Note: Our Friday message is sent out in batches over a few days given the membership numbers and the limit set by Gmail for sending emails in any one day.
- Thank you from our Chair
May I take this opportunity to thank all the members who have offered their support to assist me with a review of the delivery of the PCREF by Mental Health Trust and Providers. Your support is most appreciated.
HSJ-CEOs given six months to take antisemitism training
An article with the above title and published by the HSJ on 4 June 2026, by Annabelle Collins reads as follows:
>Government accepts Lord Mann’s recommendations to tackle antisemitism and racism
>Report commissioned by Wes Streeting in response to “troubling” incidents
>Senior leaders to take training and be measured on EDI objectives
Trust chairs and chief executives must take mandatory antisemitism and anti-racism training within six months, as part of efforts to tackle “routine ostracism” of Jewish people in the NHS.
A government-commissioned report on antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS and health regulation, published today, said training must take place for “approximately 400 chairs and chief executives of NHS provider trusts on antisemitism, anti-racism and building on the Macpherson principles, within the next six months”.
The Macpherson principles were established by the 1999 Macpherson report, originating from the public inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
The report, by Labour peer and campaigner Lord Mann, said: “This training should support leaders to understand how they can take evidence-based actions to address discrimination and effect change in their organisations. Consideration should also be given to how this might be extended to integrated care boards and primary care networks’ leadership.”
Leaders of health and care systems and professional regulators should also take the training, Lord Mann’s report said.
Government has accepted all the report’s recommendations.
Lord Mann said this should be the “minimum” action and will “require hard work and accountability for outcomes” from NHS employers and regulators.
Former health secretary Wes Streeting commissioned Lord Mann last year after a series of “deeply troubling” antisemitic incidents. A previous report focused on failures in medical regulation and the General Medical Council.
Two doctors, Manoj Sen and Mohammed Asif Munaf, have recently been struck off the medical register because of antisemitic behaviour.
NHS leaders should also have “explicit, measurable EDI objectives embedded within their performance goals”, Lord Mann recommended.
Lord Mann said mandatory training would “build on” measures expected to soon be included in the NHS Oversight Framework, measuring how trusts are implementing “staff standards” that are due to be introduced.
The 10-Year Heath Plan promised the NHS would “develop a new set of staff standards”, which will “outline minimum standards for modern employment”. It said they would be introduced in April 2026 with data published at employer level every quarter. They are expected to feed into trusts’ league table placing under the NHS Oversight Framework, but details have yet to be published.
Greater CQC powers
Lord Mann – who is the government’s adviser on antisemitism – said the Care Quality Commission should “make greater use of powers to inspect NHS organisations on their equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) performance, against patient inequalities and for staff workforce, under the ‘well led’ domain”.
He said the CQC must hold NHS boards and leaders accountable for delivering the promised staff standards, including how they handle racist incidents, and the effectiveness of reporting systems.
“More broadly, DHSC should consider how CQC might enhance its assessment of all NHS organisations for EDI performance and the role of the organisation’s leadership in addressing racism,” it said.
Lord Mann said introducing statutory regulation for senior NHS leaders – as government has promised – would help “increase accountability”. But this is not expected to be in place until 2028, he said.
Other key recommendations in the report included:
- Staff experience questions in the NHS Staff Survey should be reviewed… to ensure they continue to be relevant in capturing ethnic minority staff’s experience of racism and discrimination, including those of Jewish NHS staff;
- NHS employers should develop policies to be clear about what “political identifiers” are acceptable; and
- NHS England should update national uniform guidance, in line with reviewing broader guidelines for those in the NHS using its name, logo or branding, including in relation to social media accounts.
Lord Mann wrote that Jewish staff were the only religious group where discrimination from managers and colleagues exceeds discrimination from patients, and added: “antisemitism should be named as racism by senior leadership to set an example at all levels of healthcare organisations”.
NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey said: “We accept all of the recommendations in Lord Mann’s review and as a leadership community, we will act swiftly to implement them. The NHS at its best is a place of compassion, care and unity – not conflict – and there is unacceptable antisemitism and racism in the NHS, faced by both our staff and our patients, and we must root this out.”
- HSJ-Hundreds of overseas NHSE staff face losing job with no compensation
An article with the above title published by the HSJ on 29 May 2026, by Mimi Launder reads as follows:
>Hundreds of staff risk losing their jobs due to civil service nationality rules
>Non-British staff not eligible for redundancy pay, and some could face deportation
>Reports of “significant anxiety and distress” from lack of communication
>DHSC says no decisions have been made yet
Hundreds of NHS England staff face losing their jobs without redundancy pay because their nationality bars them from working for the Department of Health and Social Care, HSJ understands.
The civil service typically only allows the employment of UK, Irish, and Commonwealth nationals, and people from the European Economic Area, whereas the NHS does not restrict hiring foreign nationals if they meet immigration requirements.
It is currently thought that up to 480 current NHS England staff may be affected by the rule, and are not expected to be entitled to severance pay because their situation does not qualify as redundancy, several NHSE sources told HSJ.
