Leaders in call for wider agenda for change costs to be covered

Guidance accompanying the pay deal, agreed at the beginning of May, listed the staff eligible for the pay uplift. However, this did not include thousands of staff employed by non-statutory community interest companies and social enterprises delivering services such as end of life care, health visiting, inpatient mental health services and school age immunisations.

Where these organisations are using the agenda for change pay scale, they will have to cover the increased costs from tight budgets that are already under inflationary pressures. This in turn might limit the level of activity they are able to deliver to patients – which would be at odds with the government’s promise that the cost of the pay rise would not impact patient care.

The issue also affects NHS trusts who employ staff delivering services commissioned by a local authority. It is understood that these staff are eligible for the pay uplift, but there is a question mark over whether trusts will be compensated for the increased costs.

A letter from the heads of a range of bodies, including the NHS Confederation, Social Enterprise UK, NHS Providers, the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and the Local Government Association, called on the government to ensure that additional funding is available to all providers to cover the shortfall.

‘The NHS is more than just hospitals, consisting of a range of vital services patients rely on including mental healthcare, primary care, district nurses and therapists, all of which are contracted indirectly,’ said Matthew Taylor (pictured), chief executive of the NHS Confederation. ‘The current arrangement for central funding might see staff at these services miss out and risks the creation of an unequitable, two-tier system for different staff. Providers are currently facing the unenviable choice between finding additional savings – likely through cuts to services – to fund the rise, or not implement the raise and risk staff leaving, leaving patients worse off.

He pointed out that a ‘similar oversight’ was made with the pay rise in 2018, but the government eventually solved this by agreeing to cover it via central budgets.

Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Social Enterprise UK said he expected the Department of Health and Social Care to take urgent steps to solve this situation. ‘Just the 10 largest social enterprises delivering NHS services employ around 10,000 staff, who will be treated unfairly unless the government acts now,’ he said. ‘Some of these employers will seek to pay the 2022/23 ‘bonus’ their staff deserve, even if the government doesn’t fund it – but some simply don’t have the money to do so, meaning this will put services and patients at risk.’