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NHS Agenda for Change staff, including hospital pharmacists, should receive a 2.8% pay uplift for 2025/2026, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said.
In written evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, published on 10 December 2024, the government said: “DHSC has set aside a total of 2.8% to invest in pay for the Agenda for Change workforce in 2025 to 2026.”
It added that it views this “as a reasonable amount to have set aside based on the macroeconomic data and forecasts and taking into account the fiscal and labour market context”.
NHS England also recommended a 2.8% pay uplift in its submission to the NHS Pay Review Body, saying that it had based its view on the “likely NHS budget from discussions to date with DHSC” and the 2024 autumn budget.
“Based on this, we propose to set allocations for NHS planning on the basis of a 2.8% pay settlement. Every 0.5% increase above that costs around £700m; which is the equivalent to around 2% of elective activity (greater than 300k completed patient pathways),” it added.
In July 2024, the government offered a 5.5% pay uplift to NHS staff in England for 2024/2025, in line with a recommendation by the NHS Pay Review Body.
Unite the Union — which represents NHS staff and includes members of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) — announced in September 2024 that members had voted to accept the offer, saying that “two-thirds of Unite members working [for the NHS in England] have voted to say that they approve the government’s decision to offer a 5.5% pay increase for 2024/2025″.
Sharon Graham, general secretary at Unite, described the recommended pay uplift for 2025/2026 as an “insult”.
“The NHS recruitment and retention crisis will not be solved without taking the issue of restorative pay seriously. The NHS still desperately needs to attract more workers after 14 years of below-inflation pay increases,” she said.
“This latest below-inflation pay recommendation is an insult to dedicated NHS staff and further evidence that the [NHS] Pay Review Body is broken beyond repair.”
“Unite has long been saying that NHS pay concerns must be resolved through direct negotiations with government,” Graham added.
Rob Connah, president of the GHP, said: “The proposed pay recommendation of 2.8% does not address restorative pay for staff on Agenda for Change.
“Real-terms pay has been decimated for over ten years. People should consider recent increases in their outgoings, such as mortgages, rent, utilities and food bills in addition to inflation, and how 2.8% would compare to those.”
NHS Agenda for Change staff in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also a received a 5.5% pay increase for 2024/2025, after accepting the UK government’s offer in July 2024.
Unite announced in September 2024 that 93% of its members had voted to accept the NHS Scotland pay offer.
