The government has been urged to deliver on this year’s pay increase for NHS nurses and colleagues by unions representing them.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Unison and Unite have today all condemned delays to the NHS pay uplift, which should have been implemented for the start of the new financial year today.
It is not yet known when the government will deliver the 2025/26 NHS pay award, despite health and social care secretary Wes Streeting previously committing to a pay announcement as close to April 1 ‘as possible.’
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How is the delay affecting nursing?
Last December, the UK Government confirmed in its evidence to the pay review body that it had only budgeted for a 2.8% uplift to NHS and general practice staff pay.
The RCN previously dismissed this offer as ‘deeply offensive’, adding that below-inflation pay awards have caused nursing pay to fall in real terms by around a quarter since 2010/11.
The RCN says that delays to a pay uplift in England is impacting other UK nations, with RCN Wales warning that nurses are being left ‘out of pocket’.
NHS pay negotiations in Scotland are currently ongoing, while Northern Ireland is also yet to introduce a formal pay uplift.
RCN director of legal and member relations, Jo Galbraith-Marten, said the government was ‘failing to deliver the change it promised’.
‘By delaying a pay award, ministers are charting course for the nursing crisis to deepen,’ she said.
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‘After well over a decade of seeing their pay eroded, nursing staff desperately need a fair pay rise. If ministers have any hopes of recruiting and retaining enough nursing staff to deliver their reforms, they need to act with urgency.’
Meanwhile, Unison head of health Helga Pile said: ‘NHS staff have had their hopes of a prompt pay rise dashed once again.
‘Knowing how key they are to the government’s NHS pledges, health workers had been banking on ministers pulling out all the stops on pay this year. But they’ve been left disappointed.’
Government ‘working to improve’ pay timetable
A government spokesperson said the government had committed to ‘improving the timetable for the pay round going forward’, explaining how the government started this year’s pay process ‘over two months earlier’ than previous years.
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‘We know there is further work to do, and we will build on that for future pay rounds,’ the spokesperson said.
