NHS staff including nurses, paramedics, consultants, and dentists in England will receive a 3% pay rise backdated to April 2021.
The offer, announced by the Department of Health and Social Care this morning (22 July) is an improvement on the 1% increase the government had recommended earlier this year, but still lags significantly behind the RPI rate of inflation (3.9% as at June 2021).
NHS pay offer
Andy Murray condemns NHS 1% pay rise offer
The pay rise will mean the average nurse recieves an additional £1,000 a year, while many porters and cleaners will receive around £540.
However, unions have expressed their disappointment with the offer, with the British Medical Association stating that it will leave some doctors whose pay is covered by previously-agreed pay deals worse off.
BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “It is disappointing that today’s announcement of a 3% pay uplift for doctors in England does not adequately recognise the extraordinary contribution of doctors working in the most challenging period in their professional lives.
“Our members have been left exhausted, burned out and on the verge of physical and mental breaking point by the past 18 months. Junior doctors and GPs on multi-year pay deals in England have given just as much of themselves as all doctors to care for their patients – and yet have been callously disregarded in this pay award and will receive less than their peers.
“In all, doctors, including those on multi-year pay deals, have given the same care to their patients. In recognition the government should now ensure they are all given the same fair pay uplift and it is something we will be calling upon government to review and think again in the coming days.”
Health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said: “NHS staff are rightly receiving a pay rise this year despite the wider public sector pay pause, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts. We asked the independent pay review bodies for their recommendations and I’m pleased to accept them in full.
“We will back the NHS as we focus our efforts on getting through this pandemic and tackling the backlog of other health problems that has built up. I will continue to do everything I can to support all those in our health service who are working so tirelessly to care for patients.”
The Royal College of Nursing described the pay deal as a “bitter blow” to nursing staff in England, and said ministers are knowingly cutting pay for an experienced nurse by over £200 in real-terms.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “Hospitals and other parts of the NHS are struggling to recruit nurses and health care support workers. The government has been warned that many more are on the verge of leaving. With today’s decision, ministers have made it even harder to provide safe care to patients.
“This announcement is light on detail. It must be fully-funded with additional monies for the NHS and ringfenced for the workforce bill.
“Nursing staff will remain dignified in responding to what will be a bitter blow to many. But the profession will not take this lying down. We will be consulting our members on what action they would like to take next.”
In its written evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body in March, the Department of Health and Social Care recommended a headline pay award of 1% for the 2021/22 pay round. The government said this was all it could afford after the pandemic.
The Royal College of Nursing described the 1% pay offer as “painful and bitterly disappointing”, while NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens admitted that staff had been promised more.
Campaigners delivered a petition for a 15% pay rise for health and social care staff, signed by more than 780,000 people, to 10 Downing Street on Tuesday.
The petition, organised by NHS nurse Matthew Tovey, states that the average UK nurse has lost 20% of their income over the past decade and many are using food banks to get by.
“NHS workers have played a pivotal role in keeping this country going during the pandemic. It’s only fair that NHS staff are properly awarded for their hard work, and that’s why we’re calling for a 15% pay rise for all NHS staff,” the change.org petition says.
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Last month, research commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing claimed that NHS staff were being priced out of housing, with the average cost of a house now worth over seven years of a nurse’s total average pay, compared with five years’ pay in 2011.
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