The Thin End

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today, 28th August, launched its ‘Fair Pay for Nursing’ campaign to demand a 12.5% pay rise for nursing staff across the UK. Focussing initially on an immediate pay rise for nursing staff in the NHS across the UK, it aims to raise the bar, and so also benefit nursing staff working for independent employers. Following engagement with  RCN members, the ‘Fair Pay for Nursing’ campaign aims to secure a fully-funded 12.5% pay increase for all staff covered by Agenda for Change, as part of a one-year deal that applies equally to all bands. The RCN says a pay rise will: recognise the skill, accountability and expertise of a safety-critical profession; recognise that the salaries of nursing staff have not kept pace with increases in the cost of living; and help provide safe and effective patient care for all people of the UK by addressing the staffing crisis within nursing. Today, there are an estimated 50,000 registered nurse vacancies in the NHS in the ...

So, already the Tory manifesto pledge for 50,000 more nurses is falling apart. Nicky Morgan, The culture secretary, says that "misreading" of the Tory manifesto may have resulted in people thinking they are pledging 50,000 "new" nurses by 2024-5 if they win the general election. Indeed so, what else were we to think? It emerged 18,500 of the posts would be filled by encouraging qualified nurses to stay in the profession or return to work. NOT new nurses at all! Only around 19,000 of the posts would be filled by new nurse trainees...Ah! Trainees. Ms Morgan says: "I think there's been a confusion, people reading that as 50,000 new nurses." We don't know whether to laugh or cry. But it seems that it is our fault, not theirs. She goes on: "I think sometimes that's a deliberate confusion and sometimes that's just a genuine misreading of the manifesto. So, just as Mrs May's manifesto launch in 2017 unravelled within hour...