support services, ensuring high-quality decision-making and person-centred approaches for those involved in NMC processes.
• The regulatory quality assurance framework for education, ensuring providers of nursing, midwifery and nursing associate programmes meet NMC standards and statutory requirements.
• The NMC’s register of nurses, midwives and nursing associates to ensure it is accurate, resilient and trusted and supports safe, effective and kind care across the UK.
• Development and maintenance of strong external relationships with key stakeholders including Departments of Health, Chief Nursing Officers and Chief Midwifery Officers across the four UK nations.
• Political awareness and engagement in support of healthcare policy development and translation of policy into operational delivery.

The post holder is a core member of the Executive Leadership Team and provides professional leadership across the organisation.

The post holder will have direct line management responsibility for the Deputy Director, Professional Practice and the Assistant Director of Midwifery.

Key Accountabilities

As part of the Executive Leadership Team:

• Proactively help ensure a sense of unity and team on the Executive Board, as well as helping to lead the cross-NMC culture transformation.
• Act as a corporate ambassador for the NMC, enhancing the organisation’s reputation and profile as a high-quality regulator and public protection body.
• Provide compelling, visible and corporate leadership in line with NMC values and behaviours, acting as a role model across the organisation.
• Role model excellent behaviours in line with our values-based approach and our behavioural framework
• Shape and deliver the strategic direction of the Professional Practice directorate in alignment with the NMC Strategy and Council priorities.
• Lead directorate-wide and cross-organisational programmes that support the effective implementation of corporate objectives.
• Provide professional and strategic advice to the Chief Executive, Executive colleagues and the NMC Council.

As the Executive Director leading the following activity:

• Provide strategic leadership and accountability for safeguarding across the organisation, ensuring robust governance, policy development, risk management and organisational learning.
• Provide strategic leadership and accountability for midwifery regulation and professional leadership, ensuring high-quality standards development and effective engagement with the midwifery profession and external stakeholders.
• Provide executive oversight of the Deputy Director, Professional Practice, ensuring integrated delivery across Education Quality Assurance, safeguarding, employer engagement, casework support and professional regulation.
• Ensure statutory obligations for Education Quality Assurance and Safeguarding are met and continuously improved.
• Lead the Directorates’ contribution to the Fitness to Practise (FtP) Improvement Programme, including referral reduction, patient safety, employer engagement and support for those involved in FtP processes.
• Provide executive leadership for engagement with the public and the professions to ensure people involved in NMC processes are supported by high-quality specialist and commissioned services.
• Act as senior responsible owner for high-risk, high-profile and complex professional and safeguarding issues.

Ensure the directorate delivers the NMC’s core regulatory duties in setting and maintaining professional standards, including:

• Approval, delivery, quality assurance and monitoring of education programmes
• Provision of expert professional advice
• Leadership of supportive regulatory programmes (e.g. advanced practice, review of the Code, Revalidation and Practice Learning)
• employer engagement through the Employer Link Service
• Safeguarding governance and practice
• Midwifery leadership, and
• Regulation and revalidation

Shared Executive Responsibilities

• As a member of the Executive Board, act as a role model, sharing collective responsibility for making the NMC an inclusive, values driven and trusted organisation with strong cultural competence.
• Contribute to the implementation of the NMC strategy and contribute to the development of a high performing and collaborative executive ensuring that multi-disciplinary working is role modelled across the organisation in line with NMC values.
• Play an active role in the corporate governance of the NMC, supporting the Chief Executive and Registrar, Executive Board, Chair and Council in good decision making and effective accountability.
• Engage with external stakeholders, acting as an ambassador for the NMC, and building effective relationships and influencing across the health and social care sector.
• As part of the Executive Board, lead the organisation through significant cultural change and improvement programmes to deliver on the NMC’s core purpose to protect patients and the public.