Revised nursing profiles set to be published in 2025
The revised national NHS job profiles for nursing and midwifery will not be published until early 2025, to allow time for more bands to be reviewed, it has been announced.
The NHS Staff Council’s job evaluation group (JEG) has been reviewing the profiles for bands 4, 5 and 6 since 2022, after concerns had been raised by unions that they do not reflect the modern nursing and midwifery landscape.
A consultation on proposed revisions to the profiles ran from April to June 2024 and gathered mixed reviews from nurses and midwives.
Some argued that the proposed revisions better reflect the level at which nurses in each band are working, while others said they think it could make it harder for nurses to be renumerated for their work.
The Royal College of Nursing was among those that were unhappy with the new profiles, warning in July that the proposed changes do not go far enough to recognise the skills and expertise of some staff.
In a statement this week, the JEG said it was grateful to all those who had responded to the consultation, and that it was “working its way through the feedback over the coming weeks”.
It noted that the group would begin consulting on revised national profiles for bands 7 and above “later in the autumn”.
The joint chairs of the JEG have agreed that the final revised profiles will now only be published once the review of all the bands, from 4-9, has been completed.
This would likely be in early 2025, the group said.
The NHS job evaluation scheme ensures that all jobs advertised in the health service are matched to nationally evaluated profiles.
These profiles are supposed to reflect the knowledge, skills and responsibilities for common roles in the NHS.
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.