Calls mount for ‘meaningful’ pay rise for NHS staff

For its evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, NHS Providers surveyed NHS trusts and said that a majority wanted to see a pay uplift of at least 3%. At the same time, unions have called for all NHS workers to receive a pay rise of at least £2,000.

The current three-year pay deal for Agenda for Change (AFC) staff ends this year and the NHS Pay Review Body would have been considering pay recommendations for NHS staff regardless of Covid-19. However, the pandemic has led to growing calls for a pay rise or bonus for NHS staff as a reward for the often extreme efforts they have made to care for Covid patients while keeping other services running as much as possible.

In November’s spending review chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a ‘pay pause’ for most public sector workers, but said that an exception would be made for NHS staff, who would receive an increase in 2021/22. In a letter to the NHS Pay Review Body in December, health secretary Matt Hancock said this recognised the ‘uniquely challenging impact coronavirus is having on the NHS’. But he added that any award should take account of the ‘extremely challenging fiscal and economic context and consider the affordability of pay awards’.

‘It is vitally important planned workforce growth is affordable, particularly given the NHS budget is set until 2023 to 2024 and there is a close relationship between pay and staff numbers,’ he added.

NHS Providers said that trust leaders had consistently emphasised the need to recognise and reward the efforts of staff over the last nine months, saying that staff had gone ‘above and beyond to protect the public’. There are also concerns about staff burnout because of the relentless pressure, with many working extra shifts, covering for ill or self-isolating colleagues and not taking holiday.

While the representative body would have preferred to see a new, fully funded multi-year pay deal put in place, it recognised that a single-year award was likely in the context of a single year spending review.  More than four out of five respondents to its survey called for an uplift of at least 3%, with only 14% saying it should be 2% or less.

However, it stressed that pay awards needed to be fully funded by the government and affordable to administer for all eligible staff. The last three-year settlement had initially been underfunded, the evidence said, and similar problems must be avoided. In particular it called for the costs of pay rises for community services commissioned by local authorities to be covered so that trusts do not have to meet these costs out of local budgets.

NHS Providers was also keen to point out that the NHS had workforce problems going into the pandemic, with 100,000 vacancies including 40,000 nurses. These vacancies still need to be addressed and pay levels will have an impact on both recruitment and retention.

Chris Hopson, the organisation’s chief executive, said a meaningful, real terms increase would recognise and reward the sacrifices staff had made. ‘Trust leaders acknowledge the challenging economic context, but there shouldn’t be a trade-off between patient care and pay rises for staff,' he said. 'So any pay increase needs to be funded by government particularly since they have acknowledged that this pay rise for NHS staff is a special case compared to the rest of the public sector.’

He added that both pay and recruitment/retention needed to be addressed. ‘It’s clear that in the longer-term, we’ll need to see a significant increase in the NHS budget if we’re expected to deliver the government’s manifesto commitments, demands created by the pandemic and meet future needs,’ he added.

NHS unions have also been making the case for an ‘early and significant pay rise’ for staff. A letter to prime minister Boris Johnson, signed by the heads of Unison, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives, said that ‘hospitals were stretched to the limit’ with many ‘demoralised and traumatised’ staff facing burnout.

The unions called on the prime minister to personally intervene to speed up the pay review process – the Pay Review Body is currently expected to report back in May,which would mean June at the earliest before any staff saw an increase .

Unison head of health Sara Gorton (pictured) called for the government to invest properly in staff. ‘A rise of £2,000 as soon as possible would persuade many NHS staff to stay and encourage others to consider a career in health,’ she said. ‘Extra money in their pockets will mean more spending in local economies, giving a huge boost to the recovery when the lockdown begins to ease.’

A report for the unions by consultancy London Economics said that pay rises were overdue. ‘Since 2010/11, pay levels at every single AFC spine point have lagged behind inflation, resulting in a significant decline in total pay in real terms,’ it said. It also claimed pay rises were affordable, with the costs of the increase offset by exchequer benefits from increased tax receipts, increased consumption and savings on recruitment and retention.

The Royal College of Midwives called for a ‘single significant consolidated percentage increase’ across all AFC pay bands, arguing that the value of pay for a midwife at the top of band 6 had decreased by over £7,000 in real terms since 2010. It also pointed to differences between the UK nations. It said the Scottish government had indicated any pay award would be backdated to December 2020 and this was on top of a £500 ‘thank you’ payment to all staff.

In separate evidence to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, NHS Providers said 60% of trusts surveyed had also backed a pay rise of 3% or more for all doctors.