RCN begins to consult nursing staff on England pay award
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has today launched a consultation for its members in England to share their views on the 2024-25 NHS pay award.
The consultation asks nursing staff to vote on whether they accept or reject the deal, which is providing a 5.5% pay uplift for people on Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts.
“Nurses are the ever-present, safety-critical workforce across the whole of health and care”
Nicola Ranger
The results of the RCN’s consultation will determine the college’s next steps in its pay campaigning in England.
However, the way nurses vote will not affect whether they receive the pay award or not because the deal is being implemented by the government regardless.
As well as a 5.5% consolidated pay award across all bands, the UK Government also accepted other recommendations by the NHS Pay Review Body for 2024-25.
These included a recommendation to introduce intermediate pay points between bands 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d and 9 for staff to progress to after two years in those bands.
In addition, the government has agreed to provide the NHS Staff Council with a mandate to “begin to resolve outstanding concerns within the AfC pay structure”.
The RCN is not advising its members on which way they should vote.
Nicola Ranger
However, RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “Nurses are the ever-present, safety-critical workforce across the whole of health and care.
“Our wages do not reflect that and still won’t after this award.”
She said it would be up to nursing staff to decide, via the consultation, whether they felt the pay award was “enough of a start on our journey” to fair pay.
Looking further ahead, Professor Ranger promised: “We will be pushing government to show us their plans for improving NHS pay – it is vital to recruit and retain nursing staff, fill tens of thousands of vacant nurse jobs and give people the care they deserve.”
The RCN consultation closes on 16 September.
