On 10 September First Minister Eluned Morgan announced a pay award of 5.5% for NHS staff on Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts in Wales. The RCM welcomed the long overdue announcement – read more here

The RCM now wants to gauge the feeling of all its Agenda for Change (AFC) members in Wales on this pay award. On 23 September it launched its consultation, which will run for two weeks closing on 7 October. The RCM is urging all eligible midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs) to take its quick survey now and have their say on pay and you can do that here.

In September the Welsh Government announced they had accepted the recommendations made by the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB), in doing so the Government have committed to:

• Uplifting all pay points for Agenda for Change staff by 5.5% on a consolidated basis, from 1 April 2024.
• Adding intermediate pay points at Agenda for Change Bands 8a and above after two years.
• Working with the UK Government about how to take forward the pay review body recommendations on Agenda for Change pay structures

The Welsh Government said that they are “are accepting the second recommendation regarding the addition of intermediate pay points to bands 8a and above in principle but are asking the Welsh Partnership Forum (WPF) to ratify it before it is implemented.  The WPF is made up of representatives from the Welsh Government, NHS Wales’s employers and trade unions and professional organisations.

You can read a letter from the Welsh Government that summarises the pay award here.

A reminder of what the RCM said to the PRB in our evidence:

Link to the RCM’s written evidence to the PRB is here.

• Real terms pay increase that starts to address the pay cuts our members have faced.
• A commitment to the real living wage
• A consolidated across the board pay increase

On pay setting we said:

• Delays impact on the morale and motivation of midwives and MSWS
• That we want to see a mechanism for the Staff Council to negotiate and address structural pay issues including pay and promotion and interaction with unsocial hours/overtime payments – particularly at 2-3 and 7-8a.

We also said we wanted to see:

• A credible plan to restore the pay lost by NHS staff
• A Government commitment to fund any recommendations that come out of non-pay working groups
• The government to commit to working with unions to put equalities at the heart of the bargaining process

Action on retention to:

• Ensure banding outcomes reflect job content
• Reward additional hours fairly
• Prevent burnout by limiting excess hours
• Support progression and career development

This is a pay award and not an offer, meaning that it will be applied automatically. The award will be effective from and backdated to 1 April 2024. We will update this page when we have confirmation when it will be paid into salaries..

Jersey Pay Offer

RCM members in Jersey have voted to accept the 3 year pay offer.

The RCM closed its consultation with members on 18 April announcing the results on Friday 19 April.

Sixty eight percent (68%) of members turned out to vote and over fifty percent (52.5%) voted to accept the three-pay deal.

The following was the best and final offer from employers:

• 2024 = a pay increase of 8% (consolidated).
• 2025 = a  guarantee of (September 2024) RPI plus 1%
• 2026 = a guarantee of (September 2025) RPI plus 1%

The RCM has thanked all its members in Jersey who turned out and voted for this pay offer and will keep members updated on any further developments by email. So please log into your portal and ensure your contact details are up to date.