‘Paying staff fairly and valuing the skilled work they do is an important part of the solution to the maternity staffing crisis.’ That’s what the RCM has told the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) this week, in its written evidence submission for the 2025/26 pay round for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The RCM is acutely aware that, with unrelenting heavy workloads and unpaid extra hours, maternity services have rarely felt so overstretched. This was evidenced in the results of the RCM’s ‘additional hours worked’ member survey earlier this year which showed members during just one week worked over 140,000 hours unpaid to plug staffing gaps.

Aside from stress and burnout the RCM says its members have told them pay and lack of flexible working opportunities are among the top reasons for those who have left or are considering leaving the profession.

Also, highlighted are the results of a recent Heads and Directors of Midwifery survey which reported years of pay stagnation has meant many midwives are leaving the profession. With some managers citing the retention of maternity support workers as increasingly difficult and that was again down to pay.

Commenting RCM’s Director for Employment Relations, Alice Sorby said:

“We used our evidence submission to the NHS PRB to build a strong case for improvements not only to pay, but to the job evaluation process and structural issues in the pay system. We’ve long said this needs addressing as a whole structure rather than individual points in isolation. The PRB agreed with us and recommended that the Government issue a mandate to negotiate and address these. The Government accepted this, but we are yet to see the mandate. Being able to include first-hand accounts from our members and the results of our member surveys is invaluable in helping us build a stronger case for better pay. Longstanding understaffing issues will continue worsen if the Government does not value midwives and maternity support workers with fair pay and that’s what we’ve told the PRB.”

The RCM’s campaign for more flexible working arrangements has also been highlighted in the evidence alongside statistics that clearly show the widespread lack of opportunity around flexible working and the impact that has on staff personally. The RCM has pointed out that most midwives and MSWs are women, very many of whom having caring responsibilities for children and/or older adults. Those members need reliable flexible working options. Key to staff retention is enabling everyone to juggle the competing demands of work and family life.

The RCM says while they welcomed the acceptance by the Government of the most recent NHS Pay Review recommendations in full, it should be recognised that the 5.5% consolidated increase was just a start to addressing the years of real terms pay cuts for its members and all NHS staff.

Alice added:

“Yet again, this year in England and Wales, members received their pay awards late, and in Northern Ireland midwives and MSWs are yet to receive the pay award. We’ve highlighted this again to the PRB and the damage this continues to do the morale of staff, many of whom feel so undervalued and disillusioned with the entire PRB process. That said, we are pleased the new Government has said it wants to get timings back on track, and this is something we will be monitoring closely. We want all our members to receive their pay increase on time in 2025 and we will be pushing hard for that.”

For members in Scotland the RCM has confirmed as in previous years NHS pay for midwives and MCA’s will be decided through collective bargaining.

You can read the RCM’s evidence for 2025/26 pay round in full here