The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that it will provide additional funding for the pay deal in England to nurses on Agenda for Change contracts who are not directly employed by the NHS.
Any eligible non-statutory non-NHS organisations directly commissioned by CCGs or NHS England will be eligible to receive some of the £12m funding, so long as they provide NHS services and employ staff on an Agenda for Change contract.
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Non-NHS organisations include primary care services and third party providers, as well as some community services.
The Government has provided £800m of funding for the new pay deal during 2018/19, with £756m of this going to NHS provider organisations.
A further £20m is available for CCGs and commissioning support units, with remainder going to arm’s length bodies.
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The Royal College of Nursing welcomed the extension of the pay deal funding, but felt the Government needed to cover the spectrum of primary care.
Chief executive Janet Davies said: ‘We welcome the Government’s decision to fund a pay rise for nurses and care assistants who are not directly employed by the NHS. This is a further step towards fairer pay for healthcare staff, but it is not the end of the road.
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‘To improve recruitment and retention, and bring stability to the health and social care sector, Ministers must now find funding for a fair pay deal for nursing staff working across social and primary care.’
The pay deal in England was voted through by unions at the beginning of June, and then ratified at the end of the month by the NHS Staff Council.
