London nurses set to receive job guarantees

Plans are underway to enable newly-qualified nurses that have trained in London to receive guaranteed employment.

The plans are part of the ‘Capital Nurse’ programme, set up by Caroline Alexander, NHS England’s regional chief nurse for London, and has been designed to improve recruitment and retention.

All London trust chief nurses will be asked to commit by April and the scheme is expected to be introduced in autumn 2017, ensuring graduate nurses are offered a job.

It is also speculated that GP practices and social care employers will eventually sign up to the employment guarantee initiative.

The programme’s creators contend the idea that nurses find it difficult to secure a job in London is a ‘common myth’ claiming they wanted to create ‘a sense of positivity’ around working in the capital and show nurses the opportunities available in the city.

According to Chris Caldwell, dean of healthcare professions at Health Education England North, Central and East London, who is jointly leading the programme: “The idea is we want to keep all the students we train in London and then we want to hold on to them for longer.

“We know from talking to our nurse directors they can recruit newly qualified nurses – perhaps not in the number they need – but there is a challenge of retaining them beyond three, four or five years when they start to find it difficult to afford to live in London and travel.

“The idea is to create more structured career pathways and manage that movement, so it doesn’t create so much additional recruitment cost and time.”

The Capital Nurse project will cover other areas such as reducing agency and temporary nurse staff, and postgraduate career progression.

The Capital Nurse programme is part of a wider national scheme being led by Health Education England. The programme is a response to a major review of nurse education and training, the ’Shape of Caring’, published in 2015.