Unison members have called for early career nurses to automatically progress from band 5 to 6, upon gaining the necessary experience and competencies.
A motion on valuing nursing fairly was passed unanimously at the union’s annual Health Care Service Group Conference, being held in Liverpool this week.
“Nurses are the biggest staff group in the NHS, it’s vital that they feel valuable”
Andrea Prince
The conference heard that nurses, despite their pivotal and safety critical role, were not being valued fairly for their work and their expertise.
It comes as a survey of nurses and midwives, conducted by the Union, found that 90% reported their roles had required them to assess more complex clinical needs and deliver more complex clinical care than they had previously.
Andrea Prince, Unison Cymru/Wales Aneurin Bevan health branch secretary, presented the motion on valuing nursing.
For the last 20 years, Ms Prince has worked as a nurse practitioner.
She told the conference she had seen “expert, committed nurses” taking charge of units and using advanced clinical skills.
“Many of these nurses work at band 5, despite the years of experience and their safety critical roles,” she said.
“Nurses are the biggest staff group in the NHS, it’s vital that they feel valuable.”
Ms Prince highlighted Unison’s Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign, which has supported around 40,000 healthcare assistants to be up-banded.
“Nurses have seen what Unison can achieve,” she explained.
“We witnessed the determination of tens of thousands of healthcare assistants as they have campaigned and taken industrial action to win re-banding and back pay. We’re asking for your support to do the same.”
Ms Prince recognised that other professional groups also faced issues around banding and recognition and pledged to work in collaboration with colleagues.
“Of course, we are one team in the NHS,” she said.
“We will work towards our goals in a coordinated way with our units and colleagues, and we absolutely will work collaboratively with our colleagues from other occupational groups.”
Unison is not the first union to call for newly registered nurses to automatically progress to band 6.
Over the last year, the Royal College of Nursing has been lobbying for this type of progression, following a period of preceptorship.
Both unions have noted that paramedics, midwives and allied health professionals have been afforded this opportunity, leaving nurses behind and with many stuck at band 5 for years.
Meanwhile, Wilma Brown, nurse and member of Unison’s health service group executive, told the conference that the Covid-19 pandemic was a turning point for the profession, as nurses had needed to “adapt their practice and act with significantly more autonomy and responsibility”.
She said: “Is it any wonder that they feel undervalued when the spotlight is not being shown on the lack of investment in their careers?”
In a vote that was passed unanimously, Unison members called upon their health service group executive to lobby for automatic progression from band 5 to 6 for early career nurses, after they gain the necessary experience and competencies.
The motion also called for a campaign to encourage nursing and midwifery members to lobby for re-banding once the new national profiles are launched.
In addition, it called on line managers to receive further training and support to ensure nursing job descriptions are regularly updated and agreed.
It comes as the NHS Staff Council’s job evaluation group announced earlier this week that it was nearing the completion of its review of the national job matching profiles for nursing and midwifery.
It said the updated profiles, alongside technical guidance setting out the changes, would be published in June 2025.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Social Care has today announced plans to boost the NHS job evaluation scheme through the implementation of a national digital system.
The Unison motion also set out other demands related to nursing and midwifery.
It called for enhanced support for new nursing registrants, including structured preceptorship programmes, accessible continuous professional development opportunities and mentorship from experienced colleagues.
Meanwhile, it also called for promotion of initiatives and policies that recognise the contribution of healthcare assistants and provide them with better opportunities for career progression.
More on career progression for nurses
