The final report of the Joint Committee on Social Care Professions made recommendations on pay and grading structures for child care workers. The pay recommendation provided for increases of 17% to 27% for houseparents or child care leaders and assistant houseparents or child care workers in the residential sector. The benchmarking body, PSBB, referred to this report and recommended that these increases be extended to similar grades in the intellectual disabilities sector, IDS.
In March 2004, the Labour Court considered a claim from the Alliance of Nursing Unions for a 10.55% pay increase for nurses working in the intellectual disability sector, to restore a "differential" that existed between nurses and social care professionals prior to the determination of the PSBB. While the Labour Court accepted that Registered Nurses Intellectual Disability, RNID, had traditionally been paid more than social care professionals, it stated that no formal pay "differential" existed between the two grades. The court noted that an understanding had been reached at the Labour Relations Commission on 3 September 2003 between the employers and the Alliance of Nursing Unions, and that both parties had accepted that the report of the PSBB severed all pay links and established new absolute levels of pay for benchmarked grades.
There was also an acceptance that any future benchmarking exercise, or whatever subsequent arrangements are put in place for determining public service pay, is the appropriate forum to examine the position of RNIDs vis-à-vis other social care professionals. The court also noted that this understanding was rejected by members of the Alliance of Nursing Unions leading to the referral to the matter to the court.
The court issued its recommendation on 1 April 2004. Having considered the written and oral submissions, it was of the view that the claim could not be dealt with outside of the established agreements. Accordingly, the court recommended that the matter be dealt with in accordance with the understanding reached between the parties at the conciliation conference on 3 September 2003 and that it be give priority in this exercise. In the discussions on the second phase of the Sustaining Progress agreement, management agreed that the position of the RNID would be considered in the next benchmarking review which will commence in the second half of 2005.
The supply of adequate numbers of nurses has been a priority for the Government for several years. Since 2002, there have been 240 training places available each year on the four-year degree programme for intellectual disability nursing. Figures from An Bord Altranais show that in 2004 there were 146 newly registered nurses in intellectual disability nursing, of whom 138 had trained in Ireland.
The Health Service Executive, employer representative division, carries out a regular survey of nursing resources. The most recent report showed that the intellectual disability sector had increased its staffing by 89 in the 12-month period to 30 September 2004. The survey also found there were 84.56 nursing vacancies in the intellectual disabilities sector at the end of the third quarter in 2004. This was the lowest number of vacancies for that quarter in the sector since the commencement of the survey in 2000.
