Nurses and other healthcare staff across Scotland have been offered a pay increase of 5.5% for 2024-25.
The announcement follows weeks of negotiations between health trade unions, the Scottish government and NHS employers.
The offer, if accepted by trade union members, will be backdated to 1 April 2024 for almost 170,000 NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) staff, including nurses and midwives.
Responding to the NHS pay offer from Scottish government, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland’s director Colin Poolman said: ‘It has taken months of pressure from the RCN and other health trade unions to get to this point. Nursing staff are rightly frustrated that the Scottish government has kept them waiting while the cost of living has continued to increase.’
He added: ‘Nursing staff are the ever-present, safety critical workforce across the whole of health and care. Our wages do not reflect this and still won’t after today. Fair pay is vital to recruiting and retaining nursing staff, to filling the thousands of vacant nurse jobs and giving people the care they deserve.’
Scottish health secretary Neil Gray commented: ‘Following weeks of constructive engagement with trade union representatives, I am pleased to have agreed an offer, in recognition of the Pay Review Body recommendations, that will ensure Scotland’s nurses and NHS staff have the best pay package in the UK. The unions will now consult their members and I hope it will be accepted.
‘I want to express my thanks again to Scotland’s hardworking healthcare staff for their commitment and patience – they are the very backbone of the NHS and we are committed to supporting them, particularly during a cost of living crisis. I am grateful for the continued efforts around the table and that the trade unions will now put this to their members.’
Last month, the RCN in England announced plans to make ‘urgent representations’ to ensure general practice nurses (GPNs) are given a pay rise in line with the 5.5% announced for those working in the NHS.
Most GPNs will be excluded from this rise because they are independently employed by GP practices and largely not on AfC terms.
More to follow.
