NHS Staff Earnings Estimates Published, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 30 Jun 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The NHS Information Centre has published its latest estimates of NHS staff earnings.

The estimates are based on staff earnings between January and March 2008 and are compared with estimates from the same period in 2007.

This the first time that information from the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) - the new integrated payroll and HR system - has been used to chart an annual change in earnings.

Roll-out of ESR was completed in April 2008 and the system is enabling the NHS to get a more accurate and up-to-date information about staff earnings than ever before.

The estimates indicate that:

- Qualified nurses' estimated basic pay increased 4.2 per cent from £26,100 to £27,200 between January to March 2007 and the same period in 2008.

- Hospital consultants working under the new contract earned an estimated total earnings of £115,400, a 3.2 per cent increase on the previous year when their total earnings from NHS work was estimated as £111,800. The figures do not take into account any private work that consultants may have undertaken and only includes consultants directly employed and paid by NHS organisations.

Chief executive of The NHS Information Centre Tim Straughan said:

"The NHS Information Centre is making the most of the high-quality information ESR has to offer in order to produce more robust and timely estimates of staff earnings than ever before.

"Staff earnings represent a huge proportion of the NHS budget and independent, reliable and up-to-date information about staff pay is a huge support for frontline organisations in their pay negotiations and financial planning."

The full report, NHS Staff Earnings Estimates June 2008 - Based on payments to staff in the English NHS from January to March 2008 is here.

1The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work.

The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

Hospital Consultants are either part of the old contractual arrangements, which pertained until October 2003, or can have opted to move onto new contractual arrangements. In this sample 93 per cent of consultants are on the new contract. Those who remain on the old contract may do so as it suits their working patterns better. For example they work on average approximately one session less per week than those on the new contract.

This is the 5th quarter of earnings estimates derived from the ESR Data Warehouse. Changes in data, from Jan - March 2007 and the same period in 2008, for the two groups discussed above may be due to a combination of:

- Changes in the composition of the workforce at trust level due to staff movements

- Genuine changes in the pay of individuals (for example when moving up an Agenda for Change incremental point) or seasonal effects.

http://www.ic.nhs.uk