This site is intended for health professionals only


NHS pay announcement coming ‘later this month’

NHS pay announcement coming ‘later this month’
Credit: Number 10 Flickr

NHS nurses can expect an announcement on their pay later this month, according to the new chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves.

Her comments come amid rumours that the independent pay review body – which makes recommendations on NHS pay to the government – will suggest a rise of 5.5% for NHS staff, above what the previous government had budgeted for.

Related Article: Almost 80% of GPNs ‘unsatisfied’ with government’s handling of general practice 

During the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, Ms Reeves said the government was ‘looking at those pay review body recommendations, doing the analysis, and we will work with public sector workers on that’.

She said announcements on public sector worker pay would then come later this month.

Ms Reeves recognised there was ‘a cost to not settling’ on the pay review body’s recommendation.

Article continues below this sponsored advert
Featured Image
After a few years touring the rest of the UK, we are delighted to be returning to Birmingham for our one-day nursing conference! Join us for free on 11 June to gain CPD, network with peers, and benefit from high quality clinical updates.
Advertisement

‘A cost of further industrial action, a cost in terms of the challenge that we face in recruiting and retaining doctors, and nurses, and teachers as well,’ she said.

Related Article: Nurse prescribers must use in-person consults for non-surgical cosmetic meds from June

‘But we will do it in a proper way and make sure that the sums add up.’

The institute for fiscal studies (IFS), the UK’s leading economic research institute, speculated in the Sunday Telegraph that paying an extra 5.5% to nurses and teachers would cost £5.5bn, increasing to around £10bn if the same increase was given to all public sector staff.

A government spokesperson said: ‘We value the vital contribution the almost six million public sector workers make to our country.

Related Article: Calls to boost GP funding and district nursing workforce to ease corridor care crisis

‘The pay review process is ongoing, and no final decisions have been made. We will update in due course; however we are under no illusions about the scale of the fiscal inheritance we face.’

Responding to the chancellor’s comments a spokesperson for the Royal College of Nursing said: ‘The pay award must be fair and begin to turn around a broken NHS. We will always give nursing staff a vote on whether they accept it.’

See how our symptom tool can help you make better sense of patient presentations
Click here to search a symptom