Managing director Rhonda Oliver Editor in chief Jean Gray Editor Graham Scott Deputy editor Elaine Cole (maternity leave) Acting deputy editor Janet Snell Assistant editor Roger Evans ART&SCIENCE Editor Gwen Clarke Deputy editors Sonia Davies, Tanya Fernandes Clinical editor Noreen Begley NEWS & VIEWS News editor Sarah Harrison Deputy news editor Sally Gillen Reporters Jennifer Sprinks, Kat Keogh Development editor Frances Pickersgill Features editor Thelma Agnew Reflections editor Clare Lomas PRODUCTION & DESIGN Head of production Fiona Maclean Senior production editor Julie Hickey Production manager Arnie Beeson Production editors Sarah Howe, Jennifer Oldfield Deputy production editor Justin Stevens Sub editors Yvonne Byron Nour, Joyce McKimm, Jennifer Saunders Art directors Ken McLoone, Paul Swainson Deputy art director Minesh Parmar Designer Sujata Aurora Picture editor Philip Brecht Deputy picture editor Helen Jones Assistant picture editor Karen Gordon Production assistant Annette Taylor-Anderson Ad production executives Sally Gauntlett, Sue Horn IT AND NEW MEDIA Technology director John Day Manager Alex Oldfield Web editor Amanda Carter IT assistant Kerry Taylor ADMINISTRATION Administration manager Maria O’Brien Editorial administrative assistants Sarah Musisi, Jane Yates BUSINESS UNIT Commercial director Tony O’Rourke PA to commercial director Angelina George Head of marketing Helen Sumner Deputy head of marketing Michelle Day Events executive Rachel Weeden Subscriptions manager Beryl John Group educational projects manager Laura Downes RGN Advertisement and sponsorship sales manager Neil Hobson Senior sponsorship and advertising specialist Julia Gomersall Advertisement and sponsorship executives Rachel Fisher, Kelly Smith Classified sales manager Andy McCallum Sales project specialist Freddie Collier Classified sales executives Mandy Croggon, Shona Gethin, Pamela Gethin, Stephanie Mackrill SUBSCRIPTIONS
Personal rates from £76.80 a year. Telephone 0345 772 6100 Institutional rates from £675 a year. Send all enquiries to [email protected] Visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk for details. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
The Heights, 59-65 Lowlands Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex HA1 3AW Tel: +44 (0)20 8423 1333 Fax: +44 (0)20 8872 3197 ISSN 0029-6570 Email: [email protected] You can email staff at Nursing Standard in the following way: (first name).(second name)@rcnpublishing.co.uk Nursing Standard is published every Wednesday by RCN Publishing Company Ltd, the publishing company of the Royal College of Nursing. It seeks to promote professional excellence, and encourage creativity and innovation in nursing, midwifery and health visiting practice. Nursing Standard also aims to enhance nurses’ and healthcare assistants’ career development and to help them achieve and maintain a healthy and rewarding working environment. Nursing Standard is editorially independent and the opinions expressed are not those of the RCN or of the contributor’s employing organisation unless specifically stated. Acceptance of an advertisement does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of a product or service, either by the RCN or RCN Publishing.
Editorial Graham Scott EDITOR
Pay-freeze proposal will cost government dear Missing out on a beauty treatment because your salary has been frozen may be a price worth paying if pay restraint means you stay in work. But nurses are not only denying themselves life’s little luxuries in an attempt to make ends meet, they are also going without holidays and turning off the heating. Our survey of 1,200 readers spells out the reality of sustained cuts in the value of nurses’ take-home pay. More than half are working extra shifts and one in ten has a second job outside nursing. Even so, mortgage repayments and rent demands are being missed and credit card bills are going unpaid.
