Press Releases
-
27/05/2025
Press Release
Ending Level 7 Apprenticeship funding undermines shift from hospitals to community, warns Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “Today’s announcement from the Education Secretary not only shuts off an important career route for staff but also undermines the government’s own ambition to shift care from hospitals to the community."
-
22/05/2025
Press Release
NHS pay award does nothing to show nursing is valued, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “This pay award is entirely swallowed up by inflation and does nothing to change the status quo – where nursing is not valued, too few enter it and too many quit. It is a grotesque decision to again favour doctor colleagues for higher increases than nursing and the rest of the NHS. Starting salaries for nursing staff remain too low."
-
22/05/2025
Press Release
RCN Wales Responds to Welsh Government’s 3.6% NHS Pay Rise Announcement “Too Little, Too Late – Nursing Staff Deserve More”
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales has responded with deep disappointment to the Welsh government’s belated announcement of a 3.6% pay rise for NHS Wales staff, including nursing professionals.
-
21/05/2025
Press Release
Nursing union updates its workforce standards and urges employers to adopt them as a 'matter of urgency'
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said: "The Nursing Workforce Standards are already being used by RCN members to challenge staffing and safety issues in their workplaces. I am delighted that the newly revised edition takes into account new evidence as well as feedback from our members and nursing experts."
-
18/05/2025
Press Release
'There is no hope of delivering the government’s reforms whilst the NHS is simultaneously being asked to cut staff and services’, warns Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “It’s an appalling state of affairs when trust leaders talk about cutting frontline roles and closing beds to make savings. Nursing staff already face an almost impossible job as they try to keep patients safe amidst a workforce crisis and rising demand."
-
18/05/2025
Press Release
Nursing students sleeping in cars, using food banks and struggling to secure jobs, devastating testimony reveals
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “The testimony from our nursing students struggling to feed themselves or put roofs over their heads is incredibly moving, but it also leaves me angry that they are put in this position in the first place."
-
15/05/2025
Press Release
Nurse lecturer cuts ‘explode’ as domestic workforce plans put at risk, new report shows
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "This is an incredibly serious moment, raising questions about the ability of our country to educate the nurses of the future, and about how it staffs the NHS."
-
15/05/2025
Press Release
Bonuses for bosses while cutting nurse numbers ‘reckless and offensive’, says Royal College of Nursing
Executive Director of RCN England Patricia Marquis, said: “Attracting talent to the NHS is important, but no NHS boss could succeed without us. We are the largest workforce in the health service and deliver the vast majority of care for patients."
-
14/05/2025
Press Release
Immigration measures could ‘accelerate’ staffing crisis, nursing union warns
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "Our report shows thousands of migrant nursing staff are ready to leave the UK. This situation is bad enough, but now the government’s cruel measures could accelerate this exodus, doing great damage to key services."
-
14/05/2025
Press Release
Staffing Crisis Looms Over Immigration Plans, says Nursing Union
The RCN is warning that new UK immigration measures could accelerate an exodus of internationally educated nurses IENs), with potentially devastating consequences for health and social care services in Wales.
Page last updated - 21/02/2025
