NHS Wales Pay

on 18 July 2018

All partners have endorsed the approach taken through the NHS Staff Council discussions in England that any future agreement should:

• Support attraction and recruitment to the NHS by increasing starting salaries in all pay bands;
• Help retention by increasing basic pay for staff and making sure the majority of staff reach the top of their band more quickly with the value of the top of bands 2 - 8b being increased by 6.5% cumulatively over the three-year period;
• Increase staff engagement and productivity by linking better future appraisal and development to progression through the pay system;
• Ensure a focus on staff health and wellbeing with an emphasis on managing attendance through a range of supportive initiatives

The agreement reached in England forms the basis of a way forward for NHS Wales. Employers and trade unions have held four meetings in recent weeks which have been conducted in an open and constructive manner where both parties have sought to meet and address the opportunities that this agreement could offer our staff in Wales within the very real context of the available funding generated from the consequential allocation from the Department of Health.

In addition to the English pay deal the Welsh pay deal will also include:

A. A new Attendance Management Policy and associated procedures and training packages

B. Consideration of Rapid Access and early referral for treatment for staff

C. A renewed emphasis on wellbeing in the workplace building on the existing NHS Wales Health and Wellbeing toolkits

D. Aligning approaches to flexible working, re-deployment and other workplace policies to ensure that they support the aims of supporting staff in work.

E. The development of a NHS Wales Menopause Policy

F. A commitment from all partners to prioritise active attendance management at local level and to remove any barriers to the process through partnership working at local and national level as required.

The Welsh Partnership Forum are committed to the health and wellbeing of the whole workforce and to joint working at national and local level to support individuals to remain well, to act proactively to avoid absence and enable those who are absent to return to work as quickly as possible.  We are committed to joint working to deliver best practice in managing attendance at work because we recognise this is best for individual members of the workforce and for the services they deliver for the people of Wales. 

The Welsh Partnership Forum (WPF) commitment is in line with the Core Principles of NHS Wales, the Healthier Wales quadruple aim of having a motivated and sustainable health and social care workforce and the ambition of the NHS Staff Council to match attendance levels with the best in the public sector through the positive management of sickness absence.

Delivery of these aspirations will build on the work already underway across Wales through a strong practical commitment to partnership working through Welsh Partnership Forum structures and local partnership to prioritise a range of actions to support staff to stay in work and to return speedily from any absence. The WPF have agreed that these actions will include:

We have agreed to demonstrate our joint commitment to delivering effective policies and making a practical change for staff through this work by setting a series of targets and progress check points.

Please click here to complete the consultation and have your say on whether you wish to accept or reject the deal. 

Meetings to discuss the pay consultation will be held in each of the health Boards on these dates:

26^th July Glan Clwyd at 1pm

31^st July Bangor at 1pm 

30^th July Wrexham at 3pm

You can access the pay calculator, to find out what the changes mean to you here.  

For some staff in band 8c-9 there are different arrangements in place, find out more here.