General practice nurses (GPNs) in Scotland who are yet to receive a pay rise for this year have been urged to raise the issue with their employer and to get in contact with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
This comes after the Scottish Government confirmed in October that it had provided funding to GP practices to provide pay uplifts for their staff.
Nursing staff employed directly by GP practices in Scotland should receive a 5.5% pay increase for 2024/25, backdated to 1 April 2024.
This is in line with the Agenda for Change increase for NHS staff in the country, but slightly less than the recommended 6% uplift for GPs, as per the recommendations of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration Body (DDRB).
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Funding paid to practices through the Global Sum has been uplifted by 7.5% in Scotland this year.
This includes a 6.5% uplift to cover a 5.5% pay uplift for employed practice staff and a 6% increase to GP earnings, as well as other staff expenses. The other 1% uplift is intended to be for the growing number of registered patients.
As reported by our sister title Pulse, the British Medical Association’s GP Committee in Scotland said that whether the core funding uplift covers staff pay rises or not will ‘depend on each practice’s individual business model’ and the costs they have faced in the last year.
It said: ‘Unlike in each of the last two years, this year’s uplift may be sufficient to deliver on the DDRB’s recommended GP pay increase, which is above the rate of CPI inflation and is therefore a real terms increase on last year.
‘However, what it will not do is restore the funding lost to general practice in each of the last two years which we pressed both the DDRB and Scottish Government to do.’
Associate director of RCN Scotland, Norman Provan, said he would ‘expect all general practice employers who have received Scottish Government funding to have implemented this increase’.
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‘GP nursing staff play an essential role in delivering NHS services, but many of them still aren’t receiving the fair pay they deserve,’ he told Nursing in Practice.
Mr Provan urged those who had not yet received the increase to ‘raise this with their employer’ and pointed to the RCN’s recently created template intended to support GPNs in this process.
‘We also want to hear from RCN members who don’t receive the increase and backdated pay,’ he added.
A Nursing in Practice survey this month revealed that half of GPNs in the UK are still without a pay rise for 2024/25.
In August, NHS England made clear that it ‘firmly expected’ GP partners to use a government funding boost to implement a 6% pay rise for practice staff in full, backdated to April 1.
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As reported last week, practice nurses across Northern Ireland are continuing to wait for confirmation of a pay award for 2024/25 – as the government last week told unions it was not in a position to give GPs a full 6% pay rise as recommended.
In September, the Welsh Government said it wanted to see a ‘fair and proportionate’ pay rise for all general practice nurses (GPNs).
