There are always big stories on WalesOnline - don't miss any with our daily email Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign me up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Nurses, midwives, porters and many other NHS Wales employees are set to be given a pay rise in line with their counterparts in England. Health Secretary Vaughan Gething made the announcement to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the NHS which was founded by Tredegar-born Aneurin Bevan in 1948. The new pay offer means staff would receive at least a 6.5% pay increase over the course of three years, with the majority receiving more than this. The lowest salary for an NHS staff member would now stand at £17,460 and would be backdated to April 1, 2018, going beyond recommendations made by the Living Wage Foundation. This would then increase to £18,005 by 2020-21. Who will benefit from the new pay deal? Health professionals such as nurses, physiotherapists, emergency call handlers, paramedics, midwives and radiographers will all be given a pay rise. So will non-clinical staff members such as cleaners, porters and security guards. But the agreement does not cover doctors and dentists, as well as those in executive and senior posts, as they have separate negotiating bodies. So who will be profiting the most? Those at the very bottom of their pay bands - bands 1 and 2 - who currently have a salary of £16,523 would get a salary increase of 8.9% over three years. That equates to a rise of £937 in 2018/19, £1,129 in 2019-20 and £1,482 in 2020-21 Those in the middle bands - such as band 6 and 7 - will receive an even higher percentage increase in their wages than those in the lowest bands. Employees in band 6 currently earning £26,566 will receive an 18.10% increase over three years. That equates to a rise of £1,484 in 2018/19, £3,835 in 2019-20 and £4,799 in 2020-21 Those in the top band - band 9 - will see their pay rise from £80,210 to £91,004 over three years, an increase of 13.5% So it appears those on the lowest pay will actually be getting the smallest percentage increase in their salaries over the course of three years. But staff have pay increments within those bands where they can earn a higher salary. Here is a breakdown of the pay rises In March, UK Government Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that NHS England employees would get a rise of at least 6.5% over three years. And now the Welsh Government is offering almost exactly the same pay deal following the consequential funding from the UK Government. Just as the recent pay deal did in England, staff will be able to progress through the pay bands and reach the top of each band quicker, as the number of increments in each pay band will be reduced. The offer has been negotiated with employers and unions and now need to be approved through a ballot of union members. Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: "As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS in Wales, it is appropriate we recognise those who have made the service what is today and continue to deliver the best possible care for all in their time of need. "Our NHS in Wales simply could not function without the skill, dedication and hard work of its staff." Did the Welsh Government make any other announcements? Yes. They claim their deal matches the offer made in England and "goes beyond it in some areas which are important to our NHS in Wales". These include: A continuing commitment to look at the annual Living Wage Foundation recommendations so that NHS pay scales remain fair in the future Better payments during sickness absence than in England (although the details of this have not been released to the media yet) Trade unions and employers will also work together to support individuals if they face a diagnosis of a terminal illness including support for the TUC “Dying to Work” campaign What do the unions think? The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Wales said the pay deal is the "largest pay rise offered to nurses in 10 years". The union claims average pay for nurses has fallen by more than 14% in real terms since 2010 due to a pay increase cap of 1% for public sector workers. This has now been lifted. A spokeswoman for the RCN said: “This deal is only the beginning. We will continue to fight for better pay and conditions for all members of the nursing family – whether in the NHS or the independent sector. "We will be working hard over the coming weeks to make sure our members have all the information they need to make an informed choice, but we believe that this is the best deal that we could do through negotiation. “It has been a long and arduous journey to get to this point, but the success of the Scrap the Cap campaign shows the power our members can wield over government policy. “We will now be engaging with our members to see what they think. It is vital that as many members as possible take part in the consultation on the proposed deal.” Helen Rogers, the director in Wales of the Royal College of Midwives, said this was a "good deal" for its members. She said: "Over the past number of months the RCM has worked hard with other NHS unions and the Welsh Government to negotiate and secure the best possible deal for midwives and maternity workers in Wales. “Today’s offer is long overdue. Midwives and maternity support workers work tirelessly every day to deliver safe, high-quality care to mothers and babies in Wales and it is only fair that they are rewarded fairly for the care they deliver. “The RCM will now consult with our members in Wales, provide more information and encourage them to engage with the RCM on this important pay consultation process.”<doc-sep>The RCN in Wales said: "This is the largest pay rise offered to nurses in 10 years and it has been a long and arduous journey to get to this point, but the success of the Scrap the Cap campaign shows the power our members can wield over government policy.