Following months of negotiations and amid the threat of strike action, the Health Secretary today unveiled a new pay deal for most NHS staff – including a one-off pro rata payment.

Today the Scottish government has announced a £568m for Agenda for Change (AfC) pay deal offer to NHS Scotland staff for 2023/24.

An average 6.5% increase in pay for 160,000 NHS Scotland staff, including nurses, midwives, paramedics, allied health professionals, and porters, is now on the table. Staff would also receive a one-off pro rata payment of between £387 and £939, depending on banding.

With the offer not including doctors, BMA Scotland continues work towards negotiations, particularly on pay restoration for junior doctors – and are preparing to ballot members for strike action this year.

This comes after the Royal Colleges of Nursing (RCN) and Midwifery (RCM) in Scotland and union GMB  rejected the previous offer, denouncing it as “deeply insulting” for NHS staff facing the ongoing workforce crisis.

The previous offer represented an average of 7.5% as part of a £515m package for all staff, meaning the latest offer includes an additional £53m. However, RCN Scotland said that, while the highest increase for those earning the least was welcome in the cost-of-living crisis, the offer did little to address the workforce crisis.

Now, Scotland’s healthcare staff are being offered the ‘largest pay package in the history of the NHS’, with the government highlighting that the offer includes commitments beyond salary increases.

Such commitments include delivering progressive terms and conditions to reform the system, modernising the current – nearly 20-year-old – model to better support workforce recruitment, sustainability and retention.

Cabinet Secretary for Health, Humza Yousaf, said the revised offer leaves “no stone unturned” following engagement with trade unions:

“Our healthcare staff have shown how dedicated and hardworking they are time and again and I cannot thank them enough for their commitment, particularly over the last few challenging years.

“Over the two years of this £1bn of increased investment in NHS Agenda for Change, a newly qualified nurse would see their pay increase by 15.8%, and experienced nurses at the top of band 5 would see their pay improve by over £4,700.

“This ensures that Scotland’s NHS Agenda for Change staff are, by far and away, the best paid anywhere in the UK. In fact, for NHS England to catch-up with Scotland the UK government would need to offer increases in 2023/24 of over 14% at the top of band 5, over 13% at the top of band 6, and over 12% at the top of band 7.”

Despite going above offers presented in other parts the UK, unions have previously expressed concerns that the pay offers thus far remained a “real terms pay cut” for staff.

Yet, the offer appears to engage with a key concern regarding the need to better support higher banded nurses to stay in the profession and prevent further vacancies.The highest band 6 salary under the previous agreement was £43,286 and the new proposal raises this to £46,100.

Earlier this month, RCN Scotland called for the government to set out clearer investment for addressing the nursing workforce crisis following talks with Mr Yousaf. RCN Scotland Board Chair, Julie Lamberth, said:

“The nursing workforce crisis is at the heart of the problems facing Scotland’s health and social care services. The people of Scotland deserve a health and care system that meets their needs and our health and care workforce deserve the resources and investment to be able to meet those needs.”

In January, RCM Scotland said it was cautiously optimistic as it returned to the negotiating table with Mr Yousaf and Deputy First Minister, John Swinney. Most unions are yet to formally respond to the current offer.

RCN Scotland has said its board will consider the details of the offer before deciding its next steps.

Mr Yousaf outlined that the government has taken “difficult decisions” to amend the pay offer:

“We have taken difficult decisions to find this money within the health budget because we know that our staff are the very backbone of the NHS and we are committed to supporting them, particularly during a cost of living crisis.

“I am grateful for the continued efforts around the table and that the trade unions will now put this to their members.”

Read more: ‘Resounding’ rejection of pay offer ;RCN: Staff need to see light at the end of the tunnel; Staff shortage concerns in latest MWC reviews; Latest pay offer for NHS “deeply insulting”

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