Minister promises better conditions for nurses but stresses GP responsibility

Care minister Stephen Kinnock has said the government’s 10-year workforce plan, due to be published later this year, will aim to ensure that nurses are ‘better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future’.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Edward Morello, Liberal Democrat MP for West Dorset on improving employment conditions for practice nurses, Mr Kinnock reiterated the government was committed to ensuring that the general practice nursing workforce is ‘sustainable, supported, and valued’.

He pointed to the recently published 10-year health plan, which he said ‘recognised and illustrated’ that ‘good staff experience is crucial in ensuring that the National Health Service is able to recruit and retain staff’.

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‘Later this year we will publish a 10-Year Workforce Plan which will ensure that staff will be better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future, so they can achieve more,’ said Mr Kinnock.

However, Mr Kinnock also echoed a previous statement emphasising that GPs are self-employed contractors to the NHS and are responsible for how they pay and manage their staff, including practice nurses.

‘GP contractual arrangements do not place any specific obligations on GPs with regard to GP nurse terms and conditions,’ he said.

‘As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is up to GPs how they distribute pay and benefits to their staff.’

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In October, the government unveiled its recommendation for a 2.5% pay rise for nurses working in general practice and in the NHS for the next financial year.

Mr Kinnock said that a letter had been sent to practices earlier this year recommending they pass on additional funding to uplift pay for salaried staff.

The latest statement from the minister comes as the wellbeing and working conditions for primary care nurses are increasingly under the spotlight.

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Recent research from the Royal College of Nursing found that nurses across the UK are working while unwell, taking on heavy unpaid overtime and caring for an unmanageable number of residents.

Earlier this year at a Nursing in Practice conference, a number of concerns were raised regarding the inconsistent approach to pay for general practice nurses.