Article

NHS Staff Council joint statement on 2023 non-pay commitments

Statement from the co-chairs of the NHS Staff Council following a letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

14 April 2025

As co-chairs of the NHS Staff Council, we welcome the news that Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has accepted 36 out of the 37 joint recommendations made following the work undertaken by the NHS Staff Council (employers and trade unions), NHS Employers, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as part of the 2023/24 pay deal agreement.

This work demonstrated the value of partnership working across a range of areas. The NHS Staff Council will now work with our partners to agree how this work is prioritised over the next two years. The Secretary of State made particular reference in his letter to the recommendations associated with job evaluation to ensure that staff across the NHS are paid at the appropriate band for the work they are required to undertake, the work that is needed to ensure staff do not experience violence and aggression whilst at work and measures to improve career progression for nurses.

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with NHS Employers, NHS England and the DHSC to help improve the working lives of colleagues working across the NHS.

The tables below provide the high level recommendations which we will now be developing into an implementation plan.

Job evaluation

Number	Recommendation	Government response
1	Restore confidence Ministers to take action to ensure delivery of the contractual entitlements in relation to the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme.	Accept
2	Build capacity Ministers to direct that a mandatory and centrally co- ordinated programme of activity is put in place to bring job evaluation capacity and practice at employer level up to an agreed and consistent standard.	Accept
3	Invest to modernise DHSC (or other appropriate body) to work with stakeholders to commission the procurement of a national digital platform / solution for NHS job evaluation for England.	Accept

Number

Recommendation

Government response

Restore confidence

Ministers to take action to ensure delivery of the contractual entitlements in relation to the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme.

Accept

Build capacity

Ministers to direct that a mandatory and centrally co- ordinated programme of activity is put in place to bring job evaluation capacity and practice at employer level up to an agreed and consistent standard.

Accept

Invest to modernise

DHSC (or other appropriate body) to work with stakeholders to commission the procurement of a national digital platform / solution for NHS job evaluation for England.

Accept

Tackling violence and aggression

Number	Recommendation	Government response
4	Social Partnership Forum (SPF) and the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group (HSWG) to develop a standard approach to post-incident support, which NHS England should endorse as part of the VPR Standard.	Accept
5	National SPF and regional SPFs to support understanding and awareness of the resources available for VPR.	Accept
6	At local level the implementation, monitoring and review of the VPR Standard and ongoing work on VPR must be done in partnership with unions	Accept
7	Management and staff side colleagues should adopt the guidance that has been published by HSWG.	Accept
8	Mandate the VPR Standard and the collection of data.	Accept
9	NHSE to continue to support system working and a public health approach to VPR.	Accept
10	Government to work collaboratively and across departments at a national, regional and system level to maximise resources and funding to prevent and reduce violence against staff.	Accept
11	The CQC must assure themselves that providers have or are in the process of implementing the VPR Standard, that appropriate steps are being taken to address violence and abuse directed against staff, and that staff are well supported when this occurs.	Accept
12	Clear strategy to set out the roles of government, NHS England and ICSs.	Accept
13	Develop consistent messaging for staff and patients about the impact of violence and aggression.	Accept
14	NHSE to explore a more explicit link between the VPR Standard, the work of their exemplar programme on staff retention and the People Promise accreditation scheme that is being developed.	Accept
15	Data on protected characteristics should be collected where possible.	Accept
16	NHSE to produce core materials to support risk assessment and core training skills for NHS organisations.	Accept
17	NHSE to ensure a sustainable approach for the training to upskill violence prevention and reduction leads and security teams.	Accept
18	NHSE to produce guidance on safe working practices to support staff and minimise risks when dealing with clinically related challenging behaviours.	Accept
19	Encourage a reporting culture where all incidents and near misses are reported, by developing a digital reporting system for staff to report incidents and near misses.	Accept
20	Ensure that organisations use a common method of reporting to identify and measure violence.	Accept

Improving nurse career progression

Number	Recommendation	Government response
21	Promotion and encouragement from board level of the NHS England framework for line managers and other leadership measures such as career coaching.	Accept
22	Creation of learning and development committees in organisations (similar to health and safety committees).	Accept
23	Increase transparency and discussion at local level on how Trust CPD funding is spent.	Accept
24	Provide six-month career reviews by suitably trained individuals to provide bespoke support to BAME nurses who can help signpost to suitable development and career progression opportunities, and support with application and interview preparation.	Accept
25	Further guidance for employers on how to apply the terms and conditions to recognise overseas experience on appointment into the NHS.	Accept
26	Guidance for employers on how to minimise bias and share best practice on recruitment and selection processes.	Accept
27	Promotion of short term (~6 month) secondments to enhance skills and experience of BAME nurses ahead of recruitment opportunities.	Accept
28	Increase communication and support for career progression of BAME nurses, working closely with national leads in NHSE.	Accept
29	Provide national support (and potentially funding) for international nursing and midwifery associations which provide career progression workshops and mentoring programmes for newly arrived international nurses.	Not accepting at this time
30	Review Annex 20 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service (TCS) Handbook to clarify that the provisions do not exclude nursing.	Accept
31	Action to determine the required deployment model of nursing.	Accept

Reducing agency spend

Number	Recommendation	Government response
32	Pay on promotion Staff Council work to highlight the ‘pay on promotion’ provisions in the handbook. This would promote the career progression benefits of a substantive NHS contract to help support the reduction of agency spend.	Accept
33	Flexible working Staff Council to undertake further work with NHS England and NHS Employers to better understand some of the key barriers to flexible working (including those that are impacting recording and monitoring) and work collaboratively to find solutions.	Accept
34	Annex 7 - Good practice guidance on managing working patterns Review Annex 7 in its entirety. If this recommendation is accepted, further work would be required to determine any funding implications of making changes to Annex7.	Accept
35	Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) The NHS Staff Council to reconvene work on the use of TOIL (i.e. through publishing guidance).	Accept

Supporting newly qualified healthcare registrants

Number	Recommendation	Government response
36	Systems, regions or organisations to develop and implement newly qualified registrants' policy.	Accept
37	Nominate executive senior responsible officer (SRO) responsibility for newly qualified human resources (NQHRs) to chief people officer or equivalent, with responsibility for ensuring requirements in the "NQHRs Commitment" are met.	Accept

NHS Staff Council joint statement on 2023 non-pay commitments

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