As part of its offer to NHS nursing staff in England, the UK government has set out a commitment to the development of a national evidence- based policy framework for safe staffing. This will be part of the implementation of the long awaited, much-delayed NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
The RCN has repeatedly called for a funded, demand-led workforce plan for both the NHS and social care, with published and transparent assessments of current and future workforce numbers. During the passage of the Health and Care Bill last year, the government voted down an amendment backed by the RCN and other key stakeholders to achieve this through legislation. Throughout our campaign for fair pay and safe staffing we have highlighted the ever-deepening nursing workforce crisis.
Our recent strike action has finally brought the government to the table to discuss pay and the challenges of recruitment and retention in the health service, and more specifically in our profession. Throughout the detail of the offer made by the government to the NHS unions, there is specific and repeated reference to nursing; our voice has been heard. The public commitment to an evidence-based policy framework to underpin the national workforce plan is a significant element of the non-pay offer that members are being asked to vote to accept.
The RCN and other stakeholders are clear that a national workforce plan for the NHS and social care must be fully funded, which will require significant and long-term investment. We saw no evidence of this in the recent Budget statement from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, in a speech that barely touched on the NHS or social care. While he promised that the workforce plan would be published ‘soon’, he provided no further detail, amid reports that the Treasury does not wish to see the transparent (and stark) workforce gap analysis and demand-led projections that Hunt previously called for as Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.
Through the RCN’s work on safe staffing, and in the expertise of our staff and our membership, we have a robust evidence base that demonstrates the safety critical role that nurses undertake across all health and care settings. Two years ago, we published the RCN Nursing Workforce Standards, which set out our position on the nursing workforce requirements to ensure the delivery of safe and effective patient care. I would expect these standards to inform the work required to develop the nursing elements of the national evidence-based policy framework for safe staffing.
The RCN has a longstanding position of campaigning for safe staffing to be established in legislation
The government has undertaken to look at approaches taken in other parts of the UK and relevant international comparators to ensure this framework is informed by best practice and stated that there will be a focus on key groups, highlighting registered nurses. The RCN has a longstanding position of campaigning for safe staffing to be established in legislation. Wales already has this enshrined in law and Scotland will see a safe staffing act come into force next year. We have evidence from other countries, including parts of Australia and the United States, where there are mandatory nurse:patient staffing ratios, of the impact of registered nurse staffing levels on patient outcomes, and on the nursing workforce. This evidence has for too long been ignored by policy makers and must now be considered in the development of the proposed evidence-based policy framework.
As our General Secretary Pat Cullen wrote last week, the non-pay related measures in the offer being considered will begin to make the essential changes that the nursing profession needs. If members vote to accept this offer, I would want to see work on the policy framework for safe staffing move at pace and would expect the RCN to be a critical stakeholder in the work. Warm words and good intentions are not enough; we need to see this very public commitment matched by action. We will need to continue to hold the government to account for delivery on all aspects of the offer, not just pay, in order to recruit and retain our safety critical nursing workforce.
Vote now
The RCN consultation on the NHS pay offer for nursing staff in England is open until 9am on 14 April. All eligible members should familiarise themselves with the full offer, find answers to their questions from the information on the website or by talking to RCN staff, and cast their vote. RCN Council is recommending that members vote to accept the offer.
