Update on national job matching profiles for nursing and midwifery
The NHS Staff Council urges all NHS employing organisations to work in partnership to ensure that job descriptions for their nursing and midwifery staff are updated before the updated profiles are published in June.
The NHS Staff Council and its job evaluation subgroup (JEG) are nearing completion of a review of the national job matching profiles for nursing and midwifery.
It is anticipated that the updated profiles will be published week commencing 2 June 2025, alongside technical guidance from the Job Evaluation Group (JEG) to detail the changes and guide matching panels in their use.
The profiles have been updated in partnership to ensure that they correctly reflect current nursing and midwifery practice. As such, the changes are largely updated language and providing additional narrative examples of the factor levels. The updated profiles also have a 'new look' to make them easier to understand for those who are not trained in job evaluation.
During the course of the review, from evidence gathered from staff, employers, professional bodies and recognised trade unions, it became clear that the job descriptions for many nursing and midwifery staff were of poor quality and did not accurately or adequately detail their roles and responsibilities and, in some cases, had not been regularly reviewed and updated. As the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme relies on documentation such as job descriptions, it is really important that job descriptions are accurate and up to date.
The NHS Staff Council therefore urges all NHS employing organisations to work in partnership to ensure that job descriptions for this group of staff are updated and that their job evaluation (JE) practices and procedures, as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation Handbook, are in order as a matter of urgency. They will be publishing guidance in the coming weeks on how local partnerships can agree an action plan to build JE capacity and support local implementation of the updated profiles but stress that these discussions should take place immediately and should not be delayed until profile publication.
Further information and resources:
- Information on the background to and progress of the review.
- NHS Job Evaluation Scheme - Self-assessment checklist for employing organisations.
