Nursing bank staff (FOI)

​Request

Following on from a previous Freedom of Information (FOI) response published on 21 January 2020 at the following link:

Senior Nurse appointment (FOI)

The work described in this response sounds very much like the description of a consultancy arrangement, but employed via the nurse bank to avoid further scrutiny.

I note from a previous FOI [Name redacted] is employed as a Band 8 Bank Nurse (salary range £67,733 to £76,299) as per the publicly available salary scale. Please could you provide:

A

A table of the number of nurses currently registered with the nurse bank, broken down by Grade

B

A list of all nurse positions (job titles, either permanent, fixed term or bank) with Health and Community Services (HCS) at Grade 8 and higher.

C

The job description for a Band 8 bank nurse

Further, in the previous response it is stated that nurses are exempt from licensing requirements under the Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law 2012. However, the Control of Housing and Work (Exemptions) (Jersey) Order 2013 appear to contain no such exemption (the partners and children of full-time, licensed nurses do indeed have exemption, but not nurses themselves who require a license as essential employees, if not otherwise qualified).

Given the presumption against employing registered individuals (and to justify the granting of an employment License it should be shown that efforts have been made to recruit a locally qualified individual), could you please provide:

D

Any documentation or policy which provides for nurses having automatic exemption from the Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law 2012

E

The policy outlining the criteria for recruiting a new Licensed category individual to a Government of Jersey position (such as whether the position has to be full-time, or permanent, or been advertised locally or any other criteria)

F

Information on any efforts to recruit a local candidate to cover the work done by [Name redacted]. This is especially important as [Name redacted] was previously known to the Director General and no open competition appears to have taken place for this recruitment.

Response

A

NM04 = 468

NM05 = 72

NM06 = 25

NM08 = 2

Please note there are no nurse grades above grade 8, this is the highest point of the nursing and midwifery pay structure. The Chief Nurse is a Tier 2 Executive and is not on the Nursing and Midwifery pay scales.

B

C

There are no job descriptions used for NM08 bank nurses.

D

Nurses are considered essential employees and therefore section 83 of the Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law 2012 applies. Nurses employed by Health and Community Services receive licenced status from a pool of licences held.

E

Please see the attached policy.

Recruitment and Selection Policy

F

This information is not held.