Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Tuesday 11th August 2020

NHS nurses do an incredible job. The 2018 multi-year Agenda for Change deal delivered year on year pay increases for over a million staff. The salary for newly qualified nurses has risen by over 12%.

NHS staff are our greatest asset. In these most difficult of times and with ever increasing pressures on the NHS, they work incredibly hard, always putting patients first and keeping them safe whilst providing the high-quality care we all expect.

Nursing staff are already within a multi-year (2018/19 – 20/21) pay and contract reform deal. This deal was agreed in partnership with the NHS trade unions and has already delivered year on year pay increases for over one million NHS staff including raising the starting salary for a newly qualified nurse by over 12% to nearly £25,000. The deal has also shortened the amount of time it takes for a nurse to progress to the top of their band and ensured all staff have received pay increases above CPI inflation over the course of the deal.

Outside of multi-year pay deals the independent Pay Review Body process is the established mechanism for deciding pay increases for NHS staff. The process is intentionally designed to remove the potential conflicts that can often surround pay negotiations. The independent Pay Review Bodies make a number of considerations when formulating their recommendations. These include, but are not limited to, the cost of living and inflation, recruitment and retention, affordability and value for the taxpayer.

For recommendations on pay for nurses, the Government will look to the independent NHS Pay Review Body who will return to making pay recommendations for Agenda for Change staff from April 2021. NHS trade unions will of course be able to give evidence as part of the process. The Government takes the role and recommendations of Pay Review Bodies very seriously and always carefully considers the recommendations it receives.

In addition to basic pay, nursing staff can expect to receive additional premium rates of pay for working during unsocial hours, agreed overtime and for working in and around London. This can significantly increase the total take home pay a nurse receives.

The NHS employment and reward offer is about much more than pay and includes benefits that go well beyond the statutory minimum, such as a generous holiday allowance of up to 33 days and access to a much-valued pension scheme. We want to ensure that the NHS employment offer continues to attract, retain and reward staff and this offer continues to be kept under review.

The government have agreed that staff should receive full pay if they are off sick with COVID-19, or if they must follow advice to self-isolate, in order to help protect NHS staff and patients from the spread of the virus. It is vital we care for those that we all rely on to care for us. The NHS has introduced a free-to-use staff support line and text service which all NHS staff can use for support, signposting and confidential listening from trained respondents. NHS staff have also been given free access to a series of apps to support their mental health and wellbeing.

The recently published NHS People Plan (https://www.england.nhs.uk/ournhspeople/) sets out the support that NHS staff should expect from their leaders and from each other. The plan sets out practical actions for employers and systems, as well as the actions that NHS England and NHS Improvement and Health Education England will take, over the remainder of 2020/21. It includes specific commitments around:

Looking after our people – with quality health and wellbeing support for everyone

Belonging in the NHS – with a particular focus on tackling the discrimination that some staff face

New ways of working and delivering care – making effective use of the full range of our people’s skills and experience

Growing for the future – how we recruit and keep our people, and welcome back colleagues who want to return

Department of Health and Social Care

Parliamentary Debate

This petition has reached the threshold for a Parliamentary debate, but the debate has not been held. The Petitions Committee gave the following explanation.

The Petitions Committee recently scheduled a debate on several petitions calling for recognition and reward of health and social care workers, so the Committee has agreed not to schedule this petition for debate.