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Your England NHS pay award is here
Is this increase enough? Get ready to have your say and check your details are up to date
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On 22 May, the Westminster government announced the NHS pay award for nursing staff employed on Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts in England. Ministers accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) and awarded a 3.6% pay increase across all bands, backdated to 1 April 2025.
In a, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting said none of the pay increases will be paid for by cutting frontline services. He also said: "We are working closely with payroll systems to ensure staff receive their backdated pay uplifts from August.”
A pay award in Wales was announced – a 3.6% pay increase across all bands, backdated to 1 April 2025. A 3.6% award has also been announced in Northern Ireland.
Seven weeks late, this pay award will not make nursing staff feel valued. Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: “This pay award is entirely swallowed up by inflation and does nothing to change the status quo – where nursing is not valued, too few enter the profession and too many quit.”
We’ve continued to call for direct negotiations with the government. AfC is now more than 20 years old, and since then, nursing has evolved beyond recognition.
In Scotland, our members have already voted to accept a higher pay award. Scotland had direct negotiations with the Scottish government.
“Agenda for Change is out of date and a barrier to the government’s own NHS reforms. It stops progression, trapping nursing staff at the same pay band their entire careers despite decades of experience. Only through proper pay and career reform can the government show it values nursing as the highly skilled, safety-critical profession it is today. Higher starting salaries and paths to progression are how we fill tens of thousands of vacancies and ensure patients get the best care,” Nicola said.
Is 3.6% enough?
Eligible members will be able to take part in a consultation on the award. Check your details are up to date to make sure you can vote and we will be in touch soon about the consultation opening.
At RCN Congress, Nicola set out to ministers across the UK a clear pathway for progression for nursing. In her speech, she laid out proposals for newly registered nurses to progress to band 6, following a period of preceptorship, as the new minimum. The detail of our case for change is published in a report.
Nicola said: “Nursing staff have suffered 15 years of pay erosion and this award is symptomatic of a broken system which erodes our pay each year and keeps nursing staff weighted to the bottom. Now, hundreds of thousands of our members in the NHS will be given a vote on this award. They will ultimately decide if it is enough and whether they feel valued.
“By attaching themselves to a failed pay review body process and refusing to enter direct talks with unions, ministers ignored the nursing workforce crisis and charted the course for it to deepen.”
You are eligible to vote if you work in the NHS in England on an AfC contract.
Check your details are up to date, including your band, to make sure you can vote.
