
Updated national nursing profiles have been published following a lengthy review, which came after calls from the ¿ìèÊÓÆµ for changes that respect and recognise the value of modern nursing.
are summaries of evaluated roles and the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme allows NHS jobs to be matched against nationally evaluated profiles which, in turn, determine pay.
The updated profiles apply to all nursing staff within the NHS on Agenda for Change contracts across the UK. However, there will be some differences in how each country approaches this work.
- In England, it’s expected that employers will follow the . This guidance aims to inform and support the local activity needed to build the necessary organisational capacity to undertake job evaluation robustly, and to ensure job documentation for nursing staff is accurate and up to date. Staff Council expects employers to prioritise the job documentation for band 5 posts first, and then those deemed at a higher risk of being out of date.
- In Wales, expert groups will be set up to agree job descriptions that will be adopted by all health boards across the country.
- In Scotland, health boards are being advised not to act on the new profiles immediately. A co-ordinated Scotland-wide approach to implementing and using the new national profiles is being developed. It will include how these profiles are to be used in the current band 5 nursing roles review, which is now in progress.
- In Northern Ireland, we’re waiting for more detail on the implementation plans.
However this work is approached, it is our expectation that employers will work in partnership with us and affected members to review their nursing job descriptions to ensure they accurately describe jobs. Updated job descriptions must then go through the job evaluation process to ensure they are properly banded.
We’re calling on governments to provide the funding required to support the job evaluation process and uplift staff to the correct band.
The NHS Staff Council’s Job Evaluation Group (JEG) reviewed and updated nursing profiles for bands 2 and 3 in 2021, and the most recent review considered the national nursing profiles for band 4 and above.
We believe the updated profiles more accurately reflect modern nursing and create a clearer step change between bands to support career progression. Alongside an accessible, t