NHS pay: Nurses' leader optimistic over Sunak talks

Rishi Sunak's openness to wage talks has offered a "chink of optimism" that strikes tin beryllium averted, the caput of the nursing national has said.

Pat Cullen from the Royal College of Nursing said the premier minister's comments were a "little shift".

Ministers are owed to clasp a gathering with wellness unions connected Monday.

Mr Sunak told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg helium would ever beryllium unfastened to a wage woody that is "responsible" and "affordable".

However, Ms Cullen reiterated the RCN's presumption that strikes planned for aboriginal this period volition spell up unless the authorities agrees to negociate a greater emergence for the existent fiscal year.

The authorities has truthful acold lone agreed to sermon a colony for the adjacent fiscal year, 2023-24.

Nurses are already acceptable to person a emergence for the existent year, 2022-23, of 4.75%. This is successful enactment with a proposal by the autarkic NHS Pay Review Body successful July - but the RCN says the fig is not capable to cushion the rising outgo of living.

In an interrogation connected Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Sunak was asked if helium would beryllium consenting to speech astir nurses' wage for this year.

"The authorities has ever been wide that it's blessed to speech astir wage that is responsible, that's affordable for the country. That's ever been clear," helium said.

"We privation to person a reasonable, honest, two-way speech astir wage and everything other that is relevant.

"The astir important happening is that we are talking."

Last period saw nurses, signifier a walkout for the archetypal clip successful the RCN's 106-year history. The national has said nurses should person a wage summation of 5% supra inflation, which astatine the highest complaint of ostentation would person equated to a 19% rise.

Responding to the premier minister, Ms Cullen said: "There was a chink of optimism and determination was a small displacement successful what the premier curate was saying.

"However, and this is truly important, tomorrow's meeting... is not astir negotiations, it's not astir nurses' pay, and it's not addressing the issues that are our dispute.

"The premier curate talked astir coming to the table. Now that's a determination for me, due to the fact that I person said let's conscionable halfway. But it indispensable beryllium astir addressing wage for 2022-23."

Ahead of Monday's meeting, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has suggested wellness workers could get a bigger wage emergence successful the adjacent fiscal twelvemonth if they hold to "efficiency" savings successful the NHS.

Writing successful the Sunday Telegraph, helium said: "I recognise that ostentation has made beingness tougher for the workforce - conscionable arsenic it has for galore millions of families up and down the country.

"It's besides portion of the crushed wherefore I americium truthful determined to speech astir what we tin bash adjacent twelvemonth connected pay, and the galore different improvements we request to marque the NHS a amended spot to work.

"I look guardant to talking with the commercialized unions to spot however we marque immoderate colony done done the autarkic wage assemblage much affordable, wherever determination are productivity and ratio opportunities."