NHS staff offered 18pc pay rise to end strikes
Deal welcomed by unions but economists warn that a couple of billion pounds was not ‘lying around’
NHS staff are being offered a pay rise of up to 18 per cent this year in an effort to end strikes – amid questions about how the £2.5billion package will be funded. The terms, backed by ministers and unions for about one million health workers, propose a minimum 5 per cent increase for the next financial year – with a 10.4 per cent rise for the lowest paid. In addition, it means one-off bonus payments of between £1,600 and £3,800 for this financial year.
NHS staff are being offered a pay bump of up to 18 per cent this year in an effort to end strikes – amid questions about how the £2.5billion package will be funded.
The terms, backed by ministers and unions for around one million health workers, propose a minimum five per cent increase for the next financial year – with a 10.4 per cent rise for the lowest paid. In addition, it means one-off bonus payments of between £1,600 and £3,800 for the current financial year.
It comes after a winter of crippling strikes by nurses and ambulance workers. The walkouts, which began just before Christmas, have seen the cancellation of more than 140,000 operations and appointments, even before junior doctors began a three-day walkout this week. Unions last night recommended that their members back the deal, saying their efforts had won an extra £2.5billion from the Government.
However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) questioned where the money would come from, with the Prime Minister and Health Secretary insisting that front-line services will be protected. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, warned that the health service did not have a couple of billion pounds “lying around” to cover the new pay offer.
After two weeks of intensive talks, the proposed terms, which affect nurses, midwives, ambulance workers and tens of thousands more NHS staff, include a one-off bonus for the current financial year.
This means the lowest paid, on salaries of about £20,000, would receive a bonus worth 8.2 per cent of their salary, in addition to the pay increase of 9.3 per cent they were already awarded for 2022-23.
The same group could also expect a 10.4 per cent pay increase in 2023-24, while most NHS workers will be offered five per cent, at a time when inflation is forecast to fall. The highest paid staff on the NHS Agenda for Change contracts – who receive up to £109,000 a year – would receive bonuses of £3,800, under the terms.
Officials said the package would mean a newly qualified nurse will see their salary go up by more than £2,750 over two years, with more than £1,890 in one-off payments this year.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, last night said the deal was “good for NHS staff, it’s good for the taxpayer and most importantly it is good news for patients whose care will no longer be disrupted by strike action.”
The offer covers all NHS staff except doctors and dentists, who are on a different contract.
After three days of walkouts by junior doctors in a campaign for a 35 per cent pay rise, the British Medical Association yesterday responded to the Health Secretary’s call for talks, urging him to meet them today.
Pat Cullen, RCN general secretary said the commitments vindicated the decision by nurses to take industrial action, urging members to back the deal. Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “Thanks to the strength and hard work of GMB’S NHS members, the Government has gone from refusing to talk about pay to putting an extra 2.5 billion pounds on the table.”
However, the IFS questioned how it would be funded. Ben Zaranko, senior research economist, said it seemed likely that the £1billion to fund one off payments would come from the Treasury, raising concerns that the remaining £1.5billion for next year would see the NHS squeezed to make savings.
He said: “If no extra cash is forthcoming from the Treasury, it may be that for the second year in a row, the health service is asked to somehow absorb these additional costs.
“There must be a risk that the NHS is asked to make heroic efficiency savings to absorb these costs, struggles to do so, and instead has to be bailed out in six months or a year’s time.”
Mr Taylor told Channel 4 News: “The Government has said today that the cost of this will be met without any impact on patient services or quality of care. Well, that’s a good guarantee. And we’ll want to see that being delivered on in the next few days.”