<doc-sep>Nicola Sturgeon has announced an immediate £160m boost in pay for nearly 150,000 NHS staff in Scotland, among a package of new spending measures. The first minister sought to shore up the Scottish National party’s continuing lead in opinion polls by also announcing an increase in support for the poorest students and those from the care system worth more than £20m. In a bid to beat the UK government’s imminent announcement of a new NHS pay deal in England, Sturgeon said all eligible NHS staff in Scotland earning up to £80,000 a year would get a 3% pay rise in next month’s pay packet. That increase was being given in advance of a formal deal with NHS unions on a three-year pay deal expected within weeks, she said. It would include nurses, midwives, paramedics and support staff, but exclude doctors and senior executives. That meant an auxiliary nurse with one year’s experience would be £830 better off after tax, while a healthcare assistant could earn £630 more. Eligible staff earning more than £80,000 would get a flat rise of £1,600, the Scottish government added. “None of the progress we need to see in our NHS will be possible without the dedication of those who work in it,” she told about 2,000 SNP delegates meeting in Aberdeen. “We know that for NHS staff and all those who work in our public services, the last few years of pay restraint have been tough. [This] is a £160m investment in those who care for us.” She added that bursaries and grants for Scotland’s poorest students would increase by £16m next year, while the starting salary for repaying student loans would rise to £25,000 – putting Scottish students on the same starting rate as English students for the first time. Until now, Scottish graduates had to begin paying off their student loans at a lower figure than in England and Wales. And student support levels had been cut sharply by the last SNP government in 2012, with poorer students forced to increase their loans. In a further measure, £5m would be spent on giving young people from the care system a new college or university grant of £8,100 a year from this year. After attacking the UK’s government’s “hostile environment” policy on immigrants and urging a far more progressive migration policy, Sturgeon said her policies were designed to illustrate the benefits of independence. “We are not just talking about creating a more prosperous, fairer country,” she said. “We’re taking action now to build the kind of country we know is possible. And we are using every power at our disposal.” The mood of the two-day conference was diligent and at times energetic, with the 2,000-seat conference hall regularly at capacity during the sessions on internal party reforms that dominated the agenda. A number of SNP stalwarts were absent, including recently ousted MPs Angus Robertson and Alex Salmond, the former first minister, while only a handful of the party’s 35 MPs were present. The most recent YouGov opinion poll, published on the eve of conference by the Times, produced the shock finding that Sturgeon’s personal popularity had fallen into the negative for the first time. She was given a minus two rating, against a plus 15 rating for her nearest rival Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader. In contrast, the SNP’s popularity in government grew, with its Westminster support up four points to 40% and up three points to 41% for a Holyrood election. Sturgeon gave no further indication of her plans or strategy on independence but she defended a recent and highly controversial SNP report on the country’s economy post-independence, called the growth commission. She said it would increase a growing sense of confidence that Scotland could prosper outside the UK. “I am more certain than ever before that persuading a majority of our fellow citizens that Scotland should be an independent country is well within our grasp,” she told delegates.<doc-sep>Mr Jones told the Good Morning Wales programme: "It's better financially for it to be done across the whole of the UK. Why? Because the share of the UK pot we would get is bigger than what we would reasonably raise ourself. That is the financial reality of it.<doc-sep>
More than 1 million NHS workers in England are to receive a pay rise worth at least 6.5% over the next three years after the deal was accepted by 13 unions representing staff. The rise comes after seven years of a 1% pay cap on salaries, which caused resentment among NHS workers. Among those who will benefit are nurses, midwives, hospital porters, 999 call handlers, security guards, cleaners, radiographers and healthcare assistants. Unions had claimed staff incomes had eroded by up to 15% since austerity began in 2010. The deal means those at the top of bands will receive 6.5% over the three-year period with more for those below, through a combination of cost-of-living pay rises and faster incremental increases. Lower-paid staff will also get an immediate £2,000 increase, taking them above the living wage. Every NHS worker in England will be paid at least £8.93 an hour (18p above the real living wage of £8.75 an hour), or £17,460 a year if they work full-time. Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison, which led the negotiations, said the end of the pay cap would be a huge relief to employers who have struggled to retain and recruit staff as a result of the government’s “mean-spirited” policies. “The agreement won’t solve all the NHS’s problems overnight, but it will go a long way towards easing the financial strain suffered by health staff and their families over many years,” she said. “This three-year pay deal must not be a one-off. Health workers will want to know that ministers are committed to decent wage rises across the NHS for the long term, and that this isn’t just a quick fix.” The Treasury agreed to find £4.2bn of new money to ensure the pay increases would not come at the cost of jobs or patient care. Only the GMB’s NHS members voted against the deal, by almost nine to one. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said its members should begin receiving the largest pay rise in a decade in their July pay packets. Janet Davies, the RCN chief executive and general secretary, said: “Ministers knew the public were behind our members when they turned up the heat last year. Today’s deal would not have been reached without the campaigning efforts of tens of thousands of nursing staff last year and we thank the public for the support shown. “We will turn our campaigning fire on getting this pay rise extended to nursing staff in other parts of the NHS and social care too. The care sector already suffers from high staff turnover and so pay must be boosted there too if we are to prevent a nursing exodus for better paid jobs in hospitals and the community.” Negotiations are ongoing in Scotland and Wales but the absence of a government in Northern Ireland means the increase will be delayed there. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said the “incredibly well-deserved pay rise” would amount to up to 29%, with some of the biggest increases for the lowest paid. “I hope this will also go some way to helping us recruit and retain more brilliant staff in our NHS,” he said.