NHS Workforce

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Thursday 22nd May 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

Today I am formally accepting the headline pay recommendations for NHS staff from the NHS Pay Review Body, the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration, and the Senior Salaries Review Body. We are working closely with payroll systems to ensure staff receive their backdated pay uplifts from August.

I hugely appreciate the work of so many talented staff across the NHS. Accepting these recommendations gives them the pay rise they deserve. These awards are above forecast inflation over the 2025-26 pay year, meaning that the Government are delivering a real-terms pay rise, on top of the one provided last year, underlining the extent to which we value our nurses, doctors, and other NHS staff. These pay awards sit alongside wider work to improve the support NHS staff receive and their experience at work. This includes our recent announcements on tackling violence and aggression, improving nursing career progression and job evaluation and supporting newly qualified staff. Improving the experience of work is fundamental to improving the patient experience, from reducing the backlog in elective care to ensuring timely access to GP appointments.

I am grateful to all chairs and members of the NHSPRB, DDRB and SSRB for their thoughtful consideration of the evidence presented to them, and their reports that recognise the vital contribution that NHS staff and leadership make to our country. The pay review bodies have examined the economic picture and evidence on recruitment, retention, motivation and morale to reach their recommendations. Through their deliberations, they have made recommendations above the level we stated as affordable in our evidence. I am however accepting their headline pay recommendations as fair and well-evidenced uplifts for public servants. To maintain financial prudence, I have had to make difficult decisions on other areas of spend to afford these uplifts.

This Government have shown their willingness to make the difficult decisions needed to improve outcomes for the public from the health system. Over the past few months, we have identified how extra funds will be freed up by cutting duplication and waste, and through abolishing NHS England, and reshaping and reducing integrated care board costs by 50% to empower NHS staff and deliver better care for patients. Through NHS planning guidance, I have already outlined a significant productivity and efficiency ask for NHS systems to deliver in 2025-26 —that is, through reductions in use of temporary staffing. As a result of the savings found, none of the pay increases will be paid for by cutting frontline services.

The next steps in our plan for reform will be set out in the upcoming 10-year plan and workforce plan refresh, with its laser focus on shifting care from hospitals and into the community, as we work to get the NHS back on its feet and fit for the future. Driving these efficiencies will enable us to deliver on our objective for the NHS as set out in our plan for change—making the NHS work for patients and staff.

Pay awards

The DDRB recommended a headline 4% increase to salary scales, pay ranges and the pay elements of contracts from 1 April 2025. It also recommended that an extra £750 be added to the pay points for doctors and dentists in training. In accepting these recommendations, we have committed to:

uplifting pay points for doctors and dentists in training (circa 77,000 doctors) by 4% plus £750 on a consolidated basis;

uplifting the salaries of consultants (c.63,000 doctors) by 4% on a consolidated basis;

uplifting the pay range for salaried general medical practitioners (c.15,000 doctors) by 4%, uplifting the pay element of the GP contract by 4%, uplifting the minimum and maximum of the pay range for salaried GPs by 4%, and uplifting the GP educators pay scale by 4% all on a consolidated basis;

uplifting the pay element of the general dental practitioners contract (c.24,000 dentists) and the pay scale for salaried dentists by 4% on a consolidated basis;

uplifting the pay scales of specialist and associate specialist doctors on all contracts by 4% on a consolidated basis.

uplifting flexible pay premia by 4% on a consolidated basis.

The DDRB made a further five recommendations, which are not directly related to headline pay, targeted at specific parts of the remit group. We need further time to carefully consider these, working with our partners to determine the best way forward. To avoid delays to pay uplifts reaching NHS staff, we will advise Parliament separately on our response to these recommendations in due course.

The NHSPRB recommended a 3.6% pay increase to all Agenda for Change staff, alongside a recommendation to provide the NHS staff council with a funded mandate for pay structure reform. In accepting these recommendations, we have committed to:

uplifting all pay points of Agenda for Change staff (c.1.4 million staff) by 3.6% on a consolidated basis, taking effect from 1 April 2025.

issuing the NHS staff council with a funded mandate for 2026-27 to begin to resolve outstanding concerns within the Agenda for Change pay structure.

Given the difficult financial landscape, we will need to carefully consider as part of the SR the funding for the mandate for 2026-27, but we will work in partnership with the NHS staff council to deliver these changes from 1 April 2026.

The SSRB recommended a 3.25% cent uplift for all executive and senior managers and very senior managers in the NHS in England from 1 April 2025. In accepting this recommendation, we have committed to a 3.25% uplift for executive and senior managers and very senior managers in the NHS in England.

The SSRB also made two further recommendations. First, they recommended that an additional 0.5% of the ESM and VSM pay bill in each employing organisation be used to address specific pay anomalies, targeted at mitigating the effects of pay overlaps with the Agenda for Change pay scale. We are rejecting this recommendation on the basis that, in the current fiscal context, we believe an award of 3.25% well compensates VSMs and ESMs for the work that they do, and because previous measures of this sort have not seen widespread use by employers. Secondly, the SSRB recommended that the ESM pay framework should be withdrawn. I will be considering this in light of the abolition of NHS England and the consolidation of arm’s-length bodies, and will report back to Parliament separately on our response to this recommendation.

This pay award follow publication of the new VSM pay framework on 15 May, which envisages rewards for senior leaders who are successfully improving performance, and will ensure that the NHS continues to develop and attract the best talent to the most senior positions.

We will also bring forward legislation to uplift the member contribution tier thresholds in the NHS pension scheme in line with the Agenda for Change pay award. This will mean that these staff feel the full benefit of the award, and do not move into the next pension contribution tier solely as a result of this pay rise.

Next steps

We have listened to the workforce and know that it is not acceptable that pay awards are not delivered on time. This Government are committed to NHS staff receiving their pay uplifts at the beginning of the financial year. Last year, this Government committed to speeding up the pay review process, remitting the PRBs months earlier than previous years and submitting written evidence earlier too. This means that pay awards for 25-26 will pay in packets two months sooner than last year. But we recognise that there is more to do. That is why, this year, I am committing to remitting the health PRBs in July, with an ambition to implement awards as soon in 2026-27 as possible.

The reports of the DDRB, NHSPRB and SSRB will be presented to Parliament and published on gov.uk.

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