Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the ability of social enterprises with staff on agenda for change contracts to meet the 2022-23 NHS non-consolidated pay awards without receiving Government funding for that purpose.

The pay deal that was accepted by the NