NHS Employers' Pay Review Body Evidence 2021/22: Our submission to the NHS Pay Review Body.
We have now published our 2020/21 evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body (NHS PRB).
The independent NHS pay review body (NHSPRB) makes recommendations to the government on pay awards for nurses, health professionals and other NHS staff. NHS Employers submits evidence to the review bodies, based on information collected from our policy board, our regular meetings with NHS HR directors and our online surveys. Final decisions on pay awards are made by the government.
Our evidence has been informed by a continuous cycle of engagement with a full range of NHS organisations about their priorities.
Given the nature of the multi-year agreement reached on pay in 2018, our evidence is focused on updating the NHS Pay Review Body on implementation progress and highlighting employers’ concerns.
Key messages:
- The NHS Long Term Plan continues to set the future direction for the NHS in England and is the basis for a five-year funding programme up to 2023/24. While this provides some stability for longer-term planning, the overall level of investment is still lower than in previous years.
- The NHS We are the NHS People Plan 2020/21 – Action For Us All , along with Our People Promise, sets out what our staff can expect from their leaders and from each other. It builds on the creativity and drive shown by our staff in their response, to date, to the COVID-19 pandemic and the interim NHS People Plan . It focuses on how everyone in the NHS must continue to look after each other and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging, as well as take action to grow the workforce, train staff, and work differently to deliver patient care.
- The NHS faces the multiple challenges of rising demand for services, insufficient capital investment, tackling the causes of trust financial deficits and growing workforce shortages. While the NHS must focus on the immediate demands of the pandemic it must not become a reason for avoiding policy decisions on these critical longer-term issues.
- Workforce shortages remain the highest concern for employers and the supply issues need to be addressed. Employers remain committed to retaining staff but the health and wellbeing of staff and the risks of staff burnout, especially considering the pandemic, coupled with gaps in the workforce make this a greater challenge.
