ANALYSIS
Unions put the financial pressures facing nurses in the spotlight As staff continue to shoulder the burden of pay restraint and rising registration fees, Unite and the RCN look to employers for help, writes Alistair Kleebauer NHS employers should contribute to the Nursing and Midwifery Council registration fee as nurses continue to feel the pinch, the union Unite plans to tell the NHS Pay Review Body. The union will submit proposals by the autumn to the review body (RB) as part of the annual round of submissions concerning a pay deal for NHS staff. Unite will call for contributions to the registration fee for nurses, which has risen from £76 to £120 since 2012. Its national officer for health Barrie Brown says the union has argued for concessions relating to the fee in the past and ‘certainly will do so again’. More could be done by NHS employers to alleviate the financial burden, he says, particularly given that nurses have previously received assistance with professional fees. As part of the pay deal for NHS staff from 2007 to 2010, those earning between £20,225 and £44,000 received a £38 contribution to the fee annually.
Financial pressures
‘The point is a precedent has been set,’ says Mr Brown, adding that some private sector employers make similar contributions for nurse employees. The RCN will also address the financial pressures on nurses at its congress in June, with a debate about the ways employers can relieve the burden on staff. A matter for discussion submitted by the college’s south Birmingham branch calls on RCN congress to consider the contribution employers could make towards nurses’ professional fees, following pay awards that fell below inflation.
Care home operator Akari Care has announced that it will pay the full registration fee for its 200 nurses and any new starters as part of an improved employment package. Managing director Lynn Fearn says: ‘All nurses have their own pressures and finding that payment every year is a challenge for some. We are trying to show that we support our nurses and we value their contribution.’ It will also provide £1,000 every two years for continuing professional development costs, such as travel to seminars, to help staff meet the
IF THE NMC WOULD ALLOW US TO PAY BY MONTHLY DIRECT DEBIT IT WOULD MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE requirements of the revalidation process to be launched in October. There are also precedents for help with fees in other professions. An investigation by the online publication Community Care in 2013 revealed that social workers in about one third of UK local authorities had their Health and Care Professions Council registration fee reimbursed by their employer. The council does not have details of the number of employers that cover fees for their staff, but says it does allow individuals to pay in instalments and new UK graduates get a 50% discount in their first two years. Mr Brown believes NHS employers should be helping nurses with the registration fee because practising nurses have no choice but to pay the fee and it has risen sharply.
‘They are required by law and by their contract to be registered,’ he says. ‘As it is required, that should be reflected in what they get from their employer or from the NHS.’ The union submission, to be made on behalf of its members across the UK, is being drawn up against a backdrop of financial blows for the profession.
Job satisfaction
Nurses have not been awarded an above-inflation pay rise since 2009, and endured a pay freeze from 2011 to 2013. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection of the RB’s recommended 1% pay increase for all NHS staff in 2014/15 compounded the situation. Following strike action by nursing staff last year, the government was forced to negotiate a 1% pay rise in 2015/16 for nurses earning up to £56,504. Mr Brown says: ‘If you look at the NHS staff survey last month, the biggest drop in satisfaction for staff – by 5% – was over pay. ‘You rarely see any movement of 5% – it is 1% here or there.’ The survey shows that one third of staff were satisfied with their level of pay in 2014, down from 38% in 2013. The RCN says nurses are struggling to meet even their essential outgoings and it is rare for them to have a savings ‘safety-net’ to cope with unforeseen circumstances. In a briefing note for a parliamentary debate on the importance of NHS staff joining credit unions, led by Labour MP Gareth Thomas in November last year, the college said nurses are often forced to turn to payday loans or unauthorised overdrafts.
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ANALYSIS
contribution to the running costs of its own regulator, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). From August, healthcare regulators will be expected to foot this bill, and the NMC will have to pay the biggest share as it has the largest register.
DANIEL MITCHELL
Another fee rise?
