Senior NHS managers will get a 3 per cent pay rise for 2026-27, the government has announced.
Minister Karin Smyth told Parliament she was accepting the recommendation from the government’s pay advisers in a statement on Friday.
The wage rise covers more than 3,200 very senior managers (VSMs), mainly in trusts and integrated care boards, and 400 executive senior managers (ESMs), in arm’s length bodies including NHS England.
The 3 per cent uplift is above the 2.5 per cent the government had told the Senior Salaries Review Body it could afford, but below the 3.3 per cent deal for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff.
The last GDP deflator inflation forecast was for about 2 per cent in 2026-27, but the Iran war means prices are now expected to rise much more quickly.
It comes as the government considers extending rules introduced last year – in which the annual pay rise is withheld from VSMs at trusts in segment five of the oversight framework – to providers in tiers three and four.
Source: HSJ
Date: 27 May