General practice nurses (GPNs) have been urged to write to their employers asking for confirmation of a 6% pay rise for 2024/25.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has issued a template letter that GPNs can use to send to their GP practices to seek clarification on their pay.
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Earlier this year, the government accepted a 6% pay rise for GPs and other salaried practice staff, including nurses, for 2024/25.
And it confirmed it would 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’.
However, a similar situation last year saw many GPNs miss out on the full 6% pay rise that had also been promised for 2023/24, because of funding issues.
The RCN has now created a template letter for GP nursing staff to use to send to their employers if they have not had an update about this year’s pay increase, or if their employer is not being ‘transparent’ about the pay they should receive.
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Last month, RCN director for England Patricia Marquis told Nursing in Practice she was ‘very hopeful’ that many GPNs would get a better pay rise for 2024/25 than they did last year.
Speaking in September, she said: ‘If they don’t then that for us is more justifiable for us to be cross this year than it was last year.’
In February an RCN survey revealed that almost half (44%) of general practice nursing staff in England had not received a pay rise last year.
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The survey, of almost 1,500 nursing staff employed by GP practices in England found that over three-quarters (77%) did not receive the full 6% pay rise practice staff were promised the summer before.
Only one in five (20%) of respondents said they received 6% pay award, and of those, 19% were not given back pay to April 2023.
