The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has renewed her commitment to improving pay and conditions of all nursing staff across the UK in a New Year message to the profession.
As 2025 begins, Professor Nicola Ranger recognised the ‘challenges ahead’ but stressed she was ‘full of optimism and hope’ for the year ahead.
She pointed to the government’s incoming 10 Year Health Plan as ‘an opportunity’ for the profession, and encouraged those among the workforce to continue to have their say on the plan’s development.
‘This year is so important to shape what the future of the nursing profession will look like – we are determined to make the voices of nursing staff heard and listened to,’ said Professor Ranger in a blog published last week.
‘We know that significant investment in nursing is needed. We need to make sure governments across the UK are recruiting and retaining brilliant nursing staff – this is the way forward for the profession.’
The nursing workforce is the ‘golden thread’ to addressing issues within the health and care system, she said, and without ‘structural reform within nursing’ the government’s plans for change will not be realised.
‘This year we will be pushing more than ever to ensure our profession gets the recognition it deserves and to ensure that structural change for nursing is realised,’ said Professor Ranger.
She added that she and the RCN remain ‘absolutely committed to improving pay and conditions for nursing staff wherever they work’.
‘Whenever I am in direct conversations with the UK government, as I was with Wes Streeting, secretary of state for health and social care, at the end of December – your stories really add power to our case.’
At the end of last year, the RCN asked the pay review body for GPs – which typically also covers employed general practice staff – to investigate the reasons why GPNs are not being given a pay rise and to ensure its future recommendations ‘expressly and explicitly’ include the nursing profession.
In its evidence submission, the RCN used the findings of a Nursing in Practice survey which revealed the volume of GPNs without a pay rise for 2024/25 and that concerns over pay and feeling ‘undervalued’ were pushing GPNs to consider walking away from the sector.
Professor Ranger’s blog went on to recognise the ‘difficult time’ presented by challenging winter months and stressed this winter ‘may be one of our hardest’.
‘I was out visiting members over the festive period to hear your views first-hand, especially around trying to care for patients in corridors and other inappropriate spaces – which I believe is a much bigger issue than the public realises,’ she said.
‘I know that you still love nursing as a profession – but not the environment in which you are being asked to practice. I want to change that.
‘Treating patients in inappropriate spaces is glaring example of a broken system. Care delivered in corridors and other non-clinical spaces is unsafe, undignified and unacceptable.’
At last year’s RCN Congress, general practice nurses warned they had been forced to turn cleaning cupboards into clinic rooms and were struggling to take on new nursing students because of a lack of appropriate space and buildings.
Professor Ranger closed her blog by pointing to this year’s RCN Congress, set to be held in Liverpool in May.
‘As we enter 2025, I know there are challenges ahead, but I am full of optimism and hope for this amazing profession,’ she said.
‘I hope that you are too, as we need you to speak up for nursing louder than ever this year.’
‘There is a lot to look forward to, not least discussing the future of our profession at Congress 2025 in Liverpool.’
