Dear Mayoral Candidate
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) represents over 60,000 members across the North West with the vast majority of those members working in NHS Hospital Trusts as well as the independent sector and GP surgeries as well as student members who attend universities across the region.
I am openly writing to you today to ask for you, as a candidate and a potential mayor for our region, that you actively champion those working in nursing and health care roles.
Nursing staff work in hospitals and care homes, out in the community and in the criminal justice system to provide vulnerable groups to provide vital care to patients and help tackle health inequalities. However, having read your manifesto, I do not explicitly see that public sector workers in the NHS are an individual priority for you but from reading, I also see that you care deeply for your community and want those living and working within it to receive a fair wage to enable them to afford to live and be prosperous.
This is where we need your ongoing support.
Whilst nursing staff are working hard to continue to keep our community safe, mounting pressures in health and care services are making everything a relentless battle for them. Chronic staff shortages, rising waiting lists, and the increasing incidence of violence and aggression towards staff are pushing many in the nursing profession to the brink.
Nursing staff train for three years to degree level often coming out of their studies £50k in debt. After entering the workforce at a reasonable graduate salary, they plateau after 5 years, and other professions take over in terms of average earnings.
The current cost of living crisis has had a detrimental impact on our communities. A survey conducted by the RCN earlier this year found that four in five (80%) respondents said that they are financially worse off compared to 12 months ago. This is higher than the average calculated for England, which was 77%.
Moreover, around one in four (26%) of respondents said that they are struggling with living costs and increasingly worried about their financial situation with only 9% of respondents saying that within the last 12 months they have been able to manage their finances without difficulty.
Most worryingly, over half of the respondents (52%) said that they are very likely or somewhat likely to leave a career in nursing altogether within the next 5 years. Of those 72% are under the age of 55 years old.
Despite nursing being a highly skilled, degree-educated, safety-critical profession, poor pay and soaring living costs are forcing staff to leave nursing at a time when we need them more than ever. While the Mayor has no direct powers or responsibility for nurse recruitment and retention, they do have important levers that directly affect local policies.
When asked what would help respondents the most with the cost of living, the most popular response was increased pay, followed by discounted travel tied to employment and then reduced car parking charges.
As a next potential Mayor we ask you to commit to:
- Publicly support the RCN’s campaign Fair Pay For Nursing: poor pay and working conditions are forcing staff to leave nursing at a time. We ask for the next Mayor to be a vocal supporter of Fair Pay For Nursing to attract and retain nursing staff. Using your influence over transport and local policies to campaign for discounted or free travel to support staff to use public transport or to reduce parking costs.
- Advocate for increasing nurse staffing levels to ensure safe and effective care for patients: safe staffing means having enough nursing staff with the right skills and knowledge, in the right place, at the right time. Currently, our NHS has over4,000 vacant nursing posts in our region alone, as well as thousands of unoccupied posts in social care. This shortage of staff results in essential care tasks being left undone, and leaves patients waiting longer for treatment.
- Take urgent action to protect nursing staff from acts of violence and aggression. The recent NHS staff survey published in the last few months shows a sharp rise in this area. For the first time sexual assaults were recorded. Around one in ten registered nurses and midwives in the region said that they have been the target of unwanted sexual behaviour from patients / service users, their relatives or other members of the public. 10.4% said there was at least one occasion where they were affected by this with 17.1% of nursing and healthcare assistants saying the same. Every nursing staff member deserves to feel safe and secure in their workplace.
We wish you success in your campaign and hope the region’s nursing community can count on your support if you are elected.
Yours sincerely,
Carmel O’Boyle
Chair of the RCN NW Regional Board
Estephanie Dunn
RCN NW Regional Director
