The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has described the Government’s pay recommendation of 2.8% for 2025/26 as ‘not good enough’ and says it won’t meet the expectations of its hard-working members.
Furthermore, moving the crucial structural negotiations which formed part of this year’s pay round into 2025/26 runs counter to the Government’s previous commitment of getting the pay process back on track.
The RCM says for the past number of years its members’ faith in the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) process has slowly eroded and this will further test that.
Commenting, Alice Sorby, RCM’s Director for Employment Relations said:
“In our recent evidence to the Pay Review Body we warned that the current recruitment and retention issues would only worsen if the Government does not value midwives and maternity support workers with fair pay. The Government’s recommended rise of 2.8 per cent for next year will not address this. This at a time when widespread understaffing is impacting the delivery of safe high-quality care will further deepen the retention crisis. Furthermore, they are kicking the can down the road by pushing their commitment to solve the structural issues we highlighted that needed solving this year into the 2025/26 pay round.”
In November the RCM submitted its evidence NHS PRB and built a strong case for not only improvements to pay, but to the job evaluation process and structural issues in the pay system which the RCM have long said need addressing as a whole structure rather than individual points in isolation.
Alice added:
“Getting the pay process back on track is something we have pushed hard for, but that can’t be at the expense of other key structural elements that need fixing now. Also, the lack of working patterns that support our member’s work life balance was also something we highlighted in our evidence to the PRB. Most midwives and MSW’s are women, and many have caring responsibilities whether that be for children or older adults, and they need flexible working options to ensure they can remain in the profession.”
You can read the RCM’s full evidence submission to the NHS Pay Review Body for the 2025/26 pay round on behalf of its members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland here. The PRB will also hear directly from RCM members when together with RCM staff they given oral evidence on 21 January 2025.
