Demanding more for nursing

Our ballot is now open for eligible members in Scotland on whether they want to accept the Scottish government’s offer of 5% for most staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions. Staff on band 1 and point 1 on band 2 would receive 5.36% and 5.05% respectively. Members are also being asked whether they would be personally willing to take industrial action, up to and including strike action, in response to the pay offer if a majority of members vote to reject this. Words like ‘crucial’ and ‘important’ can be overused, but right now I cannot think of a similar word strong enough to emphasise just how crucial this ballot is for our members and the RCN – please use your vote and tell us what you think.

NHS nursing staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions in England are still awaiting an overdue pay award from the UK government - the announcement should impact the money available for NHS Agenda for Change pay in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales too. We would expect the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Health Minister to make the pay awards soon after the England award is announced. Given that all awards should’ve been paid from 1 April - 14 weeks and 6 days later and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, nursing staff are still left waiting. 

The financial pressure caused by the cost-of-living crisis and rising fuel costs is felt by nursing students too. This has been particularly highlighted by the RCN in Northern Ireland this week – the student bursary has not changed in the past 10 years and students in Northern Ireland have reported sleeping in their cars between shifts to save money. This is an unacceptable situation – and colleagues in Northern Ireland met with the Health Minister last week to discuss these issues alongside the recent RCN’s formal trade dispute over pay, wider pay and cost of living issues, patient safety and workforce retention.

This week, we released new polling that showed a sharp rise in public support for nursing staff taking industrial action – almost 50% of respondents in England supported us to take action. And 88% of those polled supported a pay rise for nursing – two -thirds said nursing staff should get an increase of 5% or above. But worryingly, this week MPs voted to approve regulations to allow employers across all sectors to use agency staff to replace striking workers, and to increase the level of damages a court can award in the case of unlawful strike action. 

This is a deliberate attempt to undermine the rights of union members to stand up for better pay and working conditions through industrial action – and could even put patients at risk in the event of industrial action in the health care sector. This is because any industrial action by our members is very carefully planned to keep patients safe and bringing in less qualified or agency workers would not be the right approach. These regulations will now be discussed in the House of Lords and will need to be passed to become law.

This attempt by the UK government to make strike action ineffective strengthens my resolve to lead our members to demand the change we know we need for our profession. We have the power to create change – we do not have to accept the current situation as the new normal. But to do this, we need to stand together as our strength is in our numbers. Check your details are up to date in MyRCN so we can contact you on your pay award and vote in any upcoming ballots about your pay. You can also involved with us locally to organise around the issues that matter most to you.

I know many of you continue to work under sustained pressure, caused by the nursing workforce crisis. We’ve launched a new report in Wales this week looking at how the Welsh government should approach a national nursing retention strategy - setting out four critical factors of interventions to lay the groundwork for a national strategy in Wales. I know there isn’t a quick fix to the nursing workforce shortage – but it is solvable. It just requires government ministers across the UK to make the right choices – to put long-term funded plans together for the nursing workforce and to invest in recruitment and retention of experienced staff through fair pay.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of the RCN Midwifery Forum who invited me to meet with them this week. I would encourage any members who are midwives or midwifery support workers to join the forum and help lead the RCN’s agenda in midwifery practice, education and maternity services management.