How the RCN can support your business

We provide professional leadership, employment expertise, education, training and support for our members and their health and social care employers. We also have relationships with professional and care quality regulators, and active political influence in the UK, Europe and internationally.

Our aim is to work with employers to enable and assist our members in providing expert standards of care and assist you in delivering a safe health and care business.

Our priority is to work closely with employers to improve standards of nursing care and the working environment.

There are many benefits to working with us. Over 30% of our members are employed in independent health and social care and this percentage is growing. Therefore, we understand what is important to your staff and the support they need. Furthermore, we understand your business, your issues and your motivations and we can help you to achieve your business objectives and quality care outcomes.

In times of economic pressues and seeking business growth, we recognise that your best asset is a well-motivated, loyal and professional nursing and care workforce. Being able to retain their skills and commitment has a direct impact on the success of your business. We know it is important for you to recruit and grow the right calibre of staff and we can support you in this.

As a professional trade union, our approach is one of learning and development, professional advice, joint problem solving, reducing conflict and valuing each other.

We have working relations with many employers through recognition agreements across all sectors, where we make positive change by offering bespoke, flexible arrangements to meet your needs.

We understand the special demands on health and care business, and whilst we do not seek to be involved in your business decision making, we can assist with your business performance.

Research shows that support for learning and development enhances productivity and improves organisational performance.

We are committed to advancing and delivering evidence-based practice, a key benefit of working with us. Our training and education is considered to be excellent quality, academically robust and can make a real difference in the workplace. Care providers face tight regulatory scrutiny and our training and education is recognised as evidence towards meeting professional care quality standards. We also provide advice to employers and support to registered nursing staff to meet their NMC professional revalidation requirements. 

We offer bespoke training and education opportunities through our professional and consultancy service. This includes leadership programmes for current and aspiring leaders and a cultural ambassador programme. We have resources such as ‘First Steps’ – an introductory online package for care assistants and ‘Care Home Journey’ - an online resource to support the care of older people in care homes. All our resources and services carry our quality endorsement and professional accreditation.

There are many other packages and training sessions we can develop and facilitate, through a network of local RCN learning representatives. These learning representatives are elected by our members. They are trained and mentored by us to support learning needs analysis and help your staff to plan and manage their learning, support the development of a workplace learning strategy and encourage continuing professional development. They will also direct colleagues to appropriate learning opportunities and resources, such as RCN Learn, Library and information services, and the RCN research and development centre.

Our learning representatives can support the development of local workplace learning events or champion direct care improvement matters such as dignity, nutrition, record keeping, accountability and preceptorship of newly recruited staff.

The RCN can assist you in meeting your requirements of health and safety legislation.

We understand the challenges faced by employers to ensure that the health and safety of staff and those they care for, is protected. We can help you to develop and create a positive healthy and safe workplace culture, that promotes wellbeing, reduces the cost of accidents and ill health, lost working days and compensation claims.

The health, safety and wellbeing of your nursing and care workforce is fundamental to the quality of care they provide. RCN health and safety representatives in the workplace understand and champion safe working practices and healthy working environments. Your staff becoming RCN workplace health and safety representatives can support and promote the development of a positive safety culture to benefit all staff, those they care for, and visitors.

Our health and safety representatives are elected RCN members trained and mentored by experienced RCN staff. They are provided with up to date information and resources on a wide range of health and safety matters  affecting health and social care organisations. They encourage others to adhere to health and safety procedures, improvement initiatives such as reducing glove use, and contribute to health and safety risk assessments in the workplace. They are proficient in carrying out safety inspections and can highlight potential hazards and risks in the working environment before they cause injury or ill health to your staff or people they care for. 

RCN health and safety representatives work jointly with you to support the implementation of the RCN’s nursing workforce standards, compliance with health and safety legislation, observing the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999), and the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) or Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.

The quality of our nursing voice is related to the strength and quality of employee relations within organisations and the ability to establish RCNrepresentatives in the workplace.

We have a network of regional officer teams across the United Kingdom who work with employers nationally and managers locally to enhance the working relations that you have with your staff.

As a professional trade union, we can work with you to develop policies and procedures that are appropriate for your entire workforce and will be responsive to the changing demands of your service.

We positively express employee concerns and will work with you to reduce conflict, leading to a more effective use of management and employee time.

We manage the election and accreditation of workplace RCN stewards who are your staff, trained in understanding legislation, managing negotiations and consultations, and will play a key role in disseminating and feeding back information to our members in the workplace.

RCN Stewards, provide the necessary representation to fulfil your legal obligations regarding statutory information and consultation frameworks. They enhance staff engagement, improve communication and help to reduce workplace disputes without the need for costly consultancy services. As a result, you should see an improved sense of staff commitment, resulting in a positive impact on productivity.

RCN stewards are also experts in assisting organisations and members through change and reorganisation, Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE),and redundancy consultation, with a resultant reduction in staff grievances and tribunal claims – which can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds for your business.

We bring a professional and nursing dimension to the workplace.

We can give a louder voice to organisations through a shared platform with arrange of stakeholders, including politicians, on professional and political issues. We have a long history of working with other trade unions at all levels. Our contribution is unique and we can complement any other trade unions that you may already recognise.

Next steps

There is no financial cost to you agreeing to work with us, but you can benefit from the relationship both financially and productively. You will discover that some of your business costs will be reduced through improved efficiency and performance. We will train your staff to become representatives – all you need to ensure is that they are given time away from their workplace to undertake training and workplace representative duties. Our members in the workplace will also be able to access the wide range of products, services, and discounts that are available to all our members.
If you are interested in working together, please contact us to discuss your needs.