Salaried general practice nurses (GPNs) in England should receive a 4% pay increase for 2025/26 following a promised uplift to the pay elements of the GP contract.
The government has today confirmed a 4% uplift to salaried GPs and to the pay element of the GP contract, following the recommendations of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration.
Nursing in Practice understands that the uplift to the contract should allow for the increase to be passed on to GPs and salaried practice staff, including GPNs.
However, as exclusively revealed by Nursing in Practice in recent months, many GPNs have gone without uplifts for the past two years.
A Nursing in Practice survey of more than 550 nursing staff working in GP practices last autumn found that half of GP nursing staff across the UK have not yet had a pay rise for 2024/25. Of those who did receive an uplift, only around one in six (16%) were awarded the 6% recommended by the government in England.
A special General practice nurse pay: A salary survey of the profession 2025 report – produced with our sister title Management in Practice – also revealed that the average salary of a full-time (or full-time equivalent) GPN working in the UK is only £35,057 and lags behind those working in NHS hospitals.
Today, the government also revealed that NHS nurses on Agenda for Change in England and Wales would be given a 3.6% pay uplift for 2025/26, backdated to April.
Announcing the awards, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘These are thoroughly deserved pay rises for all our hard-working nurses, doctors and other NHS staff.
‘We inherited a broken health service with extremely low morale after years of pay erosion and poor industrial relations.
‘Which is why, despite the difficult financial situation the nation faces, we are backing our health workers with above-inflation pay rises for the second year in a row.’
He added: ‘This government was never going to be able to fully reverse a decade and a half of neglect in under a year, but this year’s pay increases – and last year’s – represent significant progress in making sure that NHS staff are properly recognised for the outstanding work they do.’
Both uplifts are higher than the 2.8% the government originally had planned for 2025/26.
