Responding to the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto, RCN Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“Nursing staff want firm commitments to turn around the crisis in health and care but this manifesto stops short of providing them.
“Recruiting and retaining more nurses is urgent, but recommitting to old targets in rhetoric is not enough [NOTE 1]. The Long-term Workforce Plan is falling way behind after only a year - it needs fresh investment and impetus [NOTE 2].
“There was no mention of this year’s NHS pay award, which is three months late, nor an intervention to stabilise higher education and boost numbers joining the profession. Nursing staff were looking for commitments to government-funded nursing degrees and job guarantees for graduates. They will fear tax cuts will be paid for by cuts to jobs or cuts to services.
“A legal cap on migration, whilst nursing vacancies remain in their tens of thousands and domestic applications into the profession plummet, is a road to nowhere and could further threaten the safe staffing of health and care services. Potentially subjecting migrant health and care staff to health checks is an extension of hostile immigration policy and wrong in the extreme.
“This manifesto, far from boosting recruitment into the workforce, proposes cutting NHS managers and looks set to include nurses responsible for service delivery. All the while doubling down on anti-trade union legislation which silences NHS staff from standing up for their patients.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
NOTE 1 - The Long Term Workforce Plan, launched in 2023, includes modelling which exceeds 92k additional nurses between 2027 and 2031. The target is not new and analysis shows both the low and high estimates will have reached 92k additional nurses by the end of this Parliament.
NOTE 2 - The RCN has modelled the levels of applications and acceptances to undergraduate nursing degree courses needed in order to produce the level of workforce growth set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Each year from 2024 to 2031, the number of applicants needs to grow by an average of 4,466 (11%), and the number of acceptances by 2,330 (10.4%) each year.
From 2020-2023, the number of acceptances declined by an average of 6.7% each year. If these trends were to continue, the acceptances in 2024 would be 18,809, and in 2025 they would be 17,549.
Compared to RCN projections about the number of acceptances needed each year to stay on track with the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2024: 22,490, 2025: 24,820), the shortfall is 10,952.
NOTE 3 - At the RCN’s annual Congress last week, the College set out its RCN UK General Election Manifesto 2024.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interests of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.
For more information, contact the RCN press office at 020 7647 3633 or email mediateamhq@rcn.org.uk