The RCN said the fall in nursing pay, which puts it at least 10% behind inflation since 2010, along with increased expenses for pension contributions and NMC registration fees, has a significant effect on nurses. In 2014, there was a 20% increase in applications to the RCN Foundation’s benevolent fund, compared with 2012, and an increase in the average grant to £600, from £422 in 2012.
Nurses also fear their unsocial hours payments could soon be under threat, after health minister Dan Poulter asked the RB in August last year to explore options for the payments, including scrapping them altogether. In light of these financial demands, it is no surprise that the rise in the NMC fee has been less than popular. But it may soon cost nurses even more than £120 a year, because the NMC now needs to meet a £1.7 million
NMC chief executive Jackie Smith said she was ‘deeply troubled’ by plans to have the regulators pay for the PSA and warned the NMC may have to raise the fee for its 680,000 registrants again. One nurse told Nursing Standard via Facebook that the £120 fee is already ‘a huge chunk of money out of a monthly wage’, adding that ‘if the NMC would allow us to pay by monthly direct debit rather than yearly it would make a huge difference.’ Another says her employer – Guernsey Health and Social Services Department – covers her fee. ‘It is important that we are supported in paying it, as £120 is a lot of money annually,’ she says. According to the NMC, employer payment of the fee is rare and tends to involve small independent providers, or sometimes school nurses. An NMC spokesperson says the regulator is required to spend 77% of its income on fitness to practise cases and can reduce its costs only through legislative changes, which it has been calling for. The spokesperson adds: ‘We are taking measures to make paying the fee more manageable. ‘From 2016, nurses and midwives will be able to pay it in instalments over the course of a year. ‘In addition, nurses and midwives who are basic-rate UK taxpayers can claim tax relief on their fee via HM Revenue & Customs.’ There are as yet no fixed dates for the 2016/17 pay round, but interested parties, including unions, will have until September or October to submit evidence on pay. The RB is expected to make its recommendations by February or March next year NS
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Unions put the financial pressures facing nurses in the spotlight As staff continue to shoulder the burden of pay restraint and rising registration fees, Unite and the RCN look to employers for help, writes Alistair Kleebauer NHS employers should contribute to the Nursing and Midwifery Council registration fee as nurses continue to feel the pinch, the union Unite plans to tell the NHS Pay Review Body. The union will submit proposals by the autumn to the review body (RB) as part of the annual round of submissions concerning a pay deal for NHS staff. Unite will call for contributions to the registration fee for nurses, which has risen from £76 to £120 since 2012. Its national officer for health Barrie Brown says the union has argued for concessions relating to the fee in the past and ‘certainly will do so again’. More could be done by NHS employers to alleviate the financial burden, he says, particularly given that nurses have previously received assistance with professional fees. As part of the pay deal for NHS staff from 2007 to 2010, those earning between £20,225 and £44,000 received a £38 contribution to the fee annually.
Financial pressures
‘The point is a precedent has been set,’ says Mr Brown, adding that some private sector employers make similar contributions for nurse employees. The RCN will also address the financial pressures on nurses at its congress in June, with a debate about the ways employers can relieve the burden on staff. A matter for discussion submitted by the college’s south Birmingham branch calls on RCN congress to consider the contribution employers could make towards nurses’ professional fees, following pay awards that fell below inflation.
Care home operator Akari Care has announced that it will pay the full registration fee for its 200 nurses and any new starters as part of an improved employment package. Managing director Lynn Fearn says: ‘All nurses have their own pressures and finding that payment every year is a challenge for some. We are trying to show that we support our nurses and we value their contribution.’ It will also provide £1,000 every two years for continuing professional development costs, such as travel to seminars, to help staff meet the
IF THE NMC WOULD ALLOW US TO PAY BY MONTHLY DIRECT DEBIT IT WOULD MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE requirements of the revalidation process to be launched in October. There are also precedents for help with fees in other professions. An investigation by the online publication Community Care in 2013 revealed that social workers in about one third of UK local authorities had their Health and Care Professions Council registration fee reimbursed by their employer. The council does not have details of the number of employers that cover fees for their staff, but says it does allow individuals to pay in instalments and new UK graduates get a 50% discount in their first two years. Mr Brown believes NHS employers should be helping nurses with the registration fee because practising nurses have no choice but to pay the fee and it has risen sharply.
