Thank you for contacting me about NHS pay.
The focus, dedication and commitment of people working in the NHS is exemplary. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their courage and steadfastness during the Covid-19 pandemic. The independent pay review bodies provide a recommendation on the level of pay for NHS staff, doctors and dentists and the Government has accepted their recommendation in full.
This means that over a million NHS staff benefitted from another pay rise last year on top of the three per cent increase they received in 2020 when pay was frozen in the wider public sector. Staff including nurses, paramedics and midwives, received a pay rise of at least £1,400 with the lowest earners receiving an increase of up to 9.3 per cent. Doctors and dentists received a 4.5 per cent pay rise.
The NHS’s non-medical workforce, which includes nurses and paramedics, has received a cumulative pay rise of over 18 per cent in the last five years while consultants have received a cumulative pay rise of around 15 per cent. The average nurse’s salary has increased from £32,385 in 2018/19 to £37,000 in 2022/23.
While I appreciate there are calls for further pay rises, I believe that pay should deliver value for the taxpayer and be careful not to drive inflation even higher. In formulating its recommendations, the Pay Review Bodies consider evidence from a range of stakeholders, including NHS system partners and trade unions and factors such as recruitment, retention, morale, motivation, affordability and the economic context, including inflation and the labour market. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has formally commenced the 2023-24 pay round and wrote to the Chair of the NHS Pay Review Body on 16 November 2022 to ask for recommendations for the Agenda for Change workforce from April 2023.