NEWS
RCN LAUNCHES PRE-ELECTION MANIFESTO AND URGES NURSES TO GET INVOLVED Vote, vote, vote. That is the message from the RCN, which this week launched its manifesto in the run-up to May’s general election. The college is calling on nurses to promote its manifesto Nursing Counts, and is urging members to find out what their parliamentary candidates’ views are on key nursing issues, including safe staffing and pay.
Three priorities
Using the college’s campaign website RCN members can type in their postcode to access a list of candidates in their area. A template letter is available, which can be emailed to the candidates asking for their views on the three manifesto priorities. The three priorities are: improve patient care, which includes a commitment to safe staffing; value nursing, which includes giving nurses fair pay; and investment in health and care, which includes a commitment to halt cuts to the nursing workforce.
RCN parliamentary officer Will Hardy said members were surveyed last year, asking what they would like the college to focus on in its manifesto, and this generated more than 10,000 responses. RCN president Cecilia Anim said: ‘Nurses are used to making do with less, but if there is one thing we are not short of in the run up to the general election it is opinions on how health should be run. ‘With the nursing workforce accounting for more than 1,000 members in every constituency, I am ready to turn the tables and tell our future MPs what I want. And if you join me, we will be able to have the impact that nursing deserves.’ She added: ‘The Nursing Counts manifesto sets out the priorities for health care that RCN members selected. We all need to take action to ensure candidates across the UK understand the benefits of valuing nursing.’ Go to www.rcn.org.uk/votingcounts
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW NURSING CODE OF CONDUCT
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has published a revised code of conduct setting out professional standards for nurses and midwives. The new code, which replaces the 2008 version, will be sent to the 670,000 nurses and midwives on the regulator’s register. It is shaped around four statements – that good nurses and midwives will prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust. The code includes standards on a professional duty of candour, delivering care based on the best evidence available, fundamentals of care and the use of social media. NMC chief executive Jackie Smith said: ‘It will put patients at the heart of practice and will help us to protect the public better.’ The new code comes into effect on March 31 and can be downloaded at tinyurl.com/nkxss3g
Labour has pledged to ‘call time on the Tory market experiment in the NHS’ and repeal the Health and Social Care Act if it wins May’s general election. Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham made the promise as he unveiled his party’s ten-year plan for a new, fully integrated national health and care service ‘based on people and not profits’. ‘If we allow market forces to continue to take hold, they will eventually break the NHS apart,’ he said. But he pledged not to ‘drop change on NHS staff from a great height’, but work with them so the service could evolve and a different culture for staff to work in could be created. In a speech at the King’s Fund, Mr Burnham said his vision was a product of wide consultation with professionals, patients and the public. It was based on ‘the simple notion that if we start in the home and make care personal to each
NATHAN CLARKE
Labour promises to end market forces in NHS
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham
family, it is more likely to work for them and cost less for everyone’. He said his proposals were a response to the Francis report on the failings at Mid Staffs. ‘Francis laid bare the danger of… a hospital-based, production-line model of care that is not sufficiently person-centred, and where social and mental needs are frequently neglected.’
For people at greatest risk of ending up in hospital, Labour would implement a ‘Year of Care’ payment system, covering all of their care needs, replacing the current activity tariff. Burnham claimed that ‘at a stroke’ this would switch the incentive from treating in a hospital to preventive support at home. ‘It will mean giving people quality time rather than flying 15-minute visits.’ There would still be a role for the voluntary and private sector, but that would be a supporting – not replacement – role. Meanwhile, an extra £2.5 billion from the Time to Care fund will be used to build ‘a workforce of the future, trained to work differently’, including extra nurses recruited from social care staff. A new route to nursing will also be created through an ‘apprenticeship and technical degree’. See analysis pages 14-15
8 february 4 :: vol 29RCNi.com no 23 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded from by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 07, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
RCN LAUNCHES PRE-ELECTION MANIFESTO AND URGES NURSES TO GET INVOLVED Vote, vote, vote. That is the message from the RCN, which this week launched its manifesto in the run-up to May’s general election. The college is calling on nurses to promote its manifesto Nursing Counts, and is urging members to find out what their parliamentary candidates’ views are on key nursing issues, including safe staffing and pay.
Three priorities
Using the college’s campaign website RCN members can type in their postcode to access a list of candidates in their area. A template letter is available, which can be emailed to the candidates asking for their views on the three manifesto priorities. The three priorities are: improve patient care, which includes a commitment to safe staffing; value nursing, which includes giving nurses fair pay; and investment in health and care, which includes a commitment to halt cuts to the nursing workforce.
RCN parliamentary officer Will Hardy said members were surveyed last year, asking what they would like the college to focus on in its manifesto, and this generated more than 10,000 responses. RCN president Cecilia Anim said: ‘Nurses are used to making do with less, but if there is one thing we are not short of in the run up to the general election it is opinions on how health should be run. ‘With the nursing workforce accounting for more than 1,000 members in every constituency, I am ready to turn the tables and tell our future MPs what I want. And if you join me, we will be able to have the impact that nursing deserves.’ She added: ‘The Nursing Counts manifesto sets out the priorities for health care that RCN members selected. We all need to take action to ensure candidates across the UK understand the benefits of valuing nursing.’ Go to www.rcn.org.uk/votingcounts
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW NURSING CODE OF CONDUCT
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has published a revised code of conduct setting out professional standards for nurses and midwives. The new code, which replaces the 2008 version, will be sent to the 670,000 nurses and midwives on the regulator’s register. It is shaped around four statements – that good nurses and midwives will prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust. The code includes standards on a professional duty of candour, delivering care based on the best evidence available, fundamentals of care and the use of social media. NMC chief executive Jackie Smith said: ‘It will put patients at the heart of practice and will help us to protect the public better.’ The new code comes into effect on March 31 and can be downloaded at tinyurl.com/nkxss3g
Labour has pledged to ‘call time on the Tory market experiment in the NHS’ and repeal the Health and Social Care Act if it wins May’s general election. Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham made the promise as he unveiled his party’s ten-year plan for a new, fully integrated national health and care service ‘based on people and not profits’. ‘If we allow market forces to continue to take hold, they will eventually break the NHS apart,’ he said. But he pledged not to ‘drop change on NHS staff from a great height’, but work with them so the service could evolve and a different culture for staff to work in could be created. In a speech at the King’s Fund, Mr Burnham said his vision was a product of wide consultation with professionals, patients and the public. It was based on ‘the simple notion that if we start in the home and make care personal to each
NATHAN CLARKE
Labour promises to end market forces in NHS
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham
family, it is more likely to work for them and cost less for everyone’. He said his proposals were a response to the Francis report on the failings at Mid Staffs. ‘Francis laid bare the danger of… a hospital-based, production-line model of care that is not sufficiently person-centred, and where social and mental needs are frequently neglected.’
For people at greatest risk of ending up in hospital, Labour would implement a ‘Year of Care’ payment system, covering all of their care needs, replacing the current activity tariff. Burnham claimed that ‘at a stroke’ this would switch the incentive from treating in a hospital to preventive support at home. ‘It will mean giving people quality time rather than flying 15-minute visits.’ There would still be a role for the voluntary and private sector, but that would be a supporting – not replacement – role. Meanwhile, an extra £2.5 billion from the Time to Care fund will be used to build ‘a workforce of the future, trained to work differently’, including extra nurses recruited from social care staff. A new route to nursing will also be created through an ‘apprenticeship and technical degree’. See analysis pages 14-15
8 february 4 :: vol 29RCNi.com no 23 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded from by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 07, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
