3. Time to care for the Pay Review Body
Resolution submitted by the RCN Doncaster Branch
That this meeting of RCN Congress requests RCN Council to act to protect and maintain the NHS Pay Review Body
Report on this debate
Pay Review Body gets strong support
The Pay Review Body (PRB) for Nursing and Other Health Professions received a ringing endorsement from Congress, with over 99 per cent voting to urge RCN Council to act to protect and maintain it.
Proposing the resolution, Sheila May of Doncaster branch explained why the PRB was necessary. The first PRB for nurses, midwives and health visitors had been established in 1983, the year she became a staff nurse, she said. This followed years of feast or famine - with the size of the pay settlement depending on whether or not it was an election year. The PRB had resolved this problem, and while nurses had not always been pleased with its recommendations they had always accepted them.
Sheila said she became concerned for the future of the PRB when the Government decided to stage the award it had recommended last year, thus devaluing its recommendation.
All speakers in the debate said they supported the resolution. Michael Southern of the UK Stewards Committee said the stewards were behind it, and that he did not trust politicians to decide nurses' pay - a feeling that was echoed by Maria Nicholson. Geoff Earl said he feared a return to local pay bargaining, and Gail Brooks made the point that the RCN should work for pay equality for all nurses, not just those in the NHS. Dougie Lockhart and June Clark both said they were old enough to remember life before the PRB and did not want to return to those days.
| For | 371 | 99.46% |
|---|---|---|
| Against | 2 | 0.54% |
| Abstain | 0 |
| For | 55 | 88.7% |
|---|---|---|
| Against | 7 | 11.3% |
Background
Pay review bodies (PRBs) are non-departmental public bodies established to review and recommend pay, terms and conditions for public sector workers. All PRBs work in the same manner; their purpose is to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and First Ministers in each of the devolved countries as to the remuneration for their remit groups. The NHS PRB makes recommendations on annual pay rises, high cost area allowances (HCAAs) and national recruitment and retention premia (NRRP) for over one million NHS staff (whole time equivalent) in the UK, excluding doctors, dentists and very senior managers. It takes evidence from unions, NHS employers and health departments, and also undertakes its own research through the Office of Manpower Economics. Members of the PRB visit NHS organisations throughout the year, meeting with staff and employers.
The first PRB for nurses, midwives and health visitors was announced in July 1983. Its original remit covered nurses, midwives, health visitors and professions allied to medicine. Following the 2004 implementation of the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system, this remit was extended to other health professionals and the staff supporting them, and the PRB was renamed the Review Body for Nursing and Other Health Professions (NOHPRB). In July 2007, the NOHPRB was extended further to include Northern Ireland and all NHS staff (with the exception of doctors and dentists and senior managers).
In its considerations the NOHPRB is expected to have regard for; the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified staff; regional or local variations in labour markets and their effects on recruitment and retention; the Department of Health’s output targets for delivery of services; equal pay for work of equal value; economic and other evidence submitted by government, staff, professional representatives and others; anti-discrimination issues; and the government’s inflation target.
In October 2007 the RCN (2007a) submitted its evidence to the NOHPRB, making the case for an above inflation pay increase for NHS staff for the next financial year (2008/09). The RCN also submitted separate evidence on behalf of its members, providing further oral evidence in January 2008.
The Prime Minister is not obliged to accept PRB recommendations; indeed, during the 2007/08 pay rounds the government ‘staged’ the PRB recommendations for most public sector workers. This was the first staging of recommendations since 1998, and the effect was to reduce the value of the PRB recommendation in the NHS from 2.5 per cent to 1.9 per cent over the year. Governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales later announced that they would pay their health workers the 2.5 per cent in full, leaving just those working in England with the staged award.
The PRB process does not normally make fundamental changes to pay rates. For this to happen there would need to be structural changes (such as the introduction of clinical grading in 1988, or AfC in 2004). PRBs do, however, maintain the value of pay and generally make recommendations at or above inflation (consumer price index).
References and further reading
Department of Health (2004) Agenda for change: final agreement, London: DH.
Available from:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4095943 (Accessed 30 January 2008) (Internet)
Office of Manpower Economics (2008) NHS Pay Review Body, London: OFE.
Available from: www.ome.uk.com/review.cfm?body=6 (Accessed 30 January 2008) (Internet).
Royal College of Nursing (2007a) Staff Side evidence to the National Health Service Pay Review Body 2007: (for the 2008 – 2009 pay round), London: RCN.
Available from: www.rcn.org.uk/pay2008
Royal College of Nursing (2007b) Staff Side evidence to the Review Body for Nursing and other professional staff 2006, London: RCN. Available from: www.rcn.org.uk/publications
Royal College of Nursing (2008) Pay and conditions: an introduction, London: RCN.
Available from: www.rcn.org.uk/support/pay_and_conditions (Accessed 30 January 2008) (Internet).