- Conference
- 2010 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 11 December 2009
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes the increasing challenges facing the nursing and midwifery family workforce. Following the Darzi Review nurses are being subjected to increasing scrutiny. They are expected to demonstrate their contribution to patient and service-level outcomes, using yet to be fully determined metrics, which are based mainly on the negative elements of care for example infection control. At the same time the shift to graduate entry training for registration in 2013 raises specific challenges in ensuring that this is not detrimental to widening participation nor undervalues the vital importance of our existing workforce, without which the NHS would fail.
All of this is being transacted in the face of a recession and economic crisis brought about by the failings of the unregulated financial sector but with the pain highly likely to be felt by the public sector, the NHS included. The economic crisis is not of the NHS’s making, indeed the stability in the public sector ensured that the economic crisis was not worse. The fact that resources are now tight must not now, or ever be an excuse for refashioning the nursing & midwifery family workforce in ways that ultimately would be hugely detrimental to the effectiveness of the service, staff morale, the experiences of service users and the quality of care they receive. There is no place for slash and burn in staffing levels.
The particular challenges posed to nursing and midwifery require some very specific strategic solutions. Conference therefore calls on the Health Group Executive to develop a new Manifesto for Nursing, to be used as a basis for future discussions with Department of Health in each of the countries, NHS Employers, and the Nursing & Midwifery Council, and to include the following demands
1.A commitment to proper resourcing for universities to deliver on the requirement for an all-graduate training programme
2.that the entry gate to nurse training remains as wide as it possibly can and existing staff are not disadvantaged.
3.A recognition of the skills and competencies of the existing nursing & midwifery workforce, which must not be devalued by the move to an all graduate training programme
4.That the current nursing workforce be given full access to relevant opportunities to develop their own education and training needs
5.Assurances that new entrants are not allowed to indiscriminately leap-frog existing and experienced nurses for future employment opportunities.
6.That workforce planning be rational, based on patient need and not be used as part of a cost-cutting process of deskilling and rationalisation.
7.Sufficient investment and resources to ensure the NHS has a well-skilled and knowledgeable nursing and midwifery family workforce with sufficient numbers to meet future patient demand and anticipated demographic trends and provision of services
8.A career pathway, which embodies equality of opportunity
9.The entire nursing workforce must be valued and remunerated appropriately to reflect this value
10.Recognition, through the job evaluation process, of the health care support worker’s competencies
11.No compulsory redundancies
12.A clearing house should be established at an SHA level for nursing & midwifery posts to ensure equity.
Conference calls on UNISON Health Group Executive to develop this Manifesto and use it as the basis for working across the union and in collaboration with the NEC and our Labour Link colleagues.