Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to NHS trusts to meet the increased pay costs for health care assistants arising from the introduction of higher pay bands in July 2021.

No new pay bands were introduced in July 2021. The NHS Staff Council, which has representatives from both employers and trade unions, agreed minor wording amendments to the profiles for band 2 and band 3 Healthcare Support Worker roles in August 2021. The profile levels and scores were not changed.

However, the clarifying amendments to the profiles led to some rebanding requests. This is a local matter and it is the responsibility of every employing organisation to ensure their staff are correctly evaluated and paid in accordance. For that reason, no assessment has been or will be made.