“It is time to deliver both better pay and pay modernisation for nursing staff.”
Nurses in England are earning up to £8,000 less than they would have if pay had kept pace with inflation, according to new analysis by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The report confirms there’s been a 20 percent real-terms pay cut for Band 5 nurses, typically newly qualified staff, whose earnings have stagnated since 2010, despite growing workloads and responsibilities.
These nurses, often stuck on the same band for their entire careers, have faced a series of below-inflation pay rises, leading to a cumulative loss of £70,000 over 15 years until 2025. The RCN warns that “collapsing” wages are driving a workforce crisis, undermining patient care and threatening the success of the NHS’s 10-Year Health Plan.
That plan, entitled “Fit for the Future,” promises a shift from hospital to community care, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. But according to Patricia Marquis, executive director of RCN England, those goals are incompatible with a demoralised, underpaid workforce:
Nursing staff are “tired of playing constant financial catch-up, often struggling to pay rent or get on the housing ladder,” said Marquis.
“Attracting and keeping talented people should be the government’s priority, but that requires them to do better on nursing pay,” she added.
Tens of thousands of nurses are now voting in the RCN’s pay award consultation
“Our members are voting in their tens of thousands and making their voices heard on this pay award. Ministers must realise that the only sensible choice left to them is to negotiate directly with the largest health care workforce,” Marquis continued.
“It is time to deliver both better pay and pay modernisation for nursing staff.”
The research follows the British Medical Association’s (BMA) announcement that resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, in England will strike for five consecutive days on July 25 due to an ongoing pay dispute with the government.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting insists there will be no further movement on pay but says he is willing to meet with unions to discuss working conditions. The RCN is calling on the government to “deliver both better pay and pay modernisation” and to negotiate directly with what remains the largest workforce in the NHS.
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