Press Releases
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16/07/2026
Press Release
‘Government must ensure there is sufficient and sustainable funding for adult social care to support meaningful negotiations’, say Royal College of Nursing
RCN Associate Director of Employment Relations Brian Morton, said: "The setting up of this new body and the current review by Baroness Casey must be part of urgent and sustained action to support and grow the workforce, which has tens of thousands of vacant posts and has seen a decline in the number of registered nurses, who are so crucial to delivering safe and effective care to people with complex needs.”
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16/07/2026
Press Release
Slight rise in student applications overshadowed by crisis in nursing education, says Royal College of Nursing
Executive Director of RCN England, Patricia Marquis, said investment must be there to make sure students graduate and that there are jobs for them when they do.
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15/07/2026
Press Release
RCN responds to NHS Pay Review Body remit letter 2027/28
RCN Executive Director of Legal Services and Member Relations Jo Galbraith-Marten, said: “The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to dispense with this failed process that has let down nursing staff for a generation. It has achieved nothing but suppress the pay of the country’s most trusted profession and cause a recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS’s largest workforce."
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14/07/2026
Press Release
Covid-19 Inquiry report into PPE ‘damning indictment’ of just how bad nursing staff were let down, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN Professional Lead for Infection Prevention and Control throughout the pandemic, Rose Gallagher said: "Despite this litany of government failures to prepare, nursing staff continued to show up for their patients knowing the very real risk to themselves and their families."
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14/07/2026
Press Release
Without decisive action we condemn generations to poor health and add further unnecessary pressure on health and care services, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN Head of Nursing Practice Carli Whittaker said: “The report is right to call for sustained investment in the parts of the nursing workforce closest to the child. That must include health visitors who deliver vital checks to families with babies and infants, and school nurses who are so central to ill health prevention and early intervention in education settings."
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09/07/2026
Press Release
Extreme heat ‘supercharging’ corridor care problem in hospitals, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey said: "It is exhausting and demoralising for nursing staff, and dangerous for patients, with no respite in sight. We are deeply concerned that ministers aren’t yet recognising just how difficult things are and how much worse they could become without action."
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08/07/2026
Press Release
Capital investment must be about more than papering over cracks, says RCN
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey, said: "Our health and care system has been starved of capital investment, making the jobs of nursing staff so much harder. You simply cannot provide safe and effective care in a dilapidated estate."
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07/07/2026
Press Release
Next government must 'grasp the nettle and forgive student loans' says Royal College of Nursing following Treasury Committee report
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Professor Lynn Woolsey said unfreezing the repayment thresholds would be 'an attempt at mitigation', but wouldn't go anywhere near far enough to address the broken model of education.
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06/07/2026
Press Release
New NHS staff standards must deliver real accountability for employers, says RCN
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "These new standards must deliver real accountability for employers in England who consistently fail to protect their own employees. Nursing staff have repeatedly spoken out about the disgraceful levels of racism, sexual violence, and physical abuse they have been subjected to at work. It cannot go on."
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04/07/2026
Press Release
Patient safety must be at heart of NHS technology upgrade, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Lynn Woolsey, said: “Patient safety must be at the heart of any AI triage system, with a guarantee that a health professional will be the one making decisions at key points in that process."
Page last updated - 02/06/2026