‘They are required by law and by their contract to be registered,’ he says. ‘As it is required, that should be reflected in what they get from their employer or from the NHS.’ The union submission, to be made on behalf of its members across the UK, is being drawn up against a backdrop of financial blows for the profession.
Job satisfaction
Nurses have not been awarded an above-inflation pay rise since 2009, and endured a pay freeze from 2011 to 2013. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection of the RB’s recommended 1% pay increase for all NHS staff in 2014/15 compounded the situation. Following strike action by nursing staff last year, the government was forced to negotiate a 1% pay rise in 2015/16 for nurses earning up to £56,504. Mr Brown says: ‘If you look at the NHS staff survey last month, the biggest drop in satisfaction for staff – by 5% – was over pay. ‘You rarely see any movement of 5% – it is 1% here or there.’ The survey shows that one third of staff were satisfied with their level of pay in 2014, down from 38% in 2013. The RCN says nurses are struggling to meet even their essential outgoings and it is rare for them to have a savings ‘safety-net’ to cope with unforeseen circumstances. In a briefing note for a parliamentary debate on the importance of NHS staff joining credit unions, led by Labour MP Gareth Thomas in November last year, the college said nurses are often forced to turn to payday loans or unauthorised overdrafts.
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ANALYSIS
contribution to the running costs of its own regulator, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). From August, healthcare regulators will be expected to foot this bill, and the NMC will have to pay the biggest share as it has the largest register.
DANIEL MITCHELL
Another fee rise?
The RCN said the fall in nursing pay, which puts it at least 10% behind inflation since 2010, along with increased expenses for pension contributions and NMC registration fees, has a significant effect on nurses. In 2014, there was a 20% increase in applications to the RCN Foundation’s benevolent fund, compared with 2012, and an increase in the average grant to £600, from £422 in 2012.
Nurses also fear their unsocial hours payments could soon be under threat, after health minister Dan Poulter asked the RB in August last year to explore options for the payments, including scrapping them altogether. In light of these financial demands, it is no surprise that the rise in the NMC fee has been less than popular. But it may soon cost nurses even more than £120 a year, because the NMC now needs to meet a £1.7 million
NMC chief executive Jackie Smith said she was ‘deeply troubled’ by plans to have the regulators pay for the PSA and warned the NMC may have to raise the fee for its 680,000 registrants again. One nurse told Nursing Standard via Facebook that the £120 fee is already ‘a huge chunk of money out of a monthly wage’, adding that ‘if the NMC would allow us to pay by monthly direct debit rather than yearly it would make a huge difference.’ Another says her employer – Guernsey Health and Social Services Department – covers her fee. ‘It is important that we are supported in paying it, as £120 is a lot of money annually,’ she says. According to the NMC, employer payment of the fee is rare and tends to involve small independent providers, or sometimes school nurses. An NMC spokesperson says the regulator is required to spend 77% of its income on fitness to practise cases and can reduce its costs only through legislative changes, which it has been calling for. The spokesperson adds: ‘We are taking measures to make paying the fee more manageable. ‘From 2016, nurses and midwives will be able to pay it in instalments over the course of a year. ‘In addition, nurses and midwives who are basic-rate UK taxpayers can claim tax relief on their fee via HM Revenue & Customs.’ There are as yet no fixed dates for the 2016/17 pay round, but interested parties, including unions, will have until September or October to submit evidence on pay. The RB is expected to make its recommendations by February or March next year NS
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