Safe nurse staffing is no ‘local issue’ – except in England’s NHS

Legislated nurse-to-patient ratios are gaining support globally and evidence of their impact on retention grows, yet England persists with a local first approach

It has been almost a year since I last wrote about developments in safe nurse staffing across the four countries of the UK.

Nearly 12 months on, little has changed.

Devolved countries of the UK have taken different approaches to safe staffing

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are progressing slowly with various national approaches, with a commitment to creating legislation to underpin improvements.

In 2019, the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act became the first staffing legislation of its kind in the UK to apply