Jackie Smith was appointed the NMC’s Acting Chief Executive and Registrar in December 2011. Jackie joined the NMC as the Director of Fitness to Practise in August 2010, where she led a department of over 100 staff with the responsibility of driving forward improvements to meet the NMC’s goal of safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the public.

Jackie has a Law degree from Wolverhampton University, qualification in Six Sigma and a diploma in Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy. Jackie’s background is in law and she spent many years working for the Crown Prosecution Service at the Old Bailey and in the Director of Pubic Prosecutions Office.

Jackie has extensive experience in healthcare regulation. She worked for the General Medical Council (GMC) for over 10 years where she was the Assistant Director of GMC Liaison prior to joining the NMC. She led the roll-out programme for introducing affiliates to every Strategic Health Authority (SHA) in England and in the other three countries, after successfully leading the GMC Affiliate Pilot in London. She set the vision for affiliates and developed the strategic plan for how they will work with the NHS. Jackie headed up the GMC’s Investigation Unit for six years managing and investigating complaints and monitoring standards for doctors, under the scrutiny of the Government, the profession and the public.

Jackie also sat on the West Midlands Pathfinder Steering Group and worked with representatives from the Revalidation Support Team, the BMS and the SHA. She was a member of Revalidation Project Group for the London SHA and worked closely with the clinical lead responsible for delivering revalidation in London.