This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Guaranteed jobs for new nurses
07/12/2001
Every newly qualified nurse will be
guaranteed at least a year's employment in NHSScotland as
part of an Action Plan unveiled today.
The new Plan includes 30 extra commitments
to address long-standing and emerging recruitment and
retention issues, and reflects the common themes discussed
at the Executive's Nursing and Midwifery Convention last
month.
At the Convention, Ministers pledged to invest £1.5m to
help support preliminary recruitment and retention ideas
arising out of the event, including a national recruitment
campaign to run this winter, the creation of a network of
workforce centres, return-to-practice schemes to help
nurses and midwives back to work after a break, and
development of clinical leaders.
Today, following consideration of all the ideas put
forward at the Convention, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm
outlined the further commitments in the new Action Plan.
These include:
- one year's guaranteed employment for all nurses
when they complete their training;
- a development programme for managers to help
deliver flexible working for frontline staff
- nurse cadet schemes and innovative clinical
placements for nurses in training
- exploring partnership working with the private
sector in delivering temporary cover
- a review of the number of students required for
entry to the professions
- proposals for a national databank of nurses, which
can be used throughout the NHS, to fill short-term and
permanent vacancies; and
- creation of 18 more consultant nurse posts in
Scotland
Implementation of these commitments will be overseen by
a new 'Facing the Future' Group, to be chaired by the
Minister himself, together with key stakeholders from the
nursing and midwifery professions, including front-line
staff. This Group will ensure the investment is targeted
where it is most needed and that the Action Plan is
delivered in the months to come.
Unveiling details of the Plan at a nurse leaders meeting
in Edinburgh this morning, Mr Chisholm said:
"The recent Nursing Convention produced some excellent
and exciting ideas on how we can work together across
Scotland to address existing and emerging issues relating
to recruitment and retention within the nursing and
midwifery professions. As a sign of our commitment to those
who attended that event, to existing and future nurses and
midwives, and to NHS patients across Scotland, we pledged
that those ideas would not sit on a shelf. We promised they
would provide the basis for an Action Plan to be launched
by the Executive within two weeks.
"Today, I am delighted to announce details of that Plan.
It will be a working, rather than 'glossy' document,
implemented by a new 'Facing the Future' Implementation
Group, which will be chaired by myself. It will draw
together key stakeholders including frontline nurses,
nursing leaders, professional organisations, unions, and
those involved in nurse education.
"Supported by the £1.5m of extra resources announced at
the Convention, the Plan will have a vital role to play in
converting common ground into concrete reality. It will
also help us ensure that the Nursing Strategy 'Caring for
Scotland' is delivered to a timetable that matches both the
needs of NHS staff and NHS patients.
"One of its key pledges will be to offer one year's
employment, in a supportive NHS environment, to every
newly-qualified nurse in Scotland - a guarantee which I am
confident will be welcomed by student nurses, those who are
considering nursing as a future career, and existing nurses
alike.
"It also commits us to creating workforce centres to
ensure that the current and future shape of the workforce
is clear and based on sound principles and research. The
centres will ensure that integrated workforce planning
covers the whole workforce, that recruitment initiatives
are effective and and that these are evaluated on an
on-going basis. They will also work closely with the new
Special Health Board for NHS Education to ensure supply is
matching demand."
June Andrews, Director of Nursing at Forth Valley NHS
Acute Trust, who took part in the Convention and will be a
member of the Facing the Future Group, said:
"The actions proposed are practical and achievable,
because they were suggested by a range of people including
trades unions, professional organisations, health workers
and managers. The situation is much better in Scotland than
the rest of the UK, but we need to tackle the problems that
face nursing and midwifery now.
"The Action Plan recognises that we need to encourage
qualified nurses and midwives back to work and give them
the flexibility they need. This means tackling a whole
range of issues including career structures, training and
development and the tools for the job. We need to attract
and keep good people in nursing and midwifery in the
interests of patients."
The Executive's
Nursing and Midwifery Recruitment and Retention
Convention was held in Edinburgh on November 19 and was
attended by a broad cross-section of individuals and
organisations from these professions, including nurses, NHS
employers, nursing leaders, those involve in the provision
of nurse training, union leaders and professional
groups.
One of the clear issues to emerge from the Convention
was 'Return-to-Practice' grants schemes, which are an
important strand in removing the barriers that former
nurses face when considering returning to the NHS. The
Scottish Executive has already said it will take forward
'return-to-practice' schemes. This will be done through
pilot schemes during the next three months, which following
evaluation will be rolled out across the country.
The new 'Facing the Future Group' will meet for the
first time in the New Year. Its membership, drawn from the
NHS Scotland, unions and professional organisations, the
Education sector, the Executive and the private sector,
will be announced before the first meeting. The need for
its continued existence will be reviewed after one
year.
The £1.5m of new investment which was announced at the
Convention is on top of the hundreds of millions of pounds
which is already being invested in nursing across Scotland.
As part of the Implementation of the Plan, the Executive
will be seeking to get better value for those resources to
ensure they are used more effectively to tackle recruitment
and retention. For example the Plan will help make more
effective use of bank and agency nurses.