AIBU to think a potential 2% pay rise for the NHS staff is ridiculous?

[Sunflowers68]

NHS England is cautioning against giving employees raises of more than 2%. is A band 2 salary is now only 10p above minimum wage due to the recent increase in the minimum wage. Surely, a 2% increase is insufficient for a job this challenging? If you are still working in the NHS, can you share your reasons why?

Can we afford not to? Sick nation vs other countries. People on waiting lists, out of work etc.

The deficit is actually £700k - about the price of a detached house in Surrey.

Our HCA have to their NVQ level 3 or 4 which takes at least a year and they doesn't involve skills learnt and n study days and then practiced whilst supervised and needing to be signed off as competent such as venepuncture, compression bandaging etc (which if some incorrectly can have catastrophic results). - so a school leaver can't learn in a couple of shifts 🙄

Not basic - they make look basic but they needle to have the underpinning knowledge and then be an assessed to be considered competent plus practice and have their competencies reassessed......unless you've done a role you can't comment you will have only witnessed small parts of it

Btw I'm a nursing sister so think I can comment on the skills of my HCA

You really know absolutely nothing......

Dunno. How much do you value healthcare? Do you want 1970s medicines and surgery or do you want 2020s medicines and surgery? Do you think you could get a better deal in a privatised system?

The £12.5m deficit was reported in the Financial Times on May 22nd 2024 (see below) reporting on Sue Gray's risk register for the Labour party on entering government. The IFS, Health Foundation and Nuffield Foundation report similar deficits. Please share your source.

www.ft.com/content/0c6429ed-8afa-42a7-bff8-3b1d325dcb12

Blossomtoes here's the IFS and Nuffield Trust on the NHS funding gap.

www.nhsconfed.org/podcast/state-public-finances-what-next-government-inherit

Is the pension a ‘great perk’ for young people going into the NHS at age 21? Will it even be crossing their minds when they’re thinking about how to afford rent, food, and maybe even starting a family? How on earth would they consider something they might get in 40 years’ time?

Election over, talks for junior doctors so where is our proposal? The paper has been published so surely it's time to make the offer

@socks1107 as much as I would love a raise give them a chance.

My private sector job got a 0% pay rise this year and my employer contributes 3% to my pension.

It’s not a private sector utopia.

Your salary has not changed. All that has happened is the constant raising of minimum wage has eroded the benefit of marginally higher paid jobs.

I am not against lowering the minimum wage because those people struggle when we face inflation. But it does mean working in difficult jobs for low pay, such as low band NHS work, is no longer worthwhile.

You cannot beat the system op. So either go and work in a shop for the same money or do some career progression.

No one I know in the private sector received any inflationary pay rise this year. Me and my friends and family often talk about it. We used to get them annually, none of has for 3 years now.

Inflation is currently 2 percent.

It depends which NHS staff.

Those of us on agenda for change

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9428/

This explains it better. It is 2% now, was up to 10% a year ago. Increase of 22% in food prices from one year to the next. Benefits increased by 6% to keep up with inflation etc. The bottom line is that life is harder for all but the very rich.

We're getting pushed and pushed to try to down-band roles as well - and there's no reflection of complexity of caseload and client group. I've recently moved up to a band 6, but when I was a new band 5, the clients I was working with and safeguarding, risky behaviour etc were no way equal to peers who had gone into an "easier" client group sitting working through clinics every day.

Until I had started the role had always been a B6, now it's been normalised at B5 rate - and surprisingly - we struggle to recruit to it!

I'm not disagreeing that life might be hard and until very recently inflation was higher. I was just being factual that inflation is currently 2 percent. It might go lower next month once the price cap for utilities is taken into account. I do think 2 percent is too low but possibly 3 percent would be fairer. The 35 percent Junior Doctors are demanding is ridiculous.

@caringcarer it’s not ridiculous. It may look excessive, but I trust they know better what they’re on about, when taking into account how salaried have stalled. Also, I think we don’t call them Junior Doctors, some will be closer to 40 or older than to student years. Inflation was as high as 10% not that long ago, also higher than 2% when I wrote my post that you’ve revived on this thread.

1. If everybody was given a raise in line with inflation, inflation would just continue to increase.

2. Private sector workers are definitely not all getting more than a few % raise. For a lot of them it is no raise at all.

I've got colleagues trying to stop people from actively trying to kill themselves, getting spat at, beaten up, verbally and racially abused, and defusing volatile and difficult situations with people who are acutely unwell, but yes, I'm sure Band 2 jobs aren't difficult at all. 🙄

Most of these comments are focused on lower banded roles which is understandable because they are most hit by inflation. However, people need to remember that poor pay rises directly results in people (both lower and higher banded) leaving their roles.

I’m a psychologist and so I’m well paid in compared to other NHS staff, but many of my colleagues are leaving for private work. The NHS pay (while good) doesn’t make up for the stress of the job combined with the 10 years of study needed to do it. I know many many medical dr’s planning to go fully private too. The NHS won’t survive if it can’t retain its staff.

The pay rise offer has been delayed again, and that's the point I was making this morning about the government now being in place and hopefully getting on with it soon. I don't see it this side of autumn because of recess so we are in limbo.
Private sector have at least been told it's nothing or 1% or whatever in April when it was due. Benefits and MPs salary all went up, my bills all went up and I'm back to being worse off than I was a year ago.
It's not difficult to give a figure when it's due and pay people properly for the jobs they are doing.
It wasn't an argument at private sector, it's a point that it's been delayed for another year and staff are fed up and leaving. 40,000 extra appointments won't be achievable unless the pay is sorted