Strategic Plan 2026-2029

This strategic plan for 2026-29 sets out our proposed approach to delivering our statutory duties as effectively and efficiently as possible over the coming years. It is based on our core aim of protecting the public. We strive to do all we can within our powers and our organisational capacity to achieve this aim.

Since our last strategic plan was published in May 2023, the challenges facing health and care have intensified. While each UK nation faces distinct pressures, all share a need for resilient, safe, and effective systems of health and care.

Regulation can support this, when it is targeted and proportionate. Over the next few years, we will work to achieve this through our oversight of the regulators and Accredited Registers we oversee.

This Strategic Plan sets out our vision for 2026–29: to deliver our statutory duties with maximum impact, efficiency, and integrity. We have identified five themes that will be important for how we improve regulation over
the next few years: oversight, prevention, reform, governance, and collaboration.

At its heart is our unwavering commitment to protecting the public. We will continue to do all we can – within our powers and organisational capacity – to uphold this aim.

Our work must reflect both the commonalities and differences across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. We recognise that regulation and registration are part of a wider safety and quality system – and that we must do more, together, to improve outcomes for the public.

Over the next few years, the UK Government intends to continue its programme of reform of the statutory regulators that we oversee. This will begin with the General Medical Council (GMC), and we expect its draft new legislation to be consulted on in the first year
of our new Strategic Plan. The UK Government has committed to subsequent changes to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Nursing and
Midwifery Council (NMC) within this Parliamentary term.

Regulatory reform brings significant opportunities for greater consistency and collaboration across the regulators. We will do everything we can to support the successful implementation of reform, using our role to
identify and promote good practice.

We will also introduce new standards that support the direction of travel on reform of the regulators, and of the wider health system, through their focus on prevention of harm. This will be achieved through new areas of focus, such as governance and greater collaboration with others on complaints.

We recognise that priorities may shift over the life of this plan. Some ambitions depend on collaboration with others. In line with our right-touch regulation approach, we will remain agile, focused, and transparent – prioritising work that delivers the greatest impact with the resources available.

Above all, we will keep patients, service users, and public protection at the centre of everything we do. We will listen. We will learn. We will speak out. And we will not hesitate to act when it is in the public interest to do so.

Caroline Corby, Chair
Alan Clamp, Chief Executive