Nuffield Trust says nurse pay and career progression plans a step in the right direction

Responding to the government's announcement to improve nurse pay and progression, Nuffield Trust Fellow Lucina Rolewicz said:

“Today’s announcement is a welcome step towards making the NHS a more attractive workplace for nurses. This is urgently needed, as an estimated 1 in 5 NHS nurses leave within the first two years of their career.

“Since 2010, nurse pay has fallen 10.7% in real terms, compared with 6.9% for an average of all workers across the public sector [1], and this will clearly have an impact on nurses’ job satisfaction. But this agreement is absolutely right to recognise that poor nurse retention has always been about a combination of factors, not just pay. A lack of career progression has been a key reason nurses leave the NHS, and we have long called for measures to address this, so the government is right to focus on this now.

“The stumbling block for these plans may be tight NHS finances. Without additional funding to cover faster promotion, and given that the government is having to deal with similar issues in other parts of the NHS workforce too, it will not be easy to suddenly boost the number of Band 5 nurses progressing into more senior roles.”