I’m honoured members have chosen to re-elect me and I am looking forward to working with you again. Since taking office at the start of last year, I’ve travelled right across the UK meeting members and reps face to face - attending branch meetings, cultural events, regional conferences and RCN Congress. And it’s these conversations that ensure your voices are all represented by my work as your President. Thank you for believing in me - let’s finish the work we have started together.
Just last week I chaired the RCN’s Annual General Meeting, hearing from many of our most engaged members about what needs to happen for the profession. I want to be clear that I hear you and I have listened. And my priorities for my second term reflect what I have had heard from you - strong salaries, supporting nursing students and safe staffing. These are all important issues to get right to improve the care we give our patients.
In her last blog, our General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger mentioned how we are fighting for improved financial support for nursing students in England. You can also sign our Students Committee’s open letter calling for improvements to nursing recruitment practices. The more people who sign, the stronger our collective call for change will be.
On strong salaries, there is a lot of work happening with our Know Your Worth roadshows to make sure we can capitalise on the announcement by the Westminster government in February to review the role of every NHS band 5 nurse in England. The RCN is doing everything it can to support this, to make the case that nursing is a band 6 profession, and from your local RCN rep to Senior Leadership within your workplace, everyone has a part to play. Please keep your eyes open for updates and encourage your colleagues to get involved. And we're still fighting for reform to agenda for change pay scales so that all our members are rewarded and valued for what they do.
And on safe staffing, last week we published an evidence-informed briefing setting out why we believe minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios are essential to safe staffing in every setting. For far too long nurse staffing levels have been far below what is required. Care is being compromised and patients are put at risk – I see it far too often, and I know you do too.
Research has consistently shown a direct relationship between the number of registered nurses and patient outcomes, including avoidable hospital deaths. That’s why we’ve launched a new resource that brings together the latest guidance and evidence, designed to help everyone involved in nursing care to have access to evidence-based information, to help you see how your workplace compares and to enable us to collectively ensure that guidelines are followed. And when they are not, we have resources to support you to raise concerns.
This week we have renewed our calls for the Home Secretary to scrap her proposed immigration reforms which are incompatible with ambitions for a National Care Service. We have been calling for this for months - I led the RCN team at a mass lobby on Parliament back in March and just this week I joined a Parliamentary oral evidence giving session organised by Neil Duncan-Jordan MP. I attended to support Justice for Carers, some of whom are RCN members and spoke about the impact on nursing home residents if we lose long-term experienced healthcare support workers and the impact on UK healthcare delivery systems including the impact on corridor care. It was another opportunity to highlight the findings of our report from the start of this year which found that around 46,000 nursing staff could potentially leave the UK as the result of the proposed changes.
I am really pleased that this this week the RCN has published a new report featuring comparative analysis of a selection of high-income countries’ systems for offering permanent residency to migrant nursing staff.
Among the key findings, it shows that the UK is already an international outlier in requiring five years to qualify, with the US and Australia offering skilled professionals like registered nurses' immediate permanent residency. While we have secured a win for NHS nurses being exempt from these new proposals, it’s not the case for those working in social care. So, these new proposals threaten to push out those who are already here and further destabilise an already fragile sector.
The RCN is doing so much at the moment – the challenges facing the nursing profession are varied and complex. But with everything we want to do, we can’t do it by ourselves. We need you to be part of our collective action.
You can become an RCN Rep, and there are opportunities in our current elections and appointments. Nominations for the Country and Regional Boards close on 21 September, so there is still time to submit yours.
Nominations are now also open for the RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards 2027. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the incredible dedication, skill and impact of nursing staff across Scotland. Find out more here.
Yesterday was World Patient Safety Day, and this year’s theme is Safe care for noncommunicable diseases. It’s really important that we highlight the care of people living with long-term conditions - conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and cancer, which now account for the majority of deaths worldwide. You can read more about this in blog from Kim Ball, Professor Jane Ball and Rose Gallagher MBE.
