RCN defends the need for a national pay scheme

Published: 05 September 2012

The RCN today issued a robust defence of national pay systems, saying that a move to local pay would be damaging to the NHS. Responding to the Policy Exchange report, Local Pay, local growth, Director, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) England, Tom Sandford, said:

“The RCN utterly rejects the notion that moving to local pay in the NHS would somehow save the economy. There is no evidence that, if the NHS cuts nurses’ pay, the private sector would automatically create other jobs. These proposals would just entrench low pay in the most economically deprived areas.

“Nurses are in the middle of a two year pay freeze, facing an attack on their pensions, and suffering huge pressures at work because of cuts to jobs and services. This is a cynical attack on hard working nurses, targeting some of our most important public sector workers to solve a crisis which was not of their making.

"The fact that London and the South East have particular problems with pay has long been considered an issue and Agenda for Change, the NHS pay system, has flexibility so if employers choose to supplement national pay they can do so. By contrast, local pay bargaining has been shown to be inefficient. This is because Trusts have to implement their own pay systems, forcing them into bureaucratic and expensive machinery with no economies of scale which takes money away from patient care.

“Patients would lose out under these proposals as there would be a skills drain in local areas. The RCN will be highlighting the negative effect of regional pay systems over the coming weeks.”

Ends.

Notes for Editors

  1. For further information, please contact the RCN Media Office on 020 7647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit  http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media.
  2. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.