Join our campaign for safe staffing

In England there is no law related to nurse staffing. 

The RCN is campaigning for legislation to guarantee nurse staffing levels in England across all sectors and settings. 

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The Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016 was the first law of its kind in the UK. It requires health boards to provide sufficient nursing staff so that all patients can receive sensitive care. Section 25B defines the appropriate number of nurses for children's wards and adult medical and surgical wards.

RCN Wales continues to campaign for the extension of Section 25B to new settings, particularly mental health inpatient wards, community nursing, and care homes.

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In June 2019 the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act became law, the first legislation in the UK to set out requirements for safe staffing across both health and social care services.

Implementation has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following sustained pressure from RCN Scotland, the Scottish government has now published a timetable for implementation. The timetable sets out a 21-month programme of work which will see the Act come into force from April 2024.

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Following industrial action during 2019/2020 to achieve pay equality and safe staffing, the priority for RCN Northern Ireland is to hold the Department of Health and Northern Ireland Executive to account for the delivery of the Health Minister’s safe staffing framework, particularly in relation to the implementation of safe staffing legislation.

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