NHS workers across England are set to receive a five per cent pay rise and cash top-up for last year, as ministers and unions finally agree a new pay deal in the long-running dispute between public sector workers and the Government.
The majority of unions holding staff for the Agenda for Change contract - which includes all NHS workers bar doctors, dentists and senior managers - voted in favour of the offer, which hopes to bring an end to further strikes.
Some fourteen unions representing staff on the contract have balloted hundreds of thousands of their members across the last few weeks, with the likes of Unison, GMB, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and the Royal College of Midwives among those voting to accept the offer.
The Royal College of Nursing and Unite however, voted against the terms. Health Secretary Steve Barclay hopes to implement the deal as soon as possible, as unions urge the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to ensure a rapid turnaround.
Ballot results were reported at an NHS Staff Council meeting today (May 2), where unions reported the results of their own individual ballots before voting on whether the Government should implement the proposal. The majority voted in favour of this, paving the way for the DHSC to impose the five per cent pay rise for this year, and cash boost covering last year.
Speaking on the decision, Steve, 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.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, added: "Health leaders will welcome confirmation that the NHS Staff Council has voted as a majority to accept the Government’s pay offer as it will give most NHS workers in England certainty about their pay after several months of negotiation and disruption.
“It is now incumbent on the Government to implement the deal as soon as possible and to make sure that local NHS leaders do not have to cover the increased cost from their existing budgets, failure to do this would have an extremely negative impact on patient care at a time when there are still millions of people on waiting lists.
“The Government promised previously that there will be no impact on frontline services or to the quality of care as a result of the offer, which must be reflected in the additional funding that now emerges. The budget set by the Chancellor in March only allowed for a 3.5 per cent rise, which falls short of the five per cent that has just been accepted by the NHS Staff Council.
“Also, health leaders are concerned that with four trade unions remaining in dispute with the Government over this deal that the worrying prospect of further industrial action remains. Added to that, health leaders are eager for a resolution to be agreed between the Government and BMA as the last junior doctors strikes saw 196,000 appointments and planned procedures needing to be postponed.
“So, while the NHS Staff Council outcome is very positive news overall, it is not the line in the sand that will allow the NHS and those relying on its care, to confidently move on from the threat of future strikes, or from the underlying issues affecting the NHS that led to this activity being felt as necessary in the first place.”
Speaking to the PA news agency following the announcement, Sara Gorton, who is the head of health at Unison, however said that the Government is 'very, very short of having a coherent workforce strategy'.
She said: "So one of the things that was really common for all through the whole dispute was that the clear message that was coming from every single member of NHS staff who was on strike whether they were a paramedic, a nurse, an occupational therapist, a physio, a dietician, whatever their occupation was people had a story to tell about the workforce crisis.
“So, not just pay but short staffing, morale, all of these issues that we wanted to work with Government on and this time last year we were asking, putting forward, a retention package and asking government to work with us to stop people leaving jobs that they love in the NHS for avoidable reasons and we may have worked out a way of resolving the pay dispute but we are very, very short of having a coherent workforce strategy in the NHS.
“The next step for Government has to be to work productively with trade unions, with employers, with other stakeholders and build a sustainable workforce strategy so that we are not pitched into this crisis in the next pay round.”
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