Over 1.4 million NHS workers are expected to receive a 3.3% pay rise from April ’26, as announced by the government.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the uplift was above the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast of 2.2% inflation for 2026-’27, adding that this delivers a real-terms pay rise for NHS staff.
Health unions have criticised the amounts. The Unison’s head of health, Helga Pile, said that hard-pressed NHS staff will be downright angry at another below-inflation pay award as inflation rose to 3.4%, according to the latest inflation figure in December ’25.
Meantime, the Health Service Journal has estimated that the award will create around USD 1.632 (£1.2) billion of cost pressures.
The interim chief executive of NHS Employers, Dean Royles, said that the government’s early acceptance of the Pay Review Bodies’ recommendations is likely to ensure that, for the first time in many years, all NHS Agenda for Change staff will receive their annual pay uplift at the very start of the pay year in April. Royles added that this would be better than doing so as late as September or October, as experienced in previous years. He stated that it is essential that the funding of this award be clarified quickly.
Figures released on Thursday, 12 February, reflect that the NHS was waiting for procedures and appointments in England for 7.29 million in December 2025. The figure was slightly down from 7.31 million in November 2025. This is the lowest recorded level since three years ago, in February 2023.
Acute and community care director Rory Deighton, speaking on behalf of NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation, said that the NHS remains under immense pressure, adding that the surge in patients waiting more than 12 hours in emergency departments, to record levels, is quite concerning.
It has been revealed that none of the neighbourhood contracts proposed in the NHS 10-year health plan are likely to go live for the next year until at least April 27.
