Steve Barclay has admitted privately that he will have to increase his pay offer to NHS staff, in a move that may help end the growing wave of strikes.
However, the Treasury has made it clear that it will have to find new money within the existing health budget, raising the possibility of cuts to key services.
According to senior sources who have spoken to The Guardian, Barclay has acknowledged that more than 1m frontline staff deserve more money, after months of repeatedly insisting that the existing award of £1,400 for 2022-23 it was all the government could afford.
His hard-line stance led to him being branded a “bullyboy” by nurse leaders and health unions, who claimed ministers’ “intransigence” would lead to a campaign of industrial action that could last months and involve a regular interruption of NHS care and treatment.
Their renewed determination to end the walkouts by increasing the offer to £1,400, which has been confirmed by well-placed Whitehall sources, comes before nurses in England stage two more walkouts next week, which will again force hospitals to reduce their activities.
A government source said the Treasury is waiting for Barclay to outline which NHS services could be cut to free up what health service experts estimated would be the £2bn to £3bn needed to deliver to more than 1m of workers an improved agreement for 2022-23.
Once it has done so, Treasury officials will assess whether going beyond the original sum of £1,400 will threaten the government’s ambition to control inflation through 2023.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has ruled out bringing in extra cash, including from Treasury reserves, to fund a 2022-23 one-off payment for health workers. He has told Barclay that he will have to attack the budget of his own Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) or, more likely, NHS England to fund any improved provision.
“Ministers are keen to avoid further NHS strikes and understand there will need to be an offer of additional support on the table for 2022-23,” the government source said.
Several healthcare unions confirmed that Barclay is working to find the money to fund an improved deal for this financial year. Unions have made it clear that NHS staff must get more than the £1,400 expected or their strikes will continue for the foreseeable future.
“There seems to be some seriousness on the part of the DHSC to find a solution now,” said one official. Union leaders spoke on Monday of a change in atmosphere between them and Barclay, when he gave the first signs that his long-standing position was no longer tenable.
Ministers are closely watching talks on the long-running rail dispute, which both sides have said are close to being resolved, with an offer of 9.5% over two years planned, made up of 5.5% the first year and 4% the following year.
This could set a benchmark for pay in other public sectors, meaning Barclay would know how much cash it would have available for an improved offer.
NHS staff paid between £35,000 and £45,000 are seen as particularly vulnerable to cost-of-living pressures, with many who take less home also receiving some benefits.
Unions are preparing to step up their industrial action campaign over this year’s pay award. The GMB union is expected to announce a series of further redundancies by its members from ambulance services in England and Wales early next week. And a British Medical Association (BMA) poll of 45,000 junior doctors in England is likely to produce a strong vote in favor of strikes.
However, it is unlikely that Barclay will be able to present new pay proposals in time to avoid a strike by nurses in England next Wednesday and Thursday.
He received a reminder of how difficult it will be to present a new offer that unions will find acceptable on Thursday. Health unions in Wales have hit back at the Welsh Labor government’s bid to break the deadlock over NHS pay there by offering staff a one-off payment, which would not be added to their base line salaries, in addition to the 1,400 pounds.
But unions insisted they would only accept a percentage increase in their wages higher than what is already on offer, which is between 4% and 5% for most staff. Strikes are likely to continue as planned in Wales.
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
In Scotland, Unite and Unison have accepted Nicola Sturgeon’s “best and final” offer of a £2,205 rise, equivalent to 7.5%, but have been rejected by the GMB and the Royal College of Nursing, stressing the difficulty of reaching agreement with all NHS staff.
On Thursday, Barclay met the BMA, the Association of Hospital Consultants and Specialists and the British Dental Association, whose pay is advised by an independent NHS pay review body that helps set pay for the rest of the health workers.
Afterwards, however, Professor Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA council, said Barclay’s failure to recognize the need to pay doctors a substantial pay rise (junior doctors are seeking 26.2%) meant that trainee doctors should vote in favor of walkouts.
He accused Barclay of using “mints” when he stressed his commitment to the NHS.
Banfield urged the health secretary to use the time before the vote ends on February 20 to make a concrete offer on junior doctors’ pay.
“In the meantime, the best thing young doctors can do now is … vote ‘yes’ to take action, ‘yes’ to stand up for our health service and ‘yes’ to protect patient care,” he said.
The pressure on ministers to find a solution to at least some of the NHS strikes is even more intense given the prospect of disruption in even more areas of the public sector, particularly civil servants.
The PCS and Prospect unions were scathing about their meeting with Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin on Thursday morning, with the PCS boss describing it as a “total farce”.
While the Cabinet Office said Quin wanted to “listen and understand” union concerns, Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS, said: “This meeting was a complete farce. Despite being closely followed by the government as an opportunity to resolve the crisis, it was none of that because the minister had nothing to offer.”
Prospect boss Mike Clancy said his union would continue with plans to vote members into strike action given Quin’s lack of movement.