Written by Sam

In the last 5 years especially, health and social care professionals have built a very strong and justified sense of being undervalued here in the UK. As someone who has supported the career interests of health and social care professionals for 12+ years, including hundreds of nurses, I know that all too well. 

 

That our advert has shone a light on that is hopefully a good thing. However, what's interesting about that advert, in particular, is that bar none, it is consistently one of our best performing adverts. Which is confusing. Clearly, it does not appeal to everyone's sense of self. Then again, it must appeal to more people's sense of self than some realise. Still, the thing that really resonated with me about the several hundred tweets referenced in this article, is that undoubtedly, nurses want far more than just adoration, which they definitely deserve. 

 

Hence, it won't surprise your readers to know that I am really pleased about the Health and Social Care Levy news. I think most people are. I also welcome the news that the Levy will be ringfenced in law for Health and Social Care. Personally, I think the levy is ridiculously overdue and I dearly hope it will help more employers offer £18.50 per hour to band 5 nurses, like the one our advert was written for. 

 

However, I do have to tread the middle ground in this job and encourage understanding on both sides of the equation. So, there is an important point to be made aside from the debate about what appeals to nurses and what constitutes a tasteful job ad. I'm afraid that point is, that in the absence of proper funding and controlled labour costs, particularly for Social Care, employers have had little choice but to seek staff based on how amenable they are in general. That attribute has aided their ability to manage through economic reality. Where employers have been unable to manage through economic reality, many have already worked so as to be able to do without nurses. For example by de-registering their care homes from providing nursing care, which I can think of huge examples of, or by training nurse associates/care practitioners. From the perspectives of many nurses who we know, those have been the most worrying trends in the last 5 years. 

 

Hopefully, the levy is enough to reverse some of that. 

 

I would like to thank Nursing Notes for inviting me to comment and hope I can add something meaningful to debates like this in the future. 

 

Kind regards 

 

Sam Sanderson 

Managing Director 

Recruitment Panda Ltd