Responding to the opening of the consultation on a pay spine for nursing staff in the NHS, Royal College of Nursing General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said:
“The current pay scale turns 20 years old this year and no longer reflects the skills and expertise in nursing today.
“Despite many years of experience, the vast majority of nurses are on the lowest pay bands possible. The current system only rewards people the further away they get from patient care. This approach is poor for patients and works against career progression for a nurse. Automatic pay band progression is afforded to some staff groups and never to nurses – it is unfair and unsustainable.
“The genuine advance back in 2004 is ailing the profession today – the pay structure has not kept pace with nursing progress. Our workforce is 90 per cent female and a new structure can remove the gender disadvantages at present and dispel completely the idea that nursing is less skilled, women’s work and worthy of low pay and poor treatment.
“Across the OECD, nurses typically earn 20 per cent more than the national average salary but that is not the case here. Record unfilled nurse jobs in recent years are a sign of structural problems as well as underinvestment by the government. As the largest profession in health and care, nursing staff deserve a fresh place in the NHS and not more years of poor pay rises and no wider reform.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The nursing pay spine was first proposed to RCN members by the government in spring of 2023.
On average across OECD countries, the remuneration of hospital nurses in 2021 was 20% above the average wage of all employees. However, in the United Kingdom nurses make less than the average worker.
The most common grade for NHS nurses and health visitors is Band 5, which accounts for about 43% of the nurse and health visitor workforce in the NHS in England (NHS England Workforce Statistics, September 2023).
For other professions within Agenda for Change, progression from Band 5 to Band 6 is more common. For some professions it is effectively automatic, for example, the newly qualified paramedic pathway means that paramedics start on Band 5 and progress to Band 6 after two years.
In Agenda for Change, there is no automatic progression through the bands for nursing staff without being promoted.
