Employers are being urged to take action to make sure their nurses and midwives are being fairly rewarded for the jobs they do, following the publication of new national job matching profiles.
The NHS Staff Council has been working since 2021 to update the profiles after concerns were raised that the previous ones did not reflect modern nursing and midwifery. The new profiles have been published today.
“Nursing staff need access to fair and timely job evaluations”
Nicola Ranger
The profiles provide broad summaries of what nursing and midwifery professionals working at each band between 2-9 should be doing.
These are then used to place nurses and midwives on the appropriate pay scale, by matching their job descriptions and other information against the national profiles.
The process comes under the national NHS Job Evaluation Scheme and is designed to ensure equal pay for equal work.
However, the NHS Staff Council said, during the process of updating the profiles, there had been “serious concerns raised about job evaluation practices”.
Specifically, it heard that too many nurses and midwives had outdated job descriptions and therefore were probably being underpaid for the work they were doing.
As it publishes the new profiles today, the staff council has urged employers to address this issue and make sure job documentation for their nursing and midwifery staff is up to date.
In addition, it said employers needed to ensure they had the “required capacity, processes and practices in place to ensure robust application of the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme”.
The NHS Staff Council recognised the financial challenges facing trusts but said this was “not a reason to ignore this issue”.
“Poor local job evaluation practice risks the robustness of outcomes and undermines the confidence staff and managers need to have in the scheme,” the staff council warned in new guidance for organisations.
“It can also lead to disputes which impact employment and industrial relations.
“Where staff do not feel they are being appropriately paid for the work they are required to do, engagement, morale and retention are likely to be negatively impacted.”
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which pushed for the national review, welcomed the updated profiles and issued a similar call on employers to make sure their nursing staff were being fairly rewarded.
It also said that governments needed to help employers by providing the funding required to support the job evaluation process and uplift staff to the correct band when needed.
Nicola Ranger
RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “A fair and accurate job description is not just paperwork – it’s recognition of the skills and expertise nursing staff bring to the profession every day.
“These profiles more accurately reflect modern nursing and are a key part of our journey to ensuring nursing staff are fairly rewarded.”
She added: “Employers must now commit to reviewing and updating job descriptions and governments must fully fund the implementation of the updated band profiles.
“Nursing staff need access to fair and timely job evaluations, and we will play our part supporting members and holding employers and ministers to account.”
More on the profiles review
