Do you ever wonder what your RCN South West Regional Board does?

At this month’s meeting:

• We discussed uplift arrangements for band 2 staff undertaking higher duties. While in many of our trusts this issue has been concluded, some trusts have still not agreed back pay arrangements and negotiations with local RCN reps and other trade unions are ongoing. It is important to us that you are paid correctly for the work you undertake. 
• We discussed the reduction in the numbers of nursing students - the board agreed to support, and participate, in the regional student recruitment work. As in previous years, regional staff and reps will attend Freshers’ events in all South West universities that run a nursing course to explain the RCN offer. 
• Across the region more RCN stewards are needed to meet the needs of members in workplaces. For more information and to register interest please see our webpages; alternatively drop me an email via southwestern.region@rcn.org.uk and we can arrange to have an informal chat about the role. 
• We reviewed all the branch action plans for 2024 and they all look amazing. Thank you to all involved in getting these finalised in time for the board to approve. If you want to know more about what your branch has planned please contact your branch officials via the regional office. Names can be found on the branch webpages.   
• We are planning a regional Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) marketplace-style conference for the South West region to take place later in the year. We would welcome suggestions for organisations, teams and individuals to invite so if you have contacts please let us know by emailing southwestern.region@rcn.org.uk FAO Tony Aspinall.
• RCN Congress 2024 is coming soon. We agreed the voting members places for each branch. Congress is in Newport this year and we hope the closer proximity will allow many more South West members to attend. The board agreed funding for free coach travel for members and are looking to arrange coaches to run from the region on the Tuesday. More information will be available on our webpages. For more information about the Congress event please go to the RCN Congress webpages.   
• We discussed the government’s nursing pay spine consultation. We were pleased so many members responded to the RCN consultation on this matter and we will feed our own discussions to RCN Council which will be added to members' responses to formulate the RCN response to government. 
• We discussed the England Board Chairs terms of reference and will feed back to RCN Council. 
• In light of the work taking place on the future of nursing pay and job evaluation we ask that all members review your details at MyRCN and to update your current Agenda for Change band, if applicable, and job title.  
• The board congratulated the regional staff team who recently received an RCN inclusion award for their work on Black History month last year. This work continues and will be developed further this year. 

I hope this helps gives you an insight into our work on your behalf. If you would like further information, please email southwestern.region@rcn.org.uk for my attention. 

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 23 May 2024, the open session being 1 pm to 3.30 pm. Please contact tony.aspinall@rcn.org.uk if you would like to attend. You are guaranteed a very warm welcome.