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Learn about our campaign and see how you can get involved
Nursing staff are chronically undervalued. Despite nursing being a highly skilled, degree-educated, safety-critical profession, outdated pay structures mean that many nursing staff begin and end their careers at the same pay level.
The situation is critical. Poor pay and working conditions are forcing staff to leave nursing. Almost half of the thousands of frontline NHS staff we recently surveyed say they’re actively planning or considering leaving their job.
We know that when nursing staff are paid fairly, offered career progression and work in fully staffed teams, they're more likely to stay in the profession.
We need members and supporters to come together to demand pay justice, improved career progression and safe staffing measures to address the workforce crisis in our health systems and deliver the recognition nursing staff deserve.
In January 2024, the UK government launched a consultation to explore the creation of a separate pay structure, also known as a pay spine, for nursing staff working for the NHS in England.
Our members helped shape our response to the consultation. In April, we submitted our response.
We balloted our members in England on their 2024/25 pay award.
By rising up together, our members sent a clear message that they expect more for themselves, their patients and the NHS they believe in. Our profession is undervalued and even the highest consolidated pay award in over a decade is not enough.
The Department of Health has offered a 5.5% pay award for Health and Social Care (HSC) staff on Agenda for Change contracts in Northern Ireland. We're currently consulting eligible members on whether to accept or reject this pay offer.
We’ll keep putting pressure on the Health Minister to achieve a pay award that recognises the vital contribution of nursing staff.
We balloted our members in Scotland on their 2024/25 pay award.
They told us that the 5.5% pay increase does not make up for the years of being undervalued but it is another step on the journey to fair pay.
Our campaign continues and there's still much to do to ensure the safety critical role of nursing is recognised and rewarded.
We balloted our members in Wales on their 2024/25 pay award.
Our members told us that, after years of underpayment, the 5.5% pay award fails to match the safety-critical nature of their work and the extensive skills they bring to the NHS.
We're calling on governments across the UK to show that they value nursing as the skilled and safety-critical profession it is. Politicians must:
Governments can use different routes to determine pay increases. Often governments in the UK ask review bodies to look at evidence and make recommendations on public sector pay before ministers set an award.
The Westminster government decides pay awards for NHS staff employed on Agenda for Change contracts in England following recommendations from the NHS Pay Review Body. Governments in Wales and Northern Ireland do the same for NHS staff in their respective countries, though they are often influenced by decisions made by the Westminster government. In Scotland, for the past few years, we have negotiated NHS pay directly with the Scottish government.
This year, we're calling for a new approach. We want nursing to have direct influence in pay negotiations, not to submit evidence and wait months to hear an outcome. Recent awards and events show that the NHS Pay Review Body is not currently functioning in a way that our members can have confidence in.
We're calling for direct negotiations with the government over NHS pay and pay structures in England to address the long-standing issues nursing staff face. This decision has been taken by fellow RCN members you’ve elected to the Trade Union Committee. They're supported by our Council in the interest of all our members, the patients and communities we serve, and the NHS.
We support the government’s aims to rebuild the NHS, to move towards prevention and to modernise the way care is delivered. But time is running out and our members need action and clarity on their future now. That's why we're offering to get round the table for meaningful discussions.
For years, we’ve called for revised national nursing role profiles, so that nursing staff are graded correctly from the outset.
Progress is now being made by NHS Staff Council’s Job Evaluation Group to update job profiles to accurately reflect the duties of modern nursing at each pay band. But revised job profiles don’t go far enough.
Nurses on the island offered a 4% rise for 2024/25.
23 Sep 2024
Two-thirds of members who voted said the 5.5% pay award isn’t enough.
25 Jul 2024
NHS pay bands must recognise the skills and experience of nursing staff.
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Page last updated - 17/12/2024
