Job profiles: have your say on whether they value nurses’ skills
Posted 01 May 2024 - 13:03
As consultation on proposed revisions to band 4, 5 and 6 job profiles begins, nursing leaders say they fail to value nurses’ clinical specialist expertise
Nursing leaders have called for nurses’ clinical expertise to be more valued as a review is launched into new NHS job profiles.
On Monday the NHS Staff Council job evaluation group (JEG) opened a nine-week consultation on proposed revisions to job evaluation profiles for nursing and midwifery bands 4, 5 and 6 in the UK.
Union says consultation long overdue as nurses’ work is undervalued
The review comes after a joint request to the staff council by the RCN and the Royal College of Midwives for job profiles to be updated for the first time in more than a decade. It is hoped the new profiles will more accurately match the reality of nursing skills, training and practice.
RCN associate director of employment relations Brian Morton said: ‘This work is overdue and has come about following long-running campaigning by the RCN and other unions to ensure nursing staff are paid fairly for the work they do.
‘With just under 70% of RCN members stating their main reason for intending to leave the NHS is due to feeling undervalued, and two thirds responding that their current banding is inappropriate, it is clear this work is essential.’
‘Disappointing to see clinical expertise banded so low’
Following a national survey and consultation with employers and others, the JEG has drafted new job profiles that, if approved, will be used by NHS employers to evaluate job bands for advertised roles.
But London South Bank University professor of healthcare and workforce modelling Alison Leary told Nursing Standard she is concerned the new profiles do not sufficiently value the clinical specialist skills of nurses. She noted that ‘clinical knowledge requiring expertise within a specialism’ has been proposed as a band 5 attribute on the proposed profiles.
‘The consultation is welcome, but some of it seems contradictory,’ said Professor Leary. ‘For example, the proposed profiles state that only a registered nurse should be in charge of the nursing process, then later states that a nursing band 4 role worker will assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions appropriate to babies, infants, children. It doesn’t align.
‘It is also disappointing to see clinical specialist expertise banded so low, and that is unlikely to help retention.’
View the consultation and give your views
Responses to the draft job profiles can be made until 30 June, with the consultation results due to be reported to an NHS Staff Council meeting in September.
Work on reviewing bands 7 and above is ongoing.
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