Throughout the pandemic, the country has witnessed the most impressive demonstration of nursing, seeing it as a highly skilled profession deserving of fair pay. Without the nursing profession, we would not be where we are today.
But the Fair Pay For Nursing campaign is about more than our response to COVID-19.
The Fair Pay For Nursing campaign is about:
- recognising the complexity of skill, responsibility and experience demonstrated every day, by nursing support workers, assistant practitioners, nursing associates, registered nurses and all members of the profession.
- making sure that a safety critical profession can reach safe staffing levels and fill tens of thousands of unfilled nursing jobs.
- recognising that the salaries of too many nursing professionals has not kept pace with increases to their living costs over the past decade.
Ultimately, the Fair Pay For Nursing campaign is about providing safe and effective care for all people of the United Kingdom.
The Fair Pay For Nursing campaign aims to secure a fully-funded 12.5% pay increase for all nursing staff covered by Agenda for Change terms, as part of a one-year deal that applies equally to all bands.
How the governments in the UK respond to this demand will indicate what they believe nursing colleagues across the independent sector deserve too.
Funding our health and care system is a political choice. After years of inadequate support for the largest health and care workforce in the UK, the government should make the right choice now.
It is time to pay nursing staff fairly.