And finally, I would like to offer my congratulations to fellow RCN International Committee Member Dr Agimol Pradeep, who has won the 2026 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award. It’s an amazing achievement and only goes to show the knowledge and expertise she brings to the RCN International Committee. You can find out more about the work of the Committee here.
Just last week I chaired the RCN’s Annual General Meeting, hearing from many of our most engaged members about what needs to happen for the profession. I want to be clear that I hear you and I have listened. And my priorities for my second term reflect what I have had heard from you - strong salaries, supporting nursing students and safe staffing. These are all important issues to get right to improve the care we give our patients.
In her last blog, our General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger mentioned how we are fighting for improved financial support for nursing students in England. You can also sign our Students Committee’s open letter calling for improvements to nursing recruitment practices. The more people who sign, the stronger our collective call for change will be.
On strong salaries, there is a lot of work happening with our Know Your Worth roadshows to make sure we can capitalise on the announcement by the Westminster government in February to review the role of every NHS band 5 nurse in England. The RCN is doing everything it can to support this, to make the case that nursing is a band 6 profession, and from your local RCN rep to Senior Leadership within your workplace, everyone has a part to play. Please keep your eyes open for updates and encourage your colleagues to get involved. And we're still fighting for reform to agenda for change pay scales so that all our members are rewarded and valued for what they do.
And on safe staffing, last week we published an evidence-informed briefing setting out why we believe minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios are essential to safe staffing in every setting. For far too long nurse staffing levels have been far below what is required. Care is being compromised and patients are put at risk – I see it far too often, and I know you do too.
Research has consistently shown a direct relationship between the number of registered nurses and patient outcomes, including avoidable hospital deaths. That’s why we’ve launched a new resource that brings together the latest guidance and evidence, designed to help everyone involved in nursing care to have access to evidence-based information, to help you see how your workplace compares and to enable us to collectively ensure that guidelines are followed. And when they are not, we have resources to support you to raise concerns.
This week we have renewed our calls for the Home Secretary to scrap her proposed immigration reforms which are incompatible with ambitions for a National Care Service. We have been calling for this for months - I led the RCN team at a mass lobby on Parliament back in March and just this week I joined a Parliamentary oral evidence giving session organised by Neil Duncan-Jordan MP. I attended to support Justice for Carers, some of whom are RCN members and spoke about the impact on nursing home residents if we lose long-term experienced healthcare support workers and the impact on UK healthcare delivery systems including the impact on corridor care. It was another opportunity to highlight the findings of our report from the start of this year which found that around 46,000 nursing staff could potentially leave the UK as the result of the proposed changes.
I am really pleased that this this week the RCN has published a new report featuring comparative analysis of a selection of high-income countries’ systems for offering permanent residency to migrant nursing staff.
Among the key findings, it shows that the UK is already an international outlier in requiring five years to qualify, with the US and Australia offering skilled professionals like registered nurses' immediate permanent residency. While we have secured a win for NHS nurses being exempt from these new proposals, it’s not the case for those working in social care. So, these new proposals threaten to push out those who are already here and further destabilise an already fragile sector.
The RCN is doing so much at the moment – the challenges facing the nursing profession are varied and complex. But with everything we want to do, we can’t do it by ourselves. We need you to be part of our collective action.
You can become an RCN Rep, and there are opportunities in our current elections and appointments. Nominations for the Country and Regional Boards close on 21 September, so there is still time to submit yours.
Nominations are now also open for the RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards 2027. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the incredible dedication, skill and impact of nursing staff across Scotland. Find out more here.
Yesterday was World Patient Safety Day, and this year’s theme is Safe care for noncommunicable diseases. It’s really important that we highlight the care of people living with long-term conditions - conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and cancer, which now account for the majority of deaths worldwide. You can read more about this in blog from Kim Ball, Professor Jane Ball and Rose Gallagher MBE.
And finally, I would like to offer my congratulations to fellow RCN International Committee Member Dr Agimol Pradeep, who has won the 2026 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award. It’s an amazing achievement and only goes to show the knowledge and expertise she brings to the RCN International Committee. You can find out more about the work of the Committee here.
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