North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson has met with Lynn Batson and Debs Brown, local representatives from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), to receive an update on the organisation’s work and discuss the issues most important to nurses in the town.
The meeting came shortly after the Government announcement of a new long-term funding settlement, which will see an annual increases of £20.5bn in real terms by 2023/24.
The RCN Representatives highlighted the Training Nurse Associate course, one of the routes into nursing, which has seen some people moving from the care sector and casing a recruitment issue there. Justin agreed to take this up with the Minister, to find out what research is being done on the background of those taking up the opportunity, and whether this would be problematic for the care sector.
Also under discussion were topics including nurses pay, routes into nursing, as well as recruiting & training nurses.
Justin was able to set out the Government's work in this area, including that:
- Under a new deal, nurses will get at least 3% more in their basic monthly salary
- A newly qualified nurse will receive a starting pay rise 12.6% higher in 2020-2021
- Basic pay will increase over the next three years by 22%
- There are 3,200 more EU/EEA staff in the NHS than in June 2016
- No clinician who is an EU/EEA national will be asked to leave post-Brexit
- The cap on non-EU/EEA NHS staff is to be lifted
- There are plans to increase nursing, midwifery and allied health pre-registration training positions by up to 10,000 by 2020
- Since May 2010 the number of nurses and health visitors has increased over 14,000, with an additional 52,000 in training
Justin Tomlinson MP said: “It was very useful and informative to meet with Lynn and Debs. It is important to understand the issues facing nursing in my constituency, and more generally in the UK. Nurses play a vital role in our NHS. Recruiting and retaining talented nurses should be an absolute priority, and I am keen to understand the best ways this can be achieved.”
