NEWS
NMC APPEALS FOR VIEWS OF MENTAL HEALTH PERFORMANCE PAY AND LEARNING DISABILITY REGISTRANTS GUIDANCE ISSUED Mental health and learning disability nurses are being urged to express their views on how continuing fitness to practise will be assessed in the future. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) says it is concerned that the views of mental health and learning disability nurses were under-represented
REVALIDATION AFFECTS EVERYONE IN THE SAME WAY – Katerina Kolyva
in the first phase of its consultation on the proposed model of revalidation, which comes into force in December next year. The second phase of the consultation, which also looks at changes to the NMC’s code of conduct, is open until August 11. NMC director of continued practice Katerina Kolyva said the response rate from mental health nurses and learning
disability nurses had so far been lower than the regulator would have liked. Almost 5,700 nurses responded to the first phase of the consultation on revalidation, which proposes that nurses will have to gather feedback from patients to prove their continuing fitness to practise. Dr Kolyva said it was important to hear from mental health and learning disability nurses because gathering feedback from their patients could be more difficult than for nurses in other practice areas. ‘Revalidation affects everyone on the register in exactly the same way,’ she told an NMC council meeting in Edinburgh. The meeting marked the first time the NMC had held a council meeting in Scotland in five years. Chair Mark Addison said the NMC will now hold council meetings in one of the UK countries other than England on an annual basis. Go to tinyurl.com/qxosacg
BY EMPLOYER BODY
NHS organisations would cut their wage bill if they introduced systems linking staff performance with incremental pay. That is the message in NHS Employers guidance published last week, which says savings can be made by ‘concentrating on effective performers only and avoiding the cost of overpaying underperformers’. The document sets out steps for trusts to take in introducing performance related pay for employees. The publication of the guidance follows amendments to Agenda for Change, agreed in March 2013, which will allow employers to pay incremental rises conditionally on staff performance. NHS Employers also warns that managers may find themselves dealing with an initial increase in disciplinary procedures when they introduce performance related pay progression. For more information go to tinyurl.com/PRPtoolkit
Lifelong learning investment plan to retain workers
8 june 11 :: vol 28 no 41 :: 2014
RCN head of policy Howard Catton said he welcomed the document’s focus on investing more in the current workforce. He added that workers would be expected to change the way they work and develop new skills. Staff will need to be equipped with the skills to deal with more challenging patients and to rethink their role within the internet age, he said. An example cited in the HEE document is that the number of downloads of health apps is predicted to more than triple from 44 million in 2012 to 142 million in 2016. Mr Catton told Nursing Standard: ‘Staff are going to be asked to change the way they work in future, and without the right training and support ALAMY
More money will be invested in the training and development of the current NHS workforce over the next 15 years, according to the national body responsible for educating health workers. Health Education England (HEE) last week published a 15-year strategic framework which says that just 5 per cent of its annual £5 billion budget is spent on continuing professional development. In future, it will be investing more in the lifelong learning of the current workforce, who provide the bulk of care, says the document. HEE describes the current approach to the nursing workforce as a ‘leaky bucket’ where nurses are lost from the system through attrition from pre-registration courses or from poor employment practice.
there is a danger they could find that threatening and make the decision to quit. ‘We focus a lot on recruitment but not enough on retention. Retention is now arguably more important.’ The framework anticipates that the demand for part-time working will increase as the age profile of the workforce rises. Staff would want a better work/life balance with more time to care. Mr Catton said employers needed to offer flexibility to nurses and make sure nursing remained an attractive job to those doing it, while also appealing to others. To view the framework go to tinyurl.com/ nmnrjdj Downloads of health apps have trebled
NURSING STANDARD
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NMC APPEALS FOR VIEWS OF MENTAL HEALTH PERFORMANCE PAY AND LEARNING DISABILITY REGISTRANTS GUIDANCE ISSUED Mental health and learning disability nurses are being urged to express their views on how continuing fitness to practise will be assessed in the future. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) says it is concerned that the views of mental health and learning disability nurses were under-represented
REVALIDATION AFFECTS EVERYONE IN THE SAME WAY – Katerina Kolyva
in the first phase of its consultation on the proposed model of revalidation, which comes into force in December next year. The second phase of the consultation, which also looks at changes to the NMC’s code of conduct, is open until August 11. NMC director of continued practice Katerina Kolyva said the response rate from mental health nurses and learning
disability nurses had so far been lower than the regulator would have liked. Almost 5,700 nurses responded to the first phase of the consultation on revalidation, which proposes that nurses will have to gather feedback from patients to prove their continuing fitness to practise. Dr Kolyva said it was important to hear from mental health and learning disability nurses because gathering feedback from their patients could be more difficult than for nurses in other practice areas. ‘Revalidation affects everyone on the register in exactly the same way,’ she told an NMC council meeting in Edinburgh. The meeting marked the first time the NMC had held a council meeting in Scotland in five years. Chair Mark Addison said the NMC will now hold council meetings in one of the UK countries other than England on an annual basis. Go to tinyurl.com/qxosacg
BY EMPLOYER BODY
NHS organisations would cut their wage bill if they introduced systems linking staff performance with incremental pay. That is the message in NHS Employers guidance published last week, which says savings can be made by ‘concentrating on effective performers only and avoiding the cost of overpaying underperformers’. The document sets out steps for trusts to take in introducing performance related pay for employees. The publication of the guidance follows amendments to Agenda for Change, agreed in March 2013, which will allow employers to pay incremental rises conditionally on staff performance. NHS Employers also warns that managers may find themselves dealing with an initial increase in disciplinary procedures when they introduce performance related pay progression. For more information go to tinyurl.com/PRPtoolkit
Lifelong learning investment plan to retain workers
8 june 11 :: vol 28 no 41 :: 2014
RCN head of policy Howard Catton said he welcomed the document’s focus on investing more in the current workforce. He added that workers would be expected to change the way they work and develop new skills. Staff will need to be equipped with the skills to deal with more challenging patients and to rethink their role within the internet age, he said. An example cited in the HEE document is that the number of downloads of health apps is predicted to more than triple from 44 million in 2012 to 142 million in 2016. Mr Catton told Nursing Standard: ‘Staff are going to be asked to change the way they work in future, and without the right training and support ALAMY
More money will be invested in the training and development of the current NHS workforce over the next 15 years, according to the national body responsible for educating health workers. Health Education England (HEE) last week published a 15-year strategic framework which says that just 5 per cent of its annual £5 billion budget is spent on continuing professional development. In future, it will be investing more in the lifelong learning of the current workforce, who provide the bulk of care, says the document. HEE describes the current approach to the nursing workforce as a ‘leaky bucket’ where nurses are lost from the system through attrition from pre-registration courses or from poor employment practice.
there is a danger they could find that threatening and make the decision to quit. ‘We focus a lot on recruitment but not enough on retention. Retention is now arguably more important.’ The framework anticipates that the demand for part-time working will increase as the age profile of the workforce rises. Staff would want a better work/life balance with more time to care. Mr Catton said employers needed to offer flexibility to nurses and make sure nursing remained an attractive job to those doing it, while also appealing to others. To view the framework go to tinyurl.com/ nmnrjdj Downloads of health apps have trebled
NURSING STANDARD
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