NHS organisations have been urged to ensure their job descriptions for nursing and midwifery staff are updated, before new national job profiles are published in June.
The NHS Staff Council’s job evaluation group (JEG) today announced that it was nearing the completion of its review of the national job matching profiles for nursing and midwifery.
“It is vital that job descriptions are kept up to date and properly reflect the actual nursing role employees undertake”
Royal College of Nursing spokesperson
It said it anticipated that the updated profiles, alongside technical guidance setting out the changes, would be published the week beginning 2 June 2025.
The JEG has been reviewing all the national profiles for nursing and midwifery Agenda for Change bands 4 and above since the summer of 2022.
It followed concerns raised by health unions that the current national profiles were not reflective of the modern nursing and midwifery landscape.
In spring last year, proposed revisions to profiles for band 4-6 were published, and gathered mixed reviews from nurses and midwives.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), whose concerns prompted the national review, warned that the changes for these bands did not go far enough to recognise the skills and expertise of some staff.
Meanwhile, the draft revised profiles for bands 7 to 9 were published in autumn 2024.
Similarly, the RCN called for further refinement of the profiles, to better reflect the diverse responsibilities, skills and experiential learning required to work within these higher bands.
Ahead of the publication of the final national job profiles, the JEG has urged NHS employing organisations to ensure that job descriptions for their nursing and midwifery staff are updated.
It comes as the review had shown that job descriptions for many nursing and midwifery staff “were of poor quality”, the group said.
It added that nurses and midwives had job descriptions that “did not accurately or adequately detail their roles and responsibilities and, in some cases, had not been regularly reviewed and updated”.
The NHS job evaluation scheme – which ensures all jobs advertised in the health service are matched with national profiles – relies on documentation such as job descriptions.
The JEG therefore said it was “really important that job descriptions are accurate and up to date”.
An RCN spokesperson said: “It is vital that job descriptions are kept up to date and properly reflect the actual nursing role employees undertake.
“Anything less is a disservice to the safety critical nature of nursing and the professionalism of the nursing workforce.
“The new national NHS job profiles set to be published by the government in June must reflect the autonomous decision making involved in modern nursing roles and the full scope of practice of NHS nursing staff in 2025.”
More on the review of national nursing profiles
