'Stop the dither and delay': Nurses issue strike warning to Streeting over pay
Royal College of Nursing general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger will warn ministers to come up with a 'significant' pay offer or face 'escalation'
The head of the UK’s biggest nursing union has warned staff may strike again unless the Government comes up with a “significant” pay offer.
At its annual congress in Liverpool, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, will warn ministers “not to sail too close to the wind” when it comes to announcing a pay deal and believes the situation will “escalate” if the profession is left “ailing and underpaid”.
Last month, the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) recommended a pay rise of about 3 per cent for nurses for the year 2025-26 but the Government has yet to announce its offer. It has previously budgeted for a 2.8 per cent uplift to staff pay.
Nurses in England rejected the 5.5 per cent pay rise they were offered last year having been left fuming after the Government awarded junior – now resident – doctors a 22 per cent deal over two years. The deal brought the doctors’ strikes to an end.
However, the British Medical Association will launch a fresh ballot for industrial action at the end of the month after it said Health Secretary Wes Streeting had refused to promise them a return to 2008 levels of pay within two years.
‘Stop the dither and delay’
The RCN has been warning for months that another “poor by comparison” deal for nurses would make further industrial action more likely. Prof Ranger said she will not tell nurses to strike but warned the situation could escalate and called on ministers to “stop the dither and delay” over a new deal.
In a keynote speech to delegates on Monday she will also warn that staffing levels are “dreadfully unsafe” and urged nurses not to accept corridor care as “the norm”.
“In the NHS, your pay award was due six weeks ago,” Prof Ranger is expected to say. “Government should stop the dither and delay and make the announcements. It has now been a whole month since the Pay Review Body gave its report and recommendations to government but still no news.
“We need a significant pay rise for nursing and for every NHS employer to be given the full money to pay it – anything else is a cut to patient services.
“I’m not here to tell you we’re going on strike. You will decide how you feel and we will plan together the best way to get what nursing needs. But I ask ministers not to sail close to the wind. If you continue to insult this profession, leave it ailing and underpaid this summer then you know how this could escalate.”
Better deal for nurses in Scotland
Nurses, midwives and healthcare staff across Scotland have been offered an 8 per cent pay increase over two years – a 4.25 per cent increase in 2025-26 and a 3.75 per cent rise next year.
The offer – which the Government said would cost around £701m – will also be protected by an “inflation guarantee”, meaning pay increases will always be at least 1 per cent above the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate.
Unison said it would consult its members on the Scottish government proposal with a digital ballot while RCN Scotland said its board was considering the offer “in detail”. GMB Scotland, one of the biggest unions in NHS Scotland, and the Scottish Ambulance Service will also ballot members on the pay offer.
One RCN member in England told The i Paper: “Many of us felt hard done by after the 5.5 per cent offer only to see doctors, who carried on striking, get significantly more than that.
“This time the Government says it has only enough money for a 2.8 per cent rise but if that is confirmed it will go down very badly – especially when you look at what nurses in Scotland are being offered – and raise questions about wider NHS pay across the UK.”
Last week, NHS trusts in England revealed they are cutting thousands of nursing and other clinical roles to meet demands to fill a £6.6bn deficit. Health unions criticised the move and also warned it could lead to industrial action this summer.
The deficit within the NHS comes as Rachel Reeves faces missing her target to balance the budget by the end of the decade by £62.9bn, piling pressure on the Chancellor to raise taxes and restrict pay rises in the public sector.
Staffing levels ‘dreadfully unsafe’
Prof Ranger will also use her speech on Monday to warn over unsafe staffing levels and corridor care.
It comes after a damning report by the RCN, published in January, claimed patients are dying in corridors and sometimes going undiscovered for hours.
“Right now, staffing levels are dreadfully unsafe,” Prof Ranger will say. “One registered nurse to 15 to 20 patients. One nurse told me she was the only person left in charge of 40. It’s taking advantage of your goodwill and you take home guilt when you’ve not been able to deliver high quality care.
“Safety is not an optional extra – it should be the standard. Caring for patients in corridors is not ‘the norm’ and we have to be clear we do not accept it. These tough times require political leaders that are tougher and reach for the big ideas, not modest tinkering. Nursing needs investment, recognition and to be valued.”
A government spokesperson said: “This Government inherited a broken NHS with an overworked, undervalued and demoralised workforce. We hugely value the work of talented nurses and midwives, and through our plan for change we are rebuilding the NHS for the benefit of patient and staff, and ensuring nursing remains an attractive career choice.
“One of the first acts of this Government was to award nurses an above-inflation pay rise for the first time in years, because we recognise that their pay has been hit over previous years. We are carefully considering the recommendations from the NHS pay review body and will update as soon as possible.”
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