RCN renews calls for nurses to become band 6 after preceptorship

The RCN has this week renewed its calls for nurses to automatically progress to band 6 after a period of preceptorship and has once again raised concerns about band 4 nursing staff being used as a substitute for band 5 registered nurses.

“Nursing deserves a pay structure that can support clear career progression”

Nicola Ranger

It comes in response to the consultation on the draft nursing and midwifery profiles for bands 4, 5 and 6, which has been led by the NHS Staff Council’s job evaluation group (JEG).

The JEG has been undertaking a review of the national profiles since 2022 and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

The review was launched after unions, including the RCN, had raised concerns that the current profiles do not reflect the modern nursing and midwifery landscape, particularly around the fact that nurses had taken on more complex duties and responsibilities in recent years.

The NHS job evaluation scheme ensures that all jobs advertised in the health service are matched to nationally evaluated profiles.

The revised profiles for bands 4-6, first published in draft form by the JEG in April, had included further detail about the remit of jobs, with more-current examples of the skills and responsibilities they might have, which reflect contemporary nursing and midwifery practice.

Nurse leaders previously told Nursing Times that they had mixed reviews about the proposed changes.

Some argued that they better reflected the level at which nurses in each band were working, while others said the additional responsibilities given to certain bands would make it harder for nurses to be remunerated for their work.

This week, the RCN has published its official response to the consultation, in which it said the new profiles were “inaccurate”, based on out-of-date job descriptions and did not guarantee nurses the progression they deserved.

For example, the college said the profiles failed to acknowledge that registered nurses regularly carried out clinical tasks that were once reserved for junior doctors, while many nurses working in the NHS began and ended their careers at a band 5.

As such, the RCN has reiterated calls it made earlier this year for all band 5 registered nurses to automatically progress to band 6 after a period of preceptorship.

The college highlighted that this was an opportunity afforded to both midwives and paramedics and that it was a “shameful injustice” that nurses did not have the same offer.

The proposal for nurses to automatically move to a band 6 role after preceptorship was previously put forward by the RCN when the former government launched a consultation on a separate pay spine for nurses.

The consultation results are yet to be published and it is unknown whether the new Labour government intends to take forward plans for a separate nurse pay spine.

Meanwhile, the RCN also reiterated concerns in its consultation response about band 4 nursing staff being used as substitutes for band 5 registered nurses, without being paid at that level.

It called for the new profiles to “clearly set out the distinction” in roles and responsibilities between the two bands.

The college has also warned that the new band 6 profile did not accurately capture the level of responsibility, skills and knowledge of these nurses.

It added that band 6 nurses were “held to extremely high standards” and that their pay should be a reflection of that.

Nicola Ranger

RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “Nursing deserves a pay structure that can support clear career progression with greater levels of reward to recognise skills, competence and expertise gained; and greater responsibilities assumed.”

Professor Ranger noted that she had written to the new health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, to set out the issues nurses are currently facing, including around pay structures.

“Nursing staff need to be properly recognised and valued through fair pay,” she said.

“I know your value, and I will fight for it to be fairly rewarded.”

Separately, the government said this week that an update on a nurse pay offer for 2024-25 would be coming by the end of July.

The pay deal for NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts, which had been due on 1 April, is rumoured to be up to 5.5%.

The RCN said it would consult members on the award once it is finalised.

NHS Employers, which runs the JEG, and the Department of Health and Social Care, were both contacted for comment.