NHS nursing staff in Scotland are getting a boost to their pay in February, under a guarantee in the NHS pay deal covering 2025-26 and 2026-27 negotiated by the RCN and the joint health trade unions.
The pay deal for the two years, accepted by RCN members in a vote last May, included a guarantee that the increases will be at least 1% above the average CPI inflation for the calendar year of the increase.
In January, inflation in 2025 was confirmed as 3.4%. This means pay and all relevant payments will be increased by 0.15%, backdated to April 2025, taking the overall increase for 2025-26 to 4.4% and guaranteeing the value of your pay rise for 2025-26.
Commenting on the news, Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland Executive Director, said:
"Hard working nursing staff deserve every help they can get. We have highlighted repeatedly how nursing pay has been eroded over the years.
"Current wages do not reflect nursing's safety-critical role, even after the pay increases in the two years covered by the deal. Fair pay is vital to retain and recruit nursing staff, to fill the thousands of vacant nurse jobs and to ensure people receive the care they deserve. We will continue to lobby the Scottish government hard on reforming the Agenda for Change pay scheme and implementing the recommendations of the Agenda for Change review.”
We expect the additional increase as part of the current agreement to be paid in February and back pay to 1 April 2025 in March.
The same guarantee is in place for the next year of the pay deal. If inflation averages above the 3.75% pay increase for 2026-27, there would be a further increase early in 2027. We will be monitoring inflation over the rest of 2026.
Read more about NHS pay in Scotland.
