NHS pay: your increase is late

NHS nursing staff face another delay in pay, as Westminster government fails to deliver this year's NHS pay increase for England on time.

We've condemned the government for the delay and say tackling low pay in the nursing profession starts with providing annual pay awards on time. With the start of a new financial year, the government hasn't confirmed when it will deliver the 2025/26 NHS pay awards, despite health secretary Wes Streeting saying, “the government’s intention is to announce pay awards as close to the start of the pay year of 1 April as possible”.

Each day that passes without an offer is another day the government leaves nursing staff in the dark.

In December 2024, the UK government confirmed in its evidence to the Pay Review Body that it had only budgeted for a 2.8% uplift to staff pay. We described the figure at the time as ‘deeply offensive’ and we’re reiterating calls for a significant pay rise. Repeated below-inflation pay awards have caused nursing pay to fall in real terms by around a quarter since 2010/11.

We’re also demanding the government deliver structural pay reform. After more than 20 years, three-quarters of RCN members are on the two lowest pay bands possible for registered professionals and weighted to the bottom of the pay and grading structure.

This late offer has an effect in other parts of the UK, too. In Northern Ireland and Wales, decisions made by Westminster impact on the funding respective governments receive to cover nursing pay in health and social care. In Scotland, negotiations over NHS pay are ongoing.

RCN Director of Legal and Member Relations, Jo Galbraith-Marten, said: “Nursing staff deliver the vast majority of care in our NHS and are crucial to keeping patients safe, but yet again we won’t see a pay rise arrive on time. The government is failing to deliver the change it promised.

“There are 10s of thousands of empty nursing posts, student recruitment is collapsing and the numbers quitting nursing early is skyrocketing. By delaying a pay award, ministers are charting course for the nursing crisis to deepen.

“After well over a decade of seeing their pay eroded, nursing staff desperately need a fair pay rise. If ministers have any hopes of recruiting and retaining enough nursing staff to deliver their reforms, they need to act with urgency.” 

This delay comes as the chancellor announced cuts to welfare and universal credit provisions. We've already warned these could harm vulnerable people, such as those with disabilities and long-term health conditions.

Reducing pressure on health care services will not be achievable unless there's substantial investment in the nursing profession, and the pressure continues with nursing student numbers falling and the retention crisis deepening. 

The number of people applying to study nursing is at a record low, according to UCAS. There's been a 34% fall in the number of people applying to study nursing in the UK, meanwhile there was a 67% increase in the number leaving the NMC register after just five years.

Turning around the staffing crisis is critical for patient safety. We outlined this in a series of recommendations to the government ahead of NHS workforce and 10-year plans and the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. 

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