'I'm worth more than £16 an hour': how to make job evaluation work for you

After taking early retirement from her ward manager post, Helen McGarry, an experienced intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, decided to go back to doing what she loved – nursing on the ward. She returned to Southern Health and Social Care Trust in Craigavon, Northern Ireland as a staff nurse on a 16-hour-a-week contract in 2016.

“I missed being a ward nurse; the patients, my colleagues, using my skills,” says Helen. “I went back on a temporary band 5 contract, but once in the role, it was clear I was doing the work of a band 6.”

After COVID, I felt very undervalued

Nursing colleagues and consultants sought out Helen’s extensive ICU experience. “I was often asked to give an update on a patient or offer advice to other nursing staff,” she says. “I’m used to being autonomous and making decisions, checking endotracheal tubes and ventilators and asking the right questions about a person’s care. It’s natural for me to take the lead and be confident, but I knew I wasn’t being paid for the work I was doing. The band 5 role I was being paid to do had evolved and moved on.”

Helen continued with her Agenda for Change contract, but asked her manager about moving the role to a band 6. “I really love my job and it suits my life, so I was happy with my hours and didn’t want to do extra, but felt at the time that was my only option,” says Helen.

• Read next: Am I in the correct band?

“Friends would tell me to join an agency and even though it would have been more money, I wanted to stay in my unit, I didn’t want to be placed anywhere else.”

But then something catastrophic hit not just the NHS, but the whole world – the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had enough staff for our 8-bedded unit, but in addition, we opened a recovery unit for an extra 16 COVID-19 patients,” says Helen.

“I worked throughout those early weeks of the pandemic in 2020, supporting and training new staff from outside the ICU. I was given a temporary uplift to a band 6, but after 2 years of working during one of the toughest times of my career, I went back to band 5. I was back to £16 an hour and felt very undervalued.”

We were all experienced nurses and we felt aggrieved

At the start of 2023, Helen contacted the RCN. David McKerr, an RCN officer for job evaluation, advised there was already a group from the ICU going through the job evaluation process at the trust. He suggested Helen join the cohort and set up a meeting with ICU managers to see what could be done.

“We were all experienced nurses and we felt aggrieved,” Helen added.

Working in partnership with other unions for around 60 staff working at the trust, David built a case for Helen and her RCN colleagues. Helen kept a journal detailing all her work that went beyond band 5. “That was important as it showed how I was advising other nursing staff,” she says.

“Since COVID-19 the skill-mix on the ward was diluted, a lot of nurses left, so we had nurses who weren’t as confident or didn’t have the same autonomy.”

The RCN eventually secured an uplift to band 6 for 13 members working in the ICU. Some were awarded several thousand pounds dating back to 2013.

Talk to the RCN... we can’t afford to be losing experienced staff

“The morning David rang me in my tea break to tell me what had been agreed, I skipped back into the ward,” says Helen. “Everyone was so pleased for me.”

If you think you’re performing duties above your official pay band, don’t be disheartened, Helen says: “Talk to the RCN, especially if you’ve come back to work after a career break like I did. And keep a record of all the tasks you’re doing. We can’t afford to be losing experienced staff by not paying them fairly.”