They have been told they are due to transfer to Department of Health and Social Care when NHSE is abolished – planned for next April – then have their contracts terminated on their first day, the sources said.
Some within this staff group may also face deportation if their visa is tied to employment or if they lose their certificate of sponsorship from their employer.
Jon Restell, chief executive of Union Managers in Partnership, said the ongoing uncertainty over how many staff will not be eligible to work for DHSC is “causing significant anxiety and distress”.
NHSE has identified around 70 staff who are ineligible to work for the civil service, while a further 60 staff with unknown nationality have been contacted.
A further 350 staff who are from the European Economic Area will only be eligible to work for DHSC if they have indefinite leave to remain or settled status. Neither NHSE nor DHSC has clarified how many of these will lose their jobs after being asked by HSJ.
Staff on a skilled worker visa require a certificate of sponsorship from their employer, while those eligible for indefinite leave to remain at around the time of the merger require a letter from sponsoring organisations confirming ongoing employment.
Neither DHSC nor NHSE have so far confirmed the required documentation will be issued by the time of the merger, despite the issue being raised multiple times, according to affected staff.
Those who spoke to HSJ said they were concerned the situation was particularly urgent for staff in NHSE regional teams, which are already restructuring, ahead of changes in the national structure being determined.
The number of staff identified as potentially affected is higher than HSJ reported in December. At the time, NHSE said work was underway to provide support.
A former senior NHSE staff member – who has now taken a job outside the NHS – said the nationality rule effectively “forced” them out as they felt “burnt out and depressed”.
Another staff member raised concerns about “a lack of clear communication” from DHSC and NHSE, which have both “refused to clarify their position when directly questioned”.
The DHSC told HSJ: “We are working through the implications of the transfer and no decisions have yet been made. We are supporting affected staff throughout the process.”
In a comment sent to HSJ after publication, an NHSE spokesperson said, “NHSE has offered individual and confidential support to every member of staff potentially affected by the civil service rules, and we are working closely with the [DHSC] to provide staff with clarity on the implications and timings as quickly as possible.”
- The Guardian-Racist abuse of NHS nurses rising amid ‘normalisation’ of extreme views, RCN warns
Figures disclosed by nursing union show big rise on reported incidents which may only be ‘tip of the iceberg’
An article with the above title and published by the Guardian on 19 May 2026, by Denis Campbell, Health policy editor reads as follows:
Racist abuse of NHS nurses has jumped by 86% in the last few years, which their union’s boss has blamed on the normalisation of extreme views in politics and the media.
One nurse was called a monkey by a colleague, a patient threw a hot drink at a nurse and followed up with racial abuse, and in several cases, others were called the N-word, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) disclosed.
In other examples, a patient’s family told a nurse they did not want black people looking after their daughter, and a fellow NHS worker shouted at a nurse: “We don’t have people of your colour here.”
Nurses across the UK reported 6,812 incidents last year in which they suffered racist abuse, NHS figures show, a big rise on the 3,652 incidents recorded in 2022. However, it is unclear how many were reported to the police or led to any action being taken, such as a perpetrator being told to seek treatment from a different care provider.
The RCN warned that poor recording of such abuse by the health service, and reluctance among many nurses to report it, meant the figures – which it obtained from NHS trusts and health boards under freedom of information (FOI) – were only “the tip of the iceberg”.
“These figures show a catastrophic rise in the racist abuse faced by nursing staff,” said Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN’s general secretary and chief executive.
While racism had always existed, “those who hold these views have become more emboldened in recent times”, she said. “It reflects a further breakdown in societal norms, in part fed by more extreme views being normalised in the mainstream and across media.”
The findings are the latest evidence of what Kate Jarman, the director of corporate affairs at Milton Keynes university hospital trust, last week called “a rising tide of racism” washing over the NHS making it unsafe for some staff.
The former health secretary Wes Streeting warned last November that NHS personnel were bearing the brunt of the return in British society of an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. An NHS trust boss has said some staff working in the community in England fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because St George’s flags have been put on display.
The number of nurses from an ethnic minority background calling the RCN’s advice line seeking help after being racially abused or discriminated against rose by 70% during 2022-25, it said.
In other incidents, a nurse observing Ramadan and praying while on shift was subject to Islamophobia, and another was punched in the eye and racially abused by patients.
Ranger said: “[Racism] is a disgrace, and perhaps just as bad is the fact that many NHS trusts and health boards cannot even tell us how many staff have been on the receiving end. It amounts to a policy of ‘don’t know, don’t care’.”
Dozens of NHS organisations did not keep data on racist incidents while others replied to the RCN’s FOI request with “implausibly low figures” or refused to release any figures. Health chiefs were “failing in their duty to keep [staff] safe at work” by not collecting such data, she said.
“It remains an outrage that NHS [staff] should be subjected to violence and abuse because of who they are,” said Dean Royles, the interim chief executive of NHS Employers. NHS care providers were committed to tackling racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, he added.
