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Halsbury Report
The Halsbury Report into the Pay and Related Conditions of Service of Nurses and Midwives 1974 recommended an average 33% pay rise for nurses which was implemented by the then Labour government.
In February 1974 a minority Labour government took office with Barbara Castle as their Secretary of State for Social Services. Her first weeks in office coincided with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) 'Fair Pay for Nurses' campaign and Castle was quickly made aware of the issues. Nurses across the UK were unhappy with pay and conditions and they became more visible with public demonstrations. Although the unions did not co-ordinate action at this time, it was clear this was a sector-wide issue with a group of COHSE mental health nurses in Huddersfield undertaking their first strike action on 9 May 1974, leaving duty for an hour in five wards.
In London Winifred Prentice, President of the RCN led a group of forty-five representatives to meet with Barbara Castle on 13 May 1974. They presented Castle with 'The State of Nursing' a detailed report setting out concerns on standards of care, staffing, education and training, and pay and whilst they met, several thousand nurses marched through London.
Betty Newstead, Head of the RCN Labour Relations Department gave Castle an ultimatum: if an independent inquiry into pay was not set up within three weeks the RCN would instruct its members to resign en-masse. The RCN would set itself up as an employment agency and offer the nurses on temporary contracts to the NHS at the singificantly higher rates that agency workers commanded.
Prior to the meeting Castle had been making positive steps. She had announced the incoming government's support for implementing the 1972 Briggs Report recommendations on education, training, and professional regulation for nurses and midwives. Support that included the allocation of £18 million for the extra tutors required to reform nurse training.
On 23 May 1974 Castle announced an independent inquiry into the pay and conditions of work of nurses and midwives with Tony Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury as Chair. Halsbury had only recently resigned as Chair of the outgoing Conservative government's review body on doctors' and dentists' pay (1971-1974). Halsbury 'was reported as believing it foolish to recommend for doctors and dentists anything that required a government to violate its policy' of regulating public pay increases.
Castle appointed Halsbury knowing his position on pay increases. She asserted the need to have women in the committee. A relatively small committee was formed including Harold Atcherley, Professor Ronald Harry Graveson CBE, QC; Mary Green, Ian Wilson Macdonald, Dorothy Wedderburn, and Norah Willis JP.
Whilst the report was being written over the summer, official demonstrations were suspended by most of the nursing organisations, though COHSE and individual nurses continued to demonstrate, with public showing support.
Halsbury Report
The Halsbury Report into the Pay and Related Conditions of Service of Nurses and Midwives 1974 recommended an average 33% pay rise for nurses which was implemented by the then Labour government.
In February 1974 a minority Labour government took office with Barbara Castle as their Secretary of State for Social Services. Her first weeks in office coincided with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) 'Fair Pay for Nurses' campaign and Castle was quickly made aware of the issues. Nurses across the UK were unhappy with pay and conditions and they became more visible with public demonstrations. Although the unions did not co-ordinate action at this time, it was clear this was a sector-wide issue with a group of COHSE mental health nurses in Huddersfield undertaking their first strike action on 9 May 1974, leaving duty for an hour in five wards.
In London Winifred Prentice, President of the RCN led a group of forty-five representatives to meet with Barbara Castle on 13 May 1974. They presented Castle with 'The State of Nursing' a detailed report setting out concerns on standards of care, staffing, education and training, and pay and whilst they met, several thousand nurses marched through London.
Betty Newstead, Head of the RCN Labour Relations Department gave Castle an ultimatum: if an independent inquiry into pay was not set up within three weeks the RCN would instruct its members to resign en-masse. The RCN would set itself up as an employment agency and offer the nurses on temporary contracts to the NHS at the singificantly higher rates that agency workers commanded.
Prior to the meeting Castle had been making positive steps. She had announced the incoming government's support for implementing the 1972 Briggs Report recommendations on education, training, and professional regulation for nurses and midwives. Support that included the allocation of £18 million for the extra tutors required to reform nurse training.
On 23 May 1974 Castle announced an independent inquiry into the pay and conditions of work of nurses and midwives with Tony Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury as Chair. Halsbury had only recently resigned as Chair of the outgoing Conservative government's review body on doctors' and dentists' pay (1971-1974). Halsbury 'was reported as believing it foolish to recommend for doctors and dentists anything that required a government to violate its policy' of regulating public pay increases.
Castle appointed Halsbury knowing his position on pay increases. She asserted the need to have women in the committee. A relatively small committee was formed including Harold Atcherley, Professor Ronald Harry Graveson CBE, QC; Mary Green, Ian Wilson Macdonald, Dorothy Wedderburn, and Norah Willis JP.
Whilst the report was being written over the summer, official demonstrations were suspended by most of the nursing organisations, though COHSE and individual nurses continued to demonstrate, with public showing support.