What impact has the Florence Nightingale Foundation had?

The Florence Nightingale Foundation (FNF) measures its impact primarily through the nurses and midwives it develops as leaders, and through the effect those leaders have on their professions and on health and care. On its own site, FNF frames this as enabling nurses and midwives to "stay, thrive, lead and transform health and care," and it points readers to two main places to see that impact: its Impact Report and its news and blog stories. If you want evidence rather than a claim, those two sources are where to look.

How FNF describes its impact

FNF is a charity working across the UK and globally, building on Florence Nightingale's legacy. Its stated purpose is to support nurses and midwives to become "strong, influential and confident leaders." The impact it claims flows from that: better leadership within the professions, and improvement in health and care more broadly.

The site organises this around four areas, each with its own entry point:

The "Impact" section is the direct answer to the question of what difference the work makes. The "Policy & Influence" section is the route by which that difference reaches health and care policy.

Where to find concrete evidence

Two published sources on the site carry the specifics:

• Leadership in Action – FNF's Impact Report 2025-26. This is FNF's own account of its results for that period. It is the most direct place to check what the foundation reports achieving.
• News and blogs. These carry individual stories and announcements. Examples listed on the site include "Finding My Voice Through the FNF Journey," a first-person account of the FNF experience, and "FNF CEO Completes Southampton Half Marathon for FNF," a fundraising story.

The distinction matters. The Impact Report is the aggregate view; the blogs are the individual view. If you are assessing FNF's impact for a decision — whether to apply to a programme, partner with it, or fund it — read the Impact Report for scale and the blogs for what the experience actually looks like to a participant.

What "impact" means in FNF's framing

FNF's model is indirect. It does not deliver care itself; it develops the people who do. So its impact shows up in two layers:

1. On individuals — nurses and midwives gaining leadership capability, confidence and influence.
2. On systems — those leaders changing practice and contributing to health and care improvement, including through policy channels such as the Think Tank.

This is why the site pairs "Impact" with "Policy & Influence" rather than treating them separately. A leadership programme's effect on a person is only half the story; the other half is whether that person changes anything.

A useful way to read the evidence

When you look at the Impact Report or the stories, separate three things:

• Reach — how many nurses and midwives are involved, and across what settings.
• Change for participants — what they report being able to do differently.
• Change for care — any documented improvement in services, policy or practice.

FNF's own summary language — "enabling them to stay, thrive, lead and transform health and care" — maps onto those three: staying and thriving are participant outcomes, leading and transforming are system outcomes. Use that as your checklist against whatever the report actually states, rather than accepting the summary line on its own.

Getting the current picture

Impact claims date quickly. The site's "Stay updated!" section invites readers to sign up to a newsletter to keep informed of FNF's progress and how to become part of the transformation. If you need the latest figures or the most recent stories, that sign-up and the Latest News and Blogs section are the live channels; the Impact Report 2025-26 is the most recent named report in the material available here.