Board level NHS managers in England are still waiting for this year’s pay rise, due in April, after NHS England ordered trusts to withhold awards until it had completed a review of its oversight framework for NHS trusts and ICBs.
MiP said the continuing delay to the 3% rise, recommended by the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) and accepted by the government in May, was “completely unacceptable”. The award covers very senior managers (VSMs) working in trusts and ICBs, and executive senior managers (ESMs) working for NHS England.
MiP chief executive Jon Restell said the union “welcomed the government opening the pay round much earlier than previous years, but it means nothing if the award isn’t paid on time. The SSRB is already accepting evidence for next year’s award while this one remains outstanding—it’s completely unacceptable.”
Under current guidance, executives working for organisations placed in segment five of NHS England’s national oversight framework are not eligible for annual pay awards, unless they have been working there for less than two years.
NHS England has written to trusts and ICBs advising them to withhold the pay uplift until it has confirmed organisations’ rankings in the oversight framework and ministers have decided whether to extend the pay freeze to executives working for organisations in segments three and four.
“MiP is strongly against withholding awards based on organisational performance and completely opposed to extending this to more managers. This position has been made clear to the department and NHS England,” said Restell.
The union has also requested guidance from NHS England on how organsiations should use money earmarked by the SSRB for ‘pay flexibilities’ —essentially dealing with overlaps between pay bands which mean some senior managers are paid less than more junior colleagues. The union has also requested a revision of ICBs pay ranges to reflect managers’ new responsibilities following recent the job cuts and mergers.
“Senior managers are working hard to keep the NHS running in a highly pressurised environment, made much worse by the government’s reorganisation and cuts to management capacity,” Restell added. “They should not be left waiting indefinitely for a pay award they are already due.”
MiP says regulation alone will not improve the NHS culture around raising and acting on concerns, following the findings of the Thirlwall Inquiry into the Lucy Letby case.
TUC Congress has backed a motion calling for an evidence-based and fully resourced plan for NHS management, with unions warning that cutting management capacity risks shifting essential work onto clinical teams.
The Scottish Government has announced plans to radically restructure the NHS, replacing Scotland’s 14 territorial health boards with two new ‘Strategic Health Boards’ covering the west and east of the country.
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