NHS Pay Review Body 2009 decision 

The Review Body considered all the available evidence and found the following:

  • there was no new evidence of a significant and material change in recruitment and retention (although they had concerns about levels of ‘on the day’ vacancies and morale indicators and decidec to keep these under review)
  • the wider economic and labour market situation had changed significantly but it did not consider these changes had materially affected the relative position of NHS staff, or that the Agenda for Change pay structure was getting out of line with the wider labour market.

The Independent Pay Review Body therefore decided not to request a remit from the Secretary of State to review the pay settlement contained in the agreement between the parties for 2009/10.

As a result, all NHS staff received a 2.4 per cent pay increase from 1 April 2009 but the structural changes meant that staff on bands one, two, three, four, five and six (pay points 1-13 and 17-25) received higher percentage uplifts.

Key findings

After collecting evidence from all parties involved in pay negotiations, the key findings of the independent Pay Review Body are as follows:

  • low vacancy rates and vacancy rates had decreased for all staff groups in 2008
  • there was low turnover compared with the rest of the economy
  • headline average earnings growth in the public sector currently exceeds the private sector
  • median pay settlements for the public sector 2.6 per cent are lower than for the private sector 3.8% but the median pay of full time nurses and midwives is higher than the whole economy median and has been consistently higher
  • between 2007 and 2008, median weekly pay of NHS staff increased by 5 per cent compared with an increase of 4.6 per cent for all full-time employees
  • median weekly pay of all NHS staff exceeded that of the wider UK economy in all regions and countries except London
  • inflation is on a downward trajectory – CPI at 4.1 per cent and RPI at 3 per cent in November.

Pay award 2009

Therefore all NHS staff received a 2.4 per cent pay increase from 1 April 2009 but the structural changes meant that staff on bands one, two, three, four, five and six (pay points 1-13 and 17-25) received higher percentage uplifts.