Nursing is the largest safety-critical profession in health care, playing a vital role in patient care.

Despite this, nursing remains understaffed and undervalued. After years of underinvestment, the government must act urgently to protect patient care by protecting the profession.

When politicians neglect nursing, they neglect patients. We need members and supporters to come together to achieve a safely staffed workforce. You can demand change today.

Our members working in the NHS on Agenda for Change contracts have voted to accept the Scottish government pay offer.

Thank you to all of you who voted and helped to promote the consultation. Your continued participation and engagement is what drives the RCN. 

We reported the result to the joint health trade unions at a meeting on Friday 16 May. The collective results from all the health trade unions were shared with the Scottish government after the meeting.   
Increases of 4.25% and 3.75% will be paid in 2025-26 and 2026-27 respectively. The deal includes a guarantee that the increases will be at least 1% above inflation in each year.

We expect the increase for 2025-26 to be paid in June salaries, and backdated pay (to 1 April) to be paid in July.

Read our comment.

It remains very important that you make sure that the details the RCN holds about you are correct. Please take a minute to log in to MyRCN to make sure all your information is current, including your workplace and employer.

The Scottish government has agreed to implementation of the Agenda for Change review’s recommendations on reform of the NHS pay scheme. Read more.

The recommendations from the review relate to:

• Protected time for statutory, mandatory and profession-specific learning
• A review of band 5 nursing roles, which is now open for submissions
• A reduction in the working week. 

We will be supporting members through the implementation process – look out for emails from us and information on our website in the coming weeks. 

Please also remember to make sure your details on MyRCN are up to date so you can continue to receive updates from us.

2023-24

RCN members voted to accept this pay offer in March 2023. It includes:

• An average consolidated pay increase of at least 6.5% for all staff up to and including of band 8a
• An additional one-off pro rata payment of between £387 and £939 (depending on pay point)
• A review of the Agenda for Change pay scheme that builds on commitments made as part of the 2022-23 pay deal.

Read the detail of the deal in full.

2022-23

RCN members voted to reject the pay offer in December 2022. The offer included:

• A percentage increase depending on pay point and band
• A commitment to a review of band 5 nursing job roles to establish if these are still fit for purpose
• A commitment to establish a working group to consider protected learning time for professional groups of Agenda for Change staff
• The permanent retention of paid overtime for bands 8 and 9
• Maintenance of temporary enhanced mileages rates for NHS Scotland staff until the UK Staff Council review is concluded
• A commitment to establish a working group to explore the feasibility of a reduced working week, with the aim of getting to a 36-hour working week without the loss of earnings
• A commitment to a mechanism to negotiate NHS pay for future years which will avoid such protracted discussion and delay.

The Scottish government chose to impose a deal after the majority of other health trade unions voted to accept. Read the detail of the deal in full.

The strength of the RCN’s industrial action mandate and members’ overwhelming rejection of this pay offer resulted in further negotiations and the subsequent pay offer for 2023/24.