Children’s hospital wards in Wales are to be covered by safe nurse staffing legislation from today – around six months later than initially planned.
The move means paediatric inpatient wards will now have a legal duty to both calculate and maintain its nurse staffing levels, according to a specified methodology.
“Time to fast track extension to all areas nursing care is provided”
Helen Whyley
It comes under section 25B of the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act – a history-making law which saw Wales become the first country in Europe to introduce legislation on nurse staffing in 2016.
Previously, section 25B had only applied to adult acute medical and surgical inpatient settings. But in recent years the Welsh Government has outlined plans to extend it.
Widening the law to include children’s inpatient settings was originally scheduled for April 2021, but this was delayed due to the pandemic.
Former chief nursing officer, Professor Jean White, had said earlier this year she did not expect this to be implemented until 2022.
But paediatric inpatient wards in Wales will now be covered by the law, as of 1 October.
Welcoming the move, the Royal College of Nursing in Wales stressed that safe nurse staffing “will have a directly positive impact on children’s welfare”.
On social media site Twitter, director of RCN Wales, Helen Whyley, welcomed the development and said it was “great to see”.
“Time to fast track extension to all areas nursing care is provided,” she added.
“The evidence base is clear, safe nurse staffing levels save lives.”
“We are proud of this pioneering legislation and the difference it has already made to nurse staffing in Wales”
Eluned Morgan
Professor Sally Holland, the children’s commissioner for Wales, also welcomed the new regulations and said this would give “additional safeguards for the care of children and young people”.
“The government should now look at extending this to other settings, including community nursing and mental health inpatient settings, and other paediatric settings,” she added.
According to the Welsh Parliament, work was currently “ongoing” to extend the law to also cover mental health inpatient settings, as well as health visiting and district nursing.
Welsh minister for health and social services, Eluned Morgan, said: “We are proud of this pioneering legislation and the difference it has already made to nurse staffing in Wales.
“The regulations coming into force today will extend the act’s second duty to paediatric inpatient wards, and we are the first UK nation to do this.
“The purpose of the act is to empower frontline nurses, and their leaders, to use their professional judgement when determining appropriate nurse staffing levels in order to ensure they provide the best quality care.”
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