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Government make new pay offer for NHS staff in England

MiP

UPDATE: 28 March 2023

The member consultation on the new NHS pay offer for NHS Agenda for Change staff in England is now open and will close on Friday 14 April. The consultation is being run by UNISON, however all MiP members who are on Agenda for Change and working in England are eligible to take part.

All eligible MiP members will receive a unique link by email directly from UNISON. By following this link, you will be able to cast your vote in the consultation process. Further details are available here. 

If you have not received your email by Monday 3 April, please contact MiP head office.

 

Following months of strike action, the UK government have made a new and significantly improved pay offer for NHS staff in England.

The offer comprises of an additional lump sum payment (varying per pay band) for the 2022/23 pay round on top of the £1,400 consolidated payment awarded last year, a 5% permanent percentage increase to salary from April 2023, and a number of non-pay elements which will be discussed for possible implementation through the NHS Staff Council in England. Please read on below for full details of the offer.

All industrial action is suspended while members are consulted on the offer. The consultation timeline will be finalised shortly and MiP members will be updated as soon as a date for the ballot opening as been set.

The offer will apply to NHS Agenda for Change staff in England only. It will not apply to very senior and executive managers (VSM/ESMs) who are covered by separate pay process which is yet to make a recommendation for executive pay for 2023/24. It also will not directly apply to NHS staff working in the devolved nations of the UK, however there will likely be a Barnett consequential if the offer is accepted, meaning devolved nations will receive a share of the additional investment (relative to their population) which will likely be passed to NHS staff in some form. 

MiP will keep VSM/ESM members, and members working in the devolved nations updated directly on their own pay.

Commenting on the offer, Jon Restell Chief Executive of MiP said:

“It’s been a long road to get here, but thanks to the resilience of members and colleagues throughout the NHS and their willingness to take strike action over this year’s unacceptable award, we finally have a reasonable offer from government we can put to our members.

“The government could have prevented a lot of hardship for staff and patients by entering negotiations when it was clear staff wouldn’t accept the initial award. It was only through industrial action that ministers opened talks, so a huge amount of credit has to go to staff for standing strong in their fight for fairer pay and a safely staffed NHS.

“It was NHS staff who got us here and it will be NHS staff who decide what happens next. MiP members will be included in UNISON’s consultative ballot which is due to open very soon and end in mid-April. UNISON are recommending members accept this offer as they believe it is the best that can be achieved through negotiation and rejection could result in ministers taking it off the table.

“The decision however, is for members to make. Whatever the outcome, they will be backed by MiP.”

What is the offer?

For the 2022/23 pay year, the government have offered two additional lump sum payments which are non-consolidated and therefore not pensionable. This means they are one-off payments and will not be added to your annual salary going forward.

The payments consist of:

  • A payment worth 2% of annual salary to all staff
  • A tiered ‘covid backlog bonus’ payment depending on band (with an average value of 4% of annual salary)

The percentage element and the backlog bonus are added together to give the total non-consolidated payment for 2022/23. This lump sum payment is on top of the £1,400 consolidated pay rise already awarded.

The total non-consolidated payments for the entry and top points of bands 8-9 work out as:

  • Band 8a:
    • Entry: £2,321
    • Top: £2,442 
  • Band 8b:
    • Entry: £2,573
    • Top: £2,755 
  • Band 8c:
    • Entry: £,2791
    • Top: £2,995 
  • Band 8d:
    • Entry: £3,142
    • Top: £3,386 
  • Band 9:
    • Entry: £3,503
    • Top: £3,789

The above non-consolidated payments will be issued pro-rata if an NHS worker worked only part-time of the 2022/23 pay year.

For the 2023/24 pay round, beginning on April 1 2023, the government have offered NHS staff a consolidated pay increase of 5% to annual salary. This means the award is a permanent increase to your salary and therefore is pensionable.

The payment consists of:

  • A consolidated payment to all staff of 5%
  • Further investment to create a new band 2 single pay point – by increasing the bottom of band 2 by 10.4%. This will see entry-level pay in the NHS increase to £11.45 per hour, above the Real Living wage

The total consolidated payments and the new base salary for the entry and top points of bands 8-9 work out as:

  • Band 8a:
    • Entry: £2,426 – 2023/24 salary: £50,952
    • Top: £2,730. 2023/24 salary: £57,349 
  • Band 8b:
    • Entry: £2,808 – 2023/24 salary: £58,972
    • Top: £3,263 – 2023/24 salary: £65,262 
  • Band 8c:
    • Entry: £,3,353 – 2023/24 salary: £70,417
    • Top: £3,864 – 2023/24 salary: £81,138 
  • Band 8d:
    • Entry: £3,979 – 2023/24 salary: £83,571
    • Top: £4,589 – 2023/24 salary: £96,376
  • Band 9:
    • Entry: £4,756 – 2023/24 salary: £99,891
    • Top: £5,474 – 2023/24 salary: £114,949

The above figures reflect base salary from April 2023. This pay will be backdated to April 2023 if the pay offer is accepted and implemented later than April 2023.

There are also a number of non-pay elements which have been agreed to be discussed as part of the overall offer. It should be noted that the agreement commits government, NHS employers and trade unions to only discuss and consider solutions to these areas facilitated by the NHS Staff Council. There is no guarantee as part of the agreed offer that these non-pay elements will result in policy in change. The agreement is that the NHS Staff Council will look into these areas and make recommendations by April 2024.

The non-pay measures include commitments to look into the following areas:

  • Building a workforce for the future
  • Support to nursing staff
  • Career development and support
  • The pay setting process (including the NHS PRB)
  • £100K cap for redundancy payments
  • Tackling violence and aggression
  • Pension abatement

 

For full details of the overall offer, including full salary and payment breakdowns for each band and for further information on the non-pay elements, please see the NHS Employers website here.

 

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