Healthcare Staff At Non-NHS Organisations To Get COVID Bonus

A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward on Jan. 18, 2023. (Jeff Moore/PA)

The government has agreed to fund a one-off bonus for health workers who missed out previously because they worked for non-NHS organisations.

On Monday, the government said that a one-off payment of at least £1,655 has been agreed to for thousands of staff as part of the latest NHS pay deal.

A previous NHS pay deal was agreed between government and unions in May, however, outsourced health care staff at non-NHS organisations such as charities, local authorities and social enterprises did not qualify.

In late October, one industry body, which representing more than 10,000 of those workers, had started the process of applying for a judicial review as it believed the arrangement was “completely unfair.”

Now, the government has agreed to provide additional funding for organisations with contracts to deliver NHS services.

They will have to apply for the funding and will need to show they have been negatively financially impacted by the pay deal, and that their staff are employed on “dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts,” a type of employment agreement used by non-NHS organisations.

Efforts During the Pandemic

The earlier NHS pay deal saw over one million staff including nurses, paramedics and 999 call handlers, receive a 5 percent pay rise for 2023 to 2024, backdated to April, alongside two one-off payments worth between £1,655 and £3,789 for full-time staff.

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Health Minister Will Quince said, “Given the difficult economic context, we have made the decision to provide additional funding on this occasion to help deliver the one-off payments to eligible staff employed by non-NHS organisations.”

“This will ensure hardworking health care staff and the organisations they work for are not financially disadvantaged as a result of the NHS pay deal, and means they will receive their backlog bonus for their efforts during the pandemic,” he said.

Judicial Review

Social Enterprise UK, an industry body which represents 10,000 such workers had threatened to take legal action against the government.

It had sought a judicial review over what it has called an “inequitable, two-tier system of government funding for a one-off bonus for nurses.”

On Monday, Social Enterprise UK CEO Peter Holbrook wrote on X (formally known as Twitter) that he was “delighted” that this action, brought by the body on behalf of our members, “appears to have been satisfactorily resolved.”

“Let’s not find ourselves back here again please,” he added.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it is significant progress, but “not before time”.

RCN director of England Patricia Marquis said: “In the four months after the one-off payment was given to the majority, we have campaigned alongside the nursing staff who were left without.

“The Government should learn from this situation for all future pay awards to ensure these staff are not forgotten and these delays are not repeated.”

NHS workers take part in a march from St Thomas' Hospital to Trafalgar Square, London on May 1, 2023. (Jordan Pettitt/PA Media)

The largest British and Irish trade union Unite said it wasn’t enough.

“This is barely a sticking plaster from a government that has defunded the NHS to the point it is now on life support,” it wrote on X.

“Instead of doing the right thing and funding a lump sum payment, it has instead created a multi-tier workforce,” it added.

The Unison union’s head of health, Sara Gorton, said: “This will ensure a small number of providers aren’t out of pocket for awarding staff what they’re legally owed, but this should have happened months ago.

“Sadly this won’t stop thousands of contractors and ‘bank’ providers from ignoring calls to do the right thing by paying the lump sum to outsourced and temporary staff in the NHS. Many of these workers are on low wages and insecure contracts.

“Ministers must end the two-tier employment scandal in the NHS and ensure all employers in the service play by the same rules.”

PA Media contributed to this report.