This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament

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Petition Fund non-consolidated payments for organisations providing NHS funded services

The Department for Health and Social Care to fully fund the 2022 non-consolidated pay award for organisations providing NHS funded services to enable them to pay their staff this award, to maintain parity of esteem and recognise the work of all colleagues working to deliver NHS funded services.

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Due to changes in NHS commissioning, many organisations delivering NHS funded services are not NHS organisations but are not-for-profit or social enterprise organisations, particularly those that provide community healthcare services.

The NHS family is made up of many provider organisations that provide NHS-funded services through commissioned contracts. We believe the recent non-consolidated pay award should also be fully funded for these organisations.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

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Government responded

This response was given on 8 November 2023

The Department has 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.

Read the response in full

On 2 May 2023, the NHS Staff Council, made up of representatives from health unions, NHS employers, the Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England, accepted a new pay deal for NHS staff employed on the Agenda for Change contract by eligible employers. This included:

o a non-consolidated award of 2% of an individual’s salary for 2022-23; and

o a one-off NHS ‘Backlog Bonus’ which recognises the sustained pressure facing the NHS following the pandemic and the extraordinary effort staff have been making to hit backlog recovery targets and meet the Prime Minister’s promise to cut waiting lists. The backlog bonus is worth at least £1,250 per person for somebody working full time but will be determined on (a) how much experience staff have and (b) an individual’s pay band.

Independent providers remain free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate, and how to recoup any additional costs they face.

Whilst some staff employed by non-NHS organisations are contractually eligible for the payments, it is the independent organisations who are responsible for making them.

The department has however listened to concerns around providing the payments in the current economic circumstances and will make funding available, in line with the developed eligibility criteria, to help deliver them, on this occasion.

The government has decided to provide additional funding for non-NHS organisations with contracts to deliver NHS services, who employ their staff on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts and who meet the eligibility criteria as set out in NHS England’s guidance which will be published in due course. This will ensure hardworking healthcare staff and the organisations they work for are not financially disadvantaged as a result of the NHS pay deal. As a result, eligible staff employed by eligible non-NHS organisations will receive their 2% non-consolidated award and backlog bonus for their efforts during the pandemic.

Organisations will be able 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.

This scheme will be delivered in conjunction with NHS England, who will soon be releasing guidance on the eligibility criteria for this funding. Once applications have been considered, we will provide funding to eligible organisations at the earliest opportunity. We anticipate the scheme to be completed by the end of the 2023/24 financial year.

Department of Health and Social Care

This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/638701)

Petitions Committee requests a revised response from the Government

The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.

When the Committee have received a revised response from the Government, this will be published on the website and you will receive an email. If you would not like to receive further updates about this petition, you can unsubscribe below.

Overdue revised Government response to petition chased by MPs

The Petitions Committee, the group of MPs who consider parliamentary petitions, has written to the Department for Health and Social Care, about the overdue revised Government response to this petition. The Committee has asked for the revised response to be provided, and an explanation for the delay in providing this.

The Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care Will Quince MP has replied and apologised for the delay. He said that the Government is currently unable to provide a fuller response to this petition due to legal proceedings regarding the decision not to provide funding to non-NHS organisations for the non-consolidated payments. The Minister has said that the Government will provide a fuller response as soon the judicial review has been resolved.

We will share the Government's revised response when we receive this.

Government departments are meant to submit responses to petitions within 21 days. A response to this petition was first requested by the Committee on 4 July 2023, but the Government has not yet responded.

Original Government response

Independent providers may choose to utilise the Agenda for Change contract. Where they do so, they should review their commissioning contracts to consider the recovery of additional cost pressures.

On 2 May 2023, the NHS Staff Council accepted a new pay deal for NHS staff employed on the Agenda for Change contract by eligible employers. This included:

• a non-consolidated award of 2% of an individual’s salary for 2022-23; and

• a one-off NHS ‘Backlog Bonus’ which recognises the sustained pressure facing the NHS following the pandemic and the extraordinary effort staff have been making to hit backlog recovery targets and meet the Prime Minister’s promise to cut waiting lists. The backlog bonus is worth at least £1,250 per person for somebody working full time but will be determined based on how much experience staff have and based on an individual’s pay band.

Eligibility criteria are important to set clear parameters for funding and the government has taken a considered approach to setting these criteria with the NHS Staff Council. The pay offer to Agenda for Change staff, approved by a majority on the NHS Staff Council on 2 May, applied to staff directly employed by an NHS organisation as set out in Annex 1 of the NHS Employers handbook. Therefore, independent providers were not eligible to receive funding for the non-consolidated awards.

Independent providers remain free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate, and how to recoup any additional costs they face. Where independent providers have adopted the same terms and conditions as offered on the Agenda for Change contract, they should review their commissioning contracts to consider whether and how to recover any additional cost pressures they now face.

More information, including on eligibility, can be found at: https://www.nhsemployers.org/payofferFAQs.

Department of Health and Social Care

This response was given on 26 June 2023. The Petitions Committee then requested a revised response, that more directly addressed the request of the petition.