Scottish Government implements overdue 5.5% NHS pay deal

However, unions have warned the Scottish Government that it is “not acceptable” that the deal has come almost six months late.

“This delay has financial consequences for our members and the service and is not acceptable”

Scottish NHS unions

The Agenda for Change deal, which covers 2024-25 and will be backdated to 1 April 2024, matches the 5.5% pay increase rolled out in England and Wales for this financial year.

However, due to better pay deals in previous years, nurses in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK.

The deal means that a newly registered nurse in the Scottish NHS will now be paid £31,892, compared to £29,970 in the English NHS.

After the Scottish Government made its offer in August, health unions balloted their members on whether they wanted to accept or reject it.

All unions saw their membership give the offer the green light.

Following a meeting yesterday of the Scottish Terms and Conditions (STAC) Staff Side Committee, unions jointly wrote to the Scottish Government today to agree to the offer.

Now, health secretary Neil Gray has confirmed that the deal will come into effect from next month.

He said: “I am pleased that trade unions have unanimously agreed to accept this pay offer, which ensures that nurses and healthcare staff in Scotland, who are part of Agenda for Change, will have the best reward package in the UK.

“I want to express my thanks again to Scotland’s hardworking healthcare staff for the care they provide to patients, day in, day out.

“They are the very backbone of the NHS and we are committed to ensuring they feel supported and valued.”

Despite accepting the pay rise, unions outlined their frustration at the lateness of the deal and laid out further demands for Agenda for Change “modernisation” in the future.

In their letter to Mr Gray, seen by Nursing Times, the unions noted that the final pay offer came 200 days after their pay claim was lodged on 2 February 2024.

“This delay has financial consequences for our members and the service and is not acceptable,” they warned.

They said “immediate and active discussion” needed to take place for 2025-26 to ensure that an offer is put forward before the due date of 1 April 2025.

In addition, the unions called for a commitment from the Scottish Government for discussion on further Agenda for Change “moderinsation”.

“They are the very backbone of the NHS and we are committed to ensuring they feel supported and valued”

Neil Gray

The unions raised concern about the possibility of NHS workers in Scotland being “left behind UK colleagues” on the matter of pay modernisation and said this needed to be avoided.

It comes as, as part of the 2023-24 NHS pay deal, the Scottish Government agreed to a number of reforms including implementing a shorter working week and a pledge to review all band 5 nursing roles to check if anyone is working above their pay grade and needs to be up-banded.

In their letter today, the unions said that these reforms needed to be “honoured and progressed in the manner expected”.

Matt McLaughlin, lead organiser for health at Unison Scotland and secretary of the STAC Staff Side Committee, reiterated the unions’ anger over the lateness of the deal and noted how the delay could affect health workers’ benefits.

He told Nursing Times: “Whilst NHS unions in Scotland have accepted this offer there is significant anger across the unions that by the time our members see the full benefit of the pay deal it will have been almost 250 days after the 1 April pay anniversary date.

“That simply isn’t good enough; it adds pressure to already under-resourced payroll teams and could mean that members who are in receipt of in-work benefits could see their benefits stopped just before Christmas.”

While the agreement does contain a provision that will allow workers in receipt of in-work benefits to receive their back pay by instalments, Mr McLaughlin said staff should not have been put in this position in the first place.

“Despite a provision for instalments the prospect of losing out on in-work benefits will be a major anxiety for some staff,” he warned.

“It is therefore important that whilst we support people through this this year, we need to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

“This can be easily achieved by government coming to the negotiating table in a timely manner.”

For the past few years, the Scottish Government has opted to negotiate NHS pay awards directly with unions and employers rather than using the NHS Pay Review Body.

This approach means that, unlike in England where pay awards are enforced, Scottish health workers and unions get a say on the pay offer before it is implemented.

The deal being approved means NHS nurses in England, Wales and Scotland have all received a 5.5% pay increase for 2024-25, while their counterparts in Northern Ireland are still awaiting a deal.