Evidence submitted to the NHS Pay Review Body.

This is the first book yet written on industrial relations in the NHS and it has been completed at a time of radical and rapid change. Some of the material, particularly in the final chapter, reflects first thoughts about the impact of the new system on industrial relations. The book arose from my teaching experiences with health service practitioners from several of the NHS trade unions and professional associations. Many of these activists, as well as managers, expressed frustration that there was no single source about some of the issues which concerned them. This book is the result of their anxieties. Throughout, I have assumed that the main thrust of government policy towards the NHS, at least since the early 1980s, has been to sell off important sections of the service to the private sector. There is, I believe, strong evidence for this proposition. My argument, however, is based not only on the evidence of government's will to 'privatize', but also on the behaviour of ministers, senior civil servants and senior NHS managers which adds up to a set of policies and practices which together allow the point that government runs the NHS as if it was going to sell it.

The NHS Pay Review Body was originally known as the Review Body for Nurses and Allied Health Professions (NAPRB) and was set up in 1983 to advise the Government on the pay of NHS nursing staff, midwives, health visitors, and the professions allied to medicine (PAMs). Following the introduction of Agenda for Change in late 2004, the Review Body's remit was extended to cover all allied health and health care science professions, pharmacists, optometrists, applied psychologists and psychotherapists, as well as clinical support workers and technicians supporting these groups. The Body's name was changed to Review Body for Nursing and Other Health Professions. In July 2007 the Review Body's remit was again extended, firstly to cover the remaining NHS staff not within its remit but who were nevertheless paid under the Agenda for Change pay system; and secondly to include staff working in Northern Ireland. The Body's name changed again, to the NHS Pay Review Body, to reflect the broader remit. In this report the Review Body recommends a pay increase of 2.75 per cent. There is evidence of declining levels of morale within the NHS and the Review Body is concerned that declining morale would have an adverse effect both on the NHS's ability to meet service delivery targets and on its ability to recruit and retain staff in the longer term. For these reasons, it is necessary that the figure recommended for the pay award is above that sought by the Health Departments. Individual chapters cover: recruitment and retention; high cost area supplements; morale, motivation and training; funds available to the Health Departments; pay and prices; level and structure of 2008-2009 pay recommendations.

This report by the Review Body contains recommendations on the pay of nurses, midwives and health visitors, professions allied to medicine (including physiotherapists and occupational therapists, chiropodists and radiographers), healthcare science professions, other healthcare professions (including healthcare pharmacists and clinical psychologists), clinical support workers and technicians. Recommendations to take effect from 1 April 2007 include: