Consultation launched on revisions to senior nursing job profiles

The NHS Staff Council’s job evaluation group (JEG) this week announced that it was consulting on revised job evaluation matching profiles for bands 7 and above.

The consultation will run between 14 October and 15 December 2024.

It comes as the JEG has been reviewing all the national profiles for nursing and midwifery bands 4 and above since the summer of 2022.

Proposed changes made to the profiles for bands 7-9 include additional information and examples about the type of work these nurses and midwives may do.

For example, the draft proposals have set out further detail about the way in which staff working between bands 7-9 might need to communicate.

The document said these nurses might communicate “highly sensitive, confidential information” relating to suspected abuse or sexually transmitted diseases, and that they may need to demonstrate “empathy, persuasion and reassurance” when communicating life-limiting or life-changing information.

Meanwhile, it set out that these nurses should have developed physical skills to fulfil duties “where there is a specific requirement for speed or accuracy”.

This may include advanced or high-speed driving, advanced keyboard use, advanced sensory skills or manipulation of objects or people with narrow margins for error.

Specifically for band 8 matrons, the draft proposals have given further detail about the managerial role that they might perform.

For example, they may be responsible for “presenting complex, sensitive or contentious information to a large group of staff or members of the public”, or delivering training to groups of 20 people or more in a formal setting.

In addition, they might lead the development of policy or specific services and “take forward implementation of policies across primary and acute settings”.

Meanwhile, further detail has been published on the remit of band 9 nurse consultants.

The document said these practitioners would carry out “detailed patient assessments” including taking health history, diagnostic or investigation reports and developing treatments plans.

Nurse consultants will also provide “expert nursing advice” to senior management teams, boards or organisations on strategic planning, policy governance and legislation, the document said.

The NHS Staff Council has invited detailed responses and additional evidence on the proposed changes, which it said will be used to confirm or further amend the draft profiles before publication.

The JEG began reviewing the national profiles following concerns raised by health unions that they do not reflect the modern nursing and midwifery landscape.

A consultation on proposed revisions for the bands 4, 5 and 6 profiles ran between April and June this year 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 they could make it harder for nurses to be fairly renumerated for their work.

The Royal College of Nursing was one of the unions unhappy with the profiles for bands 4-6, warning that the changes did not go far enough to recognise the skills and expertise of some staff.

The joint chairs of the JEG announced last month that the final revised profiles for all nursing and midwifery bands will be published in early 2025.

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

The profiles are supposed to reflect the skills, responsibilities and knowledge for common roles found in the NHS.

Almost all NHS jobs are matched with a national profile when they are created.

Where jobs cannot be matched to a profile, a full evaluation must be undertaken locally to determine pay banding.

If a nurse or midwife thinks they are not being paid fairly for the job that they do, such as taking on additional duties not in their job description or achieving additional specialist qualifications, they can request a job evaluation.