Institute of Regulation's Podcast Institute of Regulation

In this month's podcast, we discuss what it would mean for regulation to become a recognised profession. We hear from Leonie Milliner, CEO at the General Optical Council, Michael Hanton, Deputy Chief Regulator at Ofqual, and Meg Matthews, Head of Development and People at the Office for Students. They discuss what being a professional regulator means, how skills can be improved, and knowledge transferred, and how they describe what they do to people who don't understand regulation! 

In this podcast we explore what makes a good regulation strategy – and find out why regulators must ensure their strategies are flexible and agile enough to meet the changing demands of society and modern industry.
To discuss this challenge, our guest today is Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, Chief Executive and Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the independent regulator for nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England.
The NMC regulates over 800,000 professionals with a vision to ensure safe, effective and kind nursing and midwifery practice that improves everyone’s health and wellbeing. Andrea is just starting the process of forming her second five-year strategy for the Council , having previously planned, launched and driven the last one from the moment she arrived at the organisation in 2019. 
As Andrea explains in the podcast, this next strategy has been delayed by a year to now cover 2026-2031 due to the pressures of a post Pandemic workload at NMC. Clearly there has been a huge amount of change in nursing sector in that time – not least caused by the pandemic, the first ever industrial action by nurses in 2022 and of course pressure on skills in the sector caused by Brexit.
And with a General Election coming down the track this year it is unlikely we will see any less turbulence. Andrea discusses all these challenges.

Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government and trustee of the IOR
In today’s discussion will try to unpack the complex relationship between regulation and government and in particular explain and explore how improving one can boost outcomes for the other.
To help with this meaty challenge, our guest today is Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government and something of an expert in both regulation and in the workings of government. Most recently Matthew joined the Institute of Regulation as a director and trustee, where no doubt he will be working hard to champion - and challenge - the role of regulators.
And while we are at it, we also get Matthew’s views on what the regulation sector might expect from this General Election year in terms of likely change coming down the track from a new or perhaps refocused administration.

Guest: Prof. Martin Lodge, professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics
Subject: “The fundamentals of regulation”
Our latest podcast guest is Martin Lodge, professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics. 
Alongside his day job at the LSE, Martin runs the Institute of Regulation’s new two-day Fundamentals of Regulation course which is specifically designed as a foundation for regulatory professionals and aimed at those who are new to the profession or have only a limited experience in the sector.
In the podcast - and on the course - Martin covers a huge amount of ground on a range of issues such as standards, enforcement, risk assessment, the politics of regulation, and the power of engagement with the public and consumers. He delves into his decades of experience in regulation – experience which has led to him to be known as “one of the leading scholars of regulation”. 

In Episode 3, the Civil Aviation Authority's Policy and Strategy Director Tim Johnson discusses the complex world of aviation, focusing on:
The issues and current priorities within the CAA,How to learn from international counterparts and,The massive impact Covid has had on the global aviation sector. 

In Episode 2, Ofsted’s Matthew Coffey and Ofqual’s Michael Hanton discuss:
The key issues facing the regulation of education including how regulation can accelerate education sector’ post Covid recovery,The skills required to drive forward the regulation sector and,The role of the Institute of Regulation in helping to share knowledge across the profession.