ALMOST HALF OF NURSES WE SURVEYED HAVE CONSIDERED QUITTING THE PROFESSION
Some have turned to payday loan companies, others to food banks. Many have had to tell their children that the next school trip is too expensive, and one reader told us that even toilet paper was being rationed. So it is no wonder that almost half the respondents say they have considered quitting the profession altogether. Our findings are published as nursing unions make their case to the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) for nurses to receive a pay rise next April. Employers have been given enough money for a 1 per cent increase, which would see nurses’ pay fall in real terms for the fifth year in a row. But England’s millionaire health secretary Jeremy Hunt thinks even that measly sum is too generous, and wants the RB to recommend another pay freeze. This is despite widespread evidence that the next nursing workforce crisis is just around the corner. Already NHS employers are recruiting nurses in large numbers from overseas. And history teaches us that lengthy periods of below-inflation pay rises have always been put right by ‘catch-up’ awards a few years later. So the government’s approach may be understandable in the short term, but cannot be sustained for long. See news pages 7 and 12, analysis page 14 and letters page 32 Air your views on
Nursing Standard and
Join our new Journal Club
@NScomment
Journal
This Friday (and every fortnight) you can discuss Club #NursingJC one of our articles on Twitter using #NursingJC. Go to www.nursing-standard.co.uk to download the latest free article.
november 13 :: vol 28 no 11 :: 2013 3
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 14, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Personal rates from £76.80 a year. Telephone 0345 772 6100 Institutional rates from £675 a year. Send all enquiries to [email protected] Visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk for details. CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
The Heights, 59-65 Lowlands Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex HA1 3AW Tel: +44 (0)20 8423 1333 Fax: +44 (0)20 8872 3197 ISSN 0029-6570 Email: [email protected] You can email staff at Nursing Standard in the following way: (first name).(second name)@rcnpublishing.co.uk Nursing Standard is published every Wednesday by RCN Publishing Company Ltd, the publishing company of the Royal College of Nursing. It seeks to promote professional excellence, and encourage creativity and innovation in nursing, midwifery and health visiting practice. Nursing Standard also aims to enhance nurses’ and healthcare assistants’ career development and to help them achieve and maintain a healthy and rewarding working environment. Nursing Standard is editorially independent and the opinions expressed are not those of the RCN or of the contributor’s employing organisation unless specifically stated. Acceptance of an advertisement does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of a product or service, either by the RCN or RCN Publishing.
Editorial Graham Scott EDITOR
Pay-freeze proposal will cost government dear Missing out on a beauty treatment because your salary has been frozen may be a price worth paying if pay restraint means you stay in work. But nurses are not only denying themselves life’s little luxuries in an attempt to make ends meet, they are also going without holidays and turning off the heating. Our survey of 1,200 readers spells out the reality of sustained cuts in the value of nurses’ take-home pay. More than half are working extra shifts and one in ten has a second job outside nursing. Even so, mortgage repayments and rent demands are being missed and credit card bills are going unpaid.
ALMOST HALF OF NURSES WE SURVEYED HAVE CONSIDERED QUITTING THE PROFESSION
Some have turned to payday loan companies, others to food banks. Many have had to tell their children that the next school trip is too expensive, and one reader told us that even toilet paper was being rationed. So it is no wonder that almost half the respondents say they have considered quitting the profession altogether. Our findings are published as nursing unions make their case to the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) for nurses to receive a pay rise next April. Employers have been given enough money for a 1 per cent increase, which would see nurses’ pay fall in real terms for the fifth year in a row. But England’s millionaire health secretary Jeremy Hunt thinks even that measly sum is too generous, and wants the RB to recommend another pay freeze. This is despite widespread evidence that the next nursing workforce crisis is just around the corner. Already NHS employers are recruiting nurses in large numbers from overseas. And history teaches us that lengthy periods of below-inflation pay rises have always been put right by ‘catch-up’ awards a few years later. So the government’s approach may be understandable in the short term, but cannot be sustained for long. See news pages 7 and 12, analysis page 14 and letters page 32 Air your views on
Nursing Standard and
Join our new Journal Club
@NScomment
Journal
This Friday (and every fortnight) you can discuss Club #NursingJC one of our articles on Twitter using #NursingJC. Go to www.nursing-standard.co.uk to download the latest free article.
november 13 :: vol 28 no 11 :: 2013 3
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 14, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
