Fairer nursing pay: band 5 role reviews must be just the start
Meagre NHS pay award came a day after more positive news of Agenda for Change band 5 role reviews that could result in wide-scale pay upgrades for nurses. Nursing staff on other pay bands will naturally feel aggrieved at being left out, so this must be just the start of the process to secure proper recognition for nursing in the NHS.
Meagre NHS pay award, announced after better news of band 5 role reviews, shows how far nursing has to go to achieve proper recognition from the NHS
For the first time in six years, NHS nursing staff will receive their annual pay award on time – but the wait for longer-term reform of Agenda for Change (AfC) and fair pay for all goes on.
The unaccustomed punctuality of the 2026-27 award for staff on AfC contracts, revealed by a self-congratulatory government, is tiny consolation, given the scale of disgust at the 3.3% rise. In fact, it’s barely a rise at all, with inflation – the consumer prices index used by government to calculate pay – now at 3%.
Its timing, one day after positive news of role reviews and likely salary uplifts for band 5 nurses in England’s NHS, left a bitter taste in the mouths of nursing staff, especially those in bands not included in job description evaluation. Nursing staff in Wales will receive the same pay percentage uplift, Northern Ireland is yet to confirm its budgetary decision and Scotland is unique in the UK in having a system of direct pay negotiations between unions and government.
Nursing staff on other bands will naturally feel left out
However (and this is a big however), there are glimmers of hope. The role reviews, while currently confined to those nurses on band 5, will be automatically conducted by employers, at the instruction of NHS England. Crucially, funding is pledged for the resulting pay uplifts.
In Scotland, where similar evaluations have been taking place as part of the 2023-24 pay award, it’s undeniable the process has been slow but 85% of band 5 nurses have been moved up to band 6. RCN general secretary Nicola Ranger told the Nursing Standard podcast she also expects most of England’s band 5 nurses to move up a band.
PODCAST Band 5 role reviews: I expect majority of nurses to go through
The process is unlikely to be obstacle-free and it’s understandable that nursing staff on other bands will feel aggrieved that it doesn’t include them, at least for now.
But the role reviews represent a start in turning around a situation where many nurses are not properly recognised, paid and valued for the clinical expertise they possess and responsibilities they fulfil.
