NEWS
PAY INCREASE FOR SCOTLAND’S NHS STAFF PUTS THEM AHEAD OF OTHERS IN UK Nurses in Scotland will receive a 1 per cent consolidated pay rise in April after the government accepted the recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body. Announcing the rise, heath minister Shona Robison said: ‘Our hardworking and dedicated NHS Scotland staff will rightly receive the wage increases they were promised. ‘While the uplift is modest, it comes against the background of substantial cuts in Scotland’s budget from Westminster, and will continue to give NHS staff in Scotland a better deal than their counterparts south of the border.’ Scotland was the only one of the four UK countries to accept the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendation on pay for 2014/15 that all staff got a 1 per cent cost of living rise. It was also the only country to ask the body to make recommendations for 2015/16. This means the starting salary for a band 5 nurse in Scotland from April will be £21,818, while in England and
Wales it will be £21,692. A decision on pay for 2015/16 has not yet been made in Northern Ireland. RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: ‘We are committed to the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which has recommended a 1 per cent pay rise for all NHS staff. This modest pay rise, however, comes at a time
THIS UPLIFT GIVES STAFF A BETTER DEAL THAN THOSE SOUTH OF THE BORDER when staff are under unprecedented pressure and working flat out to cope with the increasing demand on services. And with health boards desperately trying to meet targets and balance their books, the pressures on staff are only to set to increase.’ Earlier this month, unions in England voted to accept a 1 per cent rise for staff offered by the government at the end of January – just days before a planned 12-hour pay strike.
‘GOOD CARE GUIDE’ INVITES FEEDBACK FROM RELATIVES
A website allowing residents and relatives to rate care homes in Gwent, south Wales, went live this week. The site, Think about me: the Good Care Guide, aims to make it easier for families to find suitable homes online. It also enables providers to respond to feedback. Nurse Tanya Strange of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, who set up the partnership with the care industry website the Good Care Guide, said the site would improve standards and ‘help celebrate the excellent and hard work that goes on in care homes’. Ms Strange said: ‘Relatives told us that they wanted to look online – not at inspection reports or marketing, but at feedback from the people who live there.’ Care Forum Wales policy adviser Melanie Minty said: ‘We would like to see that people can give fair and honest feedback – not just negative feedback. We want to celebrate what is done well.’ Go to www.goodcareguide.co.uk
Intensive intervention for teenage mothers widened Announcing the city-wide introduction of the service, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘It is one of the best investments we can make as a society – we give young mothers the support they need, we help children to get the best possible start in life, and we reduce public spending further down the line because we have better health, education and employment outcomes.’ NHS Lothian executive nurse director Melanie Johnson said: ‘The service began as a pilot in January 2010 and has gone from strength to strength.’ RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said these partnerships ‘have the potential to make
a real difference to people’s lives’ and to reduce long-term spending by the NHS and other agencies. Ms Sturgeon said: ‘It is five years since the family nurse partnership pilot project was established in Lothian. It has been such a success that it now operates in seven other health board areas across the country and will be established in two more – Grampion and Borders – over the summer.’ Ms Johnson added: ‘We are proud in NHS Lothian that Edinburgh has become the first city on the world to offer care to every client who required it under the Family Nurse Partnership.’ ISTOCK
Every first-time teenage mother in Edinburgh will be offered intensive support from a nurse, under an extension of a family nurse partnership programme. The city is the first in the world to make such a programme universally available to new mothers aged 19 or under. Developed in the United States, it involves nurses working with young mothers from early pregnancy until their children are two years old, helping them to build their skills as parents and to consider their plans for the future. Research has shown improved early language development and academic achievement in children whose mothers have had support from the family nurse partnership programme. The children are also less likely to be neglected or abused and more likely to spend time with their fathers.
8 march 18 :: volfrom 29 RCNi.com no 29 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
PAY INCREASE FOR SCOTLAND’S NHS STAFF PUTS THEM AHEAD OF OTHERS IN UK Nurses in Scotland will receive a 1 per cent consolidated pay rise in April after the government accepted the recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body. Announcing the rise, heath minister Shona Robison said: ‘Our hardworking and dedicated NHS Scotland staff will rightly receive the wage increases they were promised. ‘While the uplift is modest, it comes against the background of substantial cuts in Scotland’s budget from Westminster, and will continue to give NHS staff in Scotland a better deal than their counterparts south of the border.’ Scotland was the only one of the four UK countries to accept the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendation on pay for 2014/15 that all staff got a 1 per cent cost of living rise. It was also the only country to ask the body to make recommendations for 2015/16. This means the starting salary for a band 5 nurse in Scotland from April will be £21,818, while in England and
Wales it will be £21,692. A decision on pay for 2015/16 has not yet been made in Northern Ireland. RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: ‘We are committed to the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which has recommended a 1 per cent pay rise for all NHS staff. This modest pay rise, however, comes at a time
THIS UPLIFT GIVES STAFF A BETTER DEAL THAN THOSE SOUTH OF THE BORDER when staff are under unprecedented pressure and working flat out to cope with the increasing demand on services. And with health boards desperately trying to meet targets and balance their books, the pressures on staff are only to set to increase.’ Earlier this month, unions in England voted to accept a 1 per cent rise for staff offered by the government at the end of January – just days before a planned 12-hour pay strike.
‘GOOD CARE GUIDE’ INVITES FEEDBACK FROM RELATIVES
A website allowing residents and relatives to rate care homes in Gwent, south Wales, went live this week. The site, Think about me: the Good Care Guide, aims to make it easier for families to find suitable homes online. It also enables providers to respond to feedback. Nurse Tanya Strange of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, who set up the partnership with the care industry website the Good Care Guide, said the site would improve standards and ‘help celebrate the excellent and hard work that goes on in care homes’. Ms Strange said: ‘Relatives told us that they wanted to look online – not at inspection reports or marketing, but at feedback from the people who live there.’ Care Forum Wales policy adviser Melanie Minty said: ‘We would like to see that people can give fair and honest feedback – not just negative feedback. We want to celebrate what is done well.’ Go to www.goodcareguide.co.uk
Intensive intervention for teenage mothers widened Announcing the city-wide introduction of the service, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘It is one of the best investments we can make as a society – we give young mothers the support they need, we help children to get the best possible start in life, and we reduce public spending further down the line because we have better health, education and employment outcomes.’ NHS Lothian executive nurse director Melanie Johnson said: ‘The service began as a pilot in January 2010 and has gone from strength to strength.’ RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said these partnerships ‘have the potential to make
a real difference to people’s lives’ and to reduce long-term spending by the NHS and other agencies. Ms Sturgeon said: ‘It is five years since the family nurse partnership pilot project was established in Lothian. It has been such a success that it now operates in seven other health board areas across the country and will be established in two more – Grampion and Borders – over the summer.’ Ms Johnson added: ‘We are proud in NHS Lothian that Edinburgh has become the first city on the world to offer care to every client who required it under the Family Nurse Partnership.’ ISTOCK
Every first-time teenage mother in Edinburgh will be offered intensive support from a nurse, under an extension of a family nurse partnership programme. The city is the first in the world to make such a programme universally available to new mothers aged 19 or under. Developed in the United States, it involves nurses working with young mothers from early pregnancy until their children are two years old, helping them to build their skills as parents and to consider their plans for the future. Research has shown improved early language development and academic achievement in children whose mothers have had support from the family nurse partnership programme. The children are also less likely to be neglected or abused and more likely to spend time with their fathers.
8 march 18 :: volfrom 29 RCNi.com no 29 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 25, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
