Nurses in England say 5.5% pay rise not enough

Nurses in England have said the government’s award of a 5.5% pay rise is not enough, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.

Two-thirds of the 145,000 members of the RCN who voted online said the rise was not fair.

The pay award for 2024-2025 was announced by the chancellor at the end of July, shortly after Labour won the general election.

In a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, RCN general secretary Prof Nicola Ranger said nursing staff were determined to “stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS”.

But the union is not planning to ballot its members to see if they want to take strike action.

Instead, it is planning to see how the government responds to this vote.

The union argues that the pay of an experienced nurse fell by 25% in real terms under the Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024.

The union was involved in strike action during late 2022 and early 2023, but that ended after other NHS unions accepted a deal made in the spring by the then Tory government. The RCN was unable to get enough nurses to back continued strike action.

Prof Ranger said nurses “do not feel valued”, adding they were concerned by “understaffed shifts, poor patient care and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades”.

As ministers prepare to set out a new health and social care agenda, Prof Ranger added: “The government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success.”

She said the government will need “safe numbers of nursing staff” who “feel valued” if they are to “raise standards and reform the NHS”.

The announcement follows a vote last week by junior doctors – who now called resident doctors – to accept a multi-year pay rise to end their long running dispute.

At that time, Prof Ranger said: “We do not begrudge doctors their pay rise.

“What we ask for is the same fair treatment from government.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We know what nurses have been through in recent years and how hard it is at the moment. That’s why, despite the bleak economic inheritance, the Chancellor awarded them with an above-inflation pay rise.

“For the first time in a long time, nurses have got a government on their side, that wants to work with them to take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, to get it back on its feet and make it fit for the future. We will work with NHS staff to turn this around together.”

RCN members in Scotland, meanwhile, have voted to accept the 5.5% pay increase for 2024-25.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said the Scottish offer “starts from a higher baseline” than the English offer “which is likely why there was a different outcome”.