GP practices must ensure nurses are not ‘left out again’ from a 6% pay increase that is expected for practice staff across England this year, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has urged.
The government has confirmed it will increase funding for general practice in England – known as the global sum – by £311m to support a staff pay rise and ensure practices ‘have the resources they need’.
It comes after the government’s decision to accept a 6% pay rise for GPs and other practice staff for 2024/25, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).
However, concerns have been raised around whether the funding – which equates to a 7.4% uplift to the global sum – will be enough to support the 6% rise recommended.
A similar situation last year saw almost half of GPNs go without a pay rise at all and more than three-quarters miss out on the full 6% pay rise that had also been promised for 2023/24.
Executive director of RCN England Patricia Marquis said this must not be repeated this year.
‘Nursing staff will be pleased to see ministers confirm a long-overdue uplift in funding for general practice, including that to deliver the government’s recommended increase in pay,’ she said.
‘We expect nursing staff to receive the pay rise they deserve along with their GP colleagues.’
She added: ‘We know that a significant number of our members working in general practice did not receive the full pay rise they were promised by government last year, with almost half saying they received no pay rise at all.
‘There must be transparency from practices to ensure this is not repeated and nursing staff are not left out again.’
Amanda Doyle, NHS England (NHSE) national director for primary care, said: ‘GPs and their teams are central to the NHS but across the country they are under huge pressure and working incredibly hard to deliver millions more appointments for patients compared to before the pandemic.’
She added that the pay rise was ‘welcome’, but acknowledged ‘there is more to do’ to improve primary care for staff and patients.
In July, the RCN announced plans for ‘urgent representations’ to ensure GPNs are given a pay rise that was at least in line with the 5.5% announced for their NHS colleagues.
NHS England later said that the uplift to the global sum is calculated to cover all practice staff, and it therefore ‘firmly expects’ GP partners to award the full 6% pay rise to GPNs and other practice staff.
The uplift is the latest in a series of changes made by Labour since it came into government in July.
Last month, the government also added GPs to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) – which can be used by primary care networks to reimburse some staff salaries – in an ‘emergency measure’ to address the recruitment crisis around doctors.
