Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the pay of community staff nurses rises in line with inflation.

Dr Daniel Poulter

In 2012 the Chancellor announced that public sector pay awards would be capped at an average of 1% in 2013-14 and at an average of up to 1% in 2014-15.

The National Health Service’s greatest asset is its staff who deserve to be properly rewarded for the hard work they do in looking after patients. In the NHS, incremental pay costs almost £1 billion. In our evidence to the Pay Review Bodies we were clear that the NHS is facing the most significant financial challenge in its history and that trusts could not afford to pay all staff 1% which would cost £450 million (about £350 million for non-medical staff) and increments which for most staff is over 3.5% on average. The NHS cannot afford to employ more staff, pay them more and pay for increments.

This year, all NHS staff should receive an additional payment of 1% either through their incremental pay or via a pay award if they are no longer eligible to receive incremental pay.

In the wake of the Francis Inquiry, our first priority must be to protect and properly staff the front line so staff are confident that they will have the right number of colleagues working alongside them in hospitals or in patient’s homes. We have to make difficult decisions in order to protect frontline patient care. Giving all NHS staff a 1% pay award is equivalent to employing around 14,000 new nurses and could result in unsafe care.

We know that NHS staff are disappointed that they did not receive the pay award they were expecting. Our door remains open to discussions with trade unions on how consolidated pay awards for all NHS staff can be made affordable in each of the next two years.