Unison is in a strong position to make nurses feel heard, address some of their most pressing concerns and ensure they are valued for the work that they do, the union’s national nursing officer has said.
Stuart Tuckwood spoke to Nursing Times on the final day of Unison’s annual Health Care Service Group Conference to discuss some of the key themes that had emerged at the event and priorities for the union going forward.
“Nurses are not being fairly valued for the work that they do”
Stuart Tuckwood
The three-day conference, held in Liverpool this week, saw nurses and other healthcare workers gather to discuss some of the most important issues facing staff working across the UK.
Mr Tuckwood told Nursing Times that the annual conference was “an opportunity for nurses to be heard”.
He said: “What I really like about our conference is we’re really focused on the solutions and looking at what we can do constructively to make our members’ working lives better.
“There’s been a lot of very good progress on certain issues, specifically for nursing.”
With almost 50 motions debated over the three days, nurses were among delegates to stand up and address their colleagues on issues that matter to them.
“I really feel positive that we are taking some positive steps on things, while I recognise that there’s a lot for nurses to be concerned about,” Mr Tuckwood said.
“It feels like Unison is in a good position to make nurses heard on these challenges and try and find solutions.”
Unison members this week unanimously passed a motion on valuing nursing fairly, something Mr Tuckwood said he had been consistently raising with senior healthcare leaders over the last few years.
By passing the motion, Unison members called upon the union’s 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.
It came at the same time the government announced that it would not introduce a separate pay spine for nursing staff in England.
The Royal College of Nursing had been lobbying for nurses to be given their own pay scale, arguing that the current AfC model fails to recognise modern-day nursing.
However, Unison was among many health unions to object to the proposals.
Mr Tuckwood said: “Nurses are not being fairly valued for the work that they do.
“We don’t think a separate pay spine was the answer to that problem, but we do recognise that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done within Agenda for Change collectively to try and improve career progression for nurses, to make sure that they do get fairly valued.
“We think there should be progression of band 5 nurses, in a supported way, to move to band 6 after they’ve done their preceptorships and they’re established in their roles.”
Meanwhile, the valuing nursing fairly 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, which are used to decide what banding staff should be on.
Mr Tuckwood noted that there were “lots of band 5 nurses with huge amounts of experience” who were working beyond their banding.
“We’re going to have to do this either the easy way or the hard way,” he argued.
“The easy way is we sit down and we talk, we establish a fair system, we help people move to band 6.
“The hard way is that we have to organise, we have to start challenging employers and then ultimately, sometimes, take people out on strike.”
He noted that this aligned with Unison’s Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign, which has been lobbying to improve pay and recognition for healthcare assistants (HCAs).
The campaign – which has seen thousands of HCAs take strike action – has helped more than 40,000 workers up-band, and has given around £154m in backpay to staff.
The valuing nursing fairly motion also set out other demands, including calling for enhanced support for new nursing registrants and for initiatives that recognise the contribution of HCAs and support their career progression.
Mr Tuckwood said there was “a lot to do” to build on these points, and that over the next few years Unison would be “speaking to nurses, getting them organised and making sure they get treated fairly and valued fairly”.
Meanwhile, the Unison conference also heard about the struggles that migrant nurses are facing when they come to the UK.
A motion titled ‘Give us a reason to stay’ heard how poor pay and working conditions were pushing internationally recruited nurses out of the UK and making them look to move to other high-income countries.
Mr Tuckwood said it was “really important that we don’t forget about this huge number of international nurses we’ve recruited in the last number of years”.
It comes as latest data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) showed that there are now over 200,000 international professionals on the register – making up almost a quarter of the nursing and midwifery workforce.
Mr Tuckwood said: “I’m really disappointed in the NHS, particularly in England, that after a period of recruiting and putting money and investment into supporting those communities, and to helping with career progression, it’s beginning to feel like they’re being forgotten about now.”
Unison is one of the health unions that has been heavily campaigning over the last year for the government to tackle migrant exploitation, particularly in the social care sector.
Mr Tuckwood said: “Unison won’t let that issue be forgotten about.
“We’re going to keep on making sure that we’re fighting to make sure they’re not being exploited, they’ve got career progression opportunities, and we benefit from their skills and expertise.”
On the final day of the conference, the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, gave a keynote speech, during which he unveiled a new crackdown by the government on violence against NHS staff.
He announced that reporting incidents of workplace violence in the NHS would now become mandatory, and that the data would be collected at national level.
This data will then be analysed to better understand if certain staff groups face disproportionate risks and to allow trusts to protect their most vulnerable workers.
Mr Tuckwood said: “From what I understand, the steps that have [been] announced, they’re really positive.
“We still want to see more detail and, with all these announcements, we need to make them have an impact.
Wes Streeting delivering a keynote speech at the Unison 2025 National Health Care Service Group Conference
“We’ll be working with them to make sure that happens.”
It comes as a survey published last month by Nursing Times and Unison revealed that almost all nursing and midwifery workers in the UK had experienced physical violence at work.
Staff reported being grabbed, punched, bitten, spat at, strangled, headbutted and even stabbed.
“The findings that we saw in our survey showed that nursing staff are affected by violence and it has a horrendous impact on them – it’s never acceptable,” Mr Tuckwood said.
The survey also identified several aggravating factors leading to nursing staff being attacked, many of which were “preventable”, argued Mr Tuckwood.
He added: “A lot people [were] saying staffing shortages were a factor [and] corridor care, people being treated in inappropriate settings.
“So violence is there, but it’s being inflamed by under investment in the situation the staff are working in.
“As well as focusing on violence specifically as an issue, we need to be improving staffing, giving more training, supporting nurses to tackle those underlying issues that make violence more common.
“I’m positive, but there’s loads of work that needs to be done.”
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