Health Secretary quote on NHS Staff Council accepting pay offer

Quote from the Health and Social Care Secretary in response to the NHS Staff Council accepting the government’s pay offer.

Health and Social Secretary Steve Barclay said:

“I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal.

“It is now my intention to implement this for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract and where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members – many of whom voted to accept this offer – will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.  

"We will continue to engage constructively with unions on workforce changes to ensure the NHS is the best place to work for staff, patients and taxpayers."  

Background:

• We plan for staff to receive this in their pay packets this summer.
• Under the offer, an Agenda for Change employee at the Band 6 entry point – such as a physiotherapist, paramedic or a midwife – will receive over £5,100 in extra pay across last year and this year, with over £2,000 in bonus payments arriving as a lump sum in pay cheques before the summer.
• Our offer means staff working on the lower bands, such as Band 1 and 2 will be earning £11.45 per hour on average in 2023/24, that’s significantly above the national living wage (9.9% above NLW).
• DHSC’s media blog can be found here: https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/11/30/nhs-industrial-action-media-fact-sheet-2/
• We are absolutely committed to ensuring the NHS has the funding it needs to deliver for patients. There will be no impact on frontline services or quality of care that patients receive as a result of this offer.
• DHSC is working with the Treasury to ensure the department has the money it needs to fully fund this pay offer.
• There is already funding available for up to a 3.5% pay increase within DHSC’s existing budgets – funding on top of that will come from a combination of reprioritisation and additional funding, which is new money for DHSC.