NHS bosses planned to introduce a national reporting system to monitor the problem, Royles said.
A recent FOI trawl by the BBC uncovered even more reports by staff of racist abuse in England alone than the RCN found. Figures from the 106 trusts showed that the number of incidents reported increased from 7,002 in 2023 to 8,235 in 2024 – a 17% rise in a year.
Duncan Burton, NHS England’s chief nursing officer, said: “Racism against NHS staff is totally unacceptable. All local organisations must take a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, taking action including police involvement and criminal prosecution as appropriate.
“We would encourage any staff that experience or witness racist incidents to report them so that action can be taken. It is essential that all staff feel safe to speak up and confident that action will be taken, and the NHS has set out targeted action required by local organisations including reviewing disciplinary processes and providing protection and comprehensive psychological support for anyone reporting concerns.”
- HSJ-Health Bill proposal an ‘attack on patient safety’
An article with the above title published by the HSJ on 29 May 2026, by Dave West reads as follows:
>Health Bill removes legal requirement for a nurse and doctor to sit on every foundation trust board
>Nurses say it may enable providers to “put financial targets above safety”
>Update: DHSC says it plans to re-create the requirement in secondary legislation
Scrapping the legal guarantee that a nurse sits on every foundation trust board is a “brazen attack on patient safety”, the Royal College of Nursing has warned.
The Health Bill, published this month, would remove the requirement in primary legislation for foundation trust boards to include a registered nurse or midwife and a registered medical practitioner or dentist among their executive directors. Under a new schedule to the NHS Act 2006, the only board roles guaranteed in law would be the chief executive, finance director and chair.
The reason for the change is not given in the bill’s explanatory notes, which describe the new board composition without acknowledging that the clinical requirement has gone. It is also absent from the government’s fact sheet on the legal changes affecting providers, and from its impact assessment on foundation trust reform.
The Department of Health and Social Care, which did not respond to requests for clarification before publication, has since contacted HSJ to say that it plans to recreate the requirement for clinical members in secondary legislation (see below).
Royal College of Nursing general secretary and chief executive Nicola Ranger told HSJ that removing the legal requirement – which has been in place since the creation of FTs in the early 2000s – would “allow for hospitals to make decisions about services for entire populations with no clinical oversight whatsoever”.
She said she was “genuinely worried that we could return to those dark days where leaders look to cut nursing staff to make savings, putting financial targets above safety”. Nursing was “the safety-critical, 24/7 presence for patients”, Professor Ranger said, and removing its guaranteed board voice “would be a recipe for disaster”.
“In the boardroom, the senior nurse is the firebreak,” Professor Ranger said. “Their expertise protects the public by challenging leaders and ensuring that the patient remains at the centre of all decisions.” She called on the new health and social care secretary to “make it his urgent priority to keep guaranteed nursing leadership at executive level in law”.
The government has not explained why it is removing the clinical board requirement from primary legislation.
However, after this article was initially published, the DHSC responded to HSJ’s enquiries to state that it planned to “ensure that the same clinical members will be required on FT boards as now through a regulation making power that replaces the current provisions which specify the members in primary legislation”.
It said this “aligns… with NHS trusts”, whose exec member requirements are set out in a statutory instrument – although the new Health Bill, unlike the NHS trust regime, would keep a requirement for a finance director on FTs in primary legislation.
The DHSC pointed to a provision in the bill which says the health and social care secretary “may by regulations make further provision about eligibility for appointment as a director”.
A spokesman said: ”Our policy remains that both NHS trusts and [FTs] must have clinical board members. [FTs] will continue to be under a legal obligation to have both a medical or dental practitioner and a registered nurse or midwife on their boards.”
Government is hoping the bill will pass this year, in time for it to be enacted and abolish NHS England in April next year.
- RCN Foundation-Postdoctoral Bridging Research Fellowship Programme-closes 13 July 2026
Please find below an email from the RCN Foundation concerning its Postdoctoral Bridging Research Fellowship programme notably:
Hello,
I hope you are well. Following a scoping review we undertook, we identified that the transition to a research career within nursing and midwifery is not particularly easy, accessible or understood. To address this, the RCN Foundation Postdoctoral Bridging Research Fellowship programme will support early career nursing/midwifery researchers to make the transition from a practice-based nurse, midwife or lecturer to early career researcher.
The Fellowship is now open, with specific funding of up to £15,000 available to support a registered nurse or midwife early career researcher from the Global Majority/Ethnic Minority to undertake a nurse/midwifery led research study which would bridge the period between completing their doctorate and the transition into a research or clinical academic career. To be eligible, you must have completed your doctorate within the last five years.
I have attached a flyer with the details. We would appreciate if you could circulate with your networks. Applications close at 5pm on 13 July.
Best wishes,
Rosie West
Digital Marketing and Communications Officer
RCN Foundation
20 Cavendish Square | London | W1G 0RN
Email: rosie.west@rcnfoundation.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7841 3323