Industrial relations

Mental Health Nursing,  May/Jun 2001  by Pollock, Laurence,  Keenan, Caroline

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A conference fringe raised the profile of industrial relations issues which are likely to affect the way mental health nurses do their job and their expectations of proper rewards.

Led by Colin Adkins, MSF research and policy officer and Karen Reay, regional officer, it touches on a range of issues from Deals on Wheels and PCTs to Agenda for Change and current arrangements on the nurses' pay review body.

Colin highlighted the potential and dangers of the job evaluation scheme being mooted under Agenda for Change. "The opportunity is better pay: the threat is that if job evaluation does not highlight the contribution of our members then it will be hard to challenge the findings afterwards."

"Pay equality should be comparing CPNs with clinical psychologists, he added. Discretionary points were also raised by Bob Watson, regional coordinator for the north east with budgets limiting the entitlement to certain points which members had achieved.

Karen Reay raised the issue of skills mix' and the normal requirement that assessments should be done by G grade nurses. But grade slippage was pushing this benchmark down.

"GPs want an opinion and if they do not get it (from a G grade nurse) then they are in difficulty."

Colin urged members to appeal against discretionary awards to 'overload the system'. A more equitable arrangement would be just to divide the discretionary pot among all staff. With the roll-out of primary care trusts Karen said CPNs should be getting more involved, particularly on nurse forums - so far not many had done so.

Issues were also raised around regional pay, with Gail Adams pointing out the high cost of fuel in Scotland. Cost 'hot spots' existed around the country and there were local absurdities such as staff who lived in Essex and worked in Herts receiving the pay lift but not vice versa.

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association May/Jun 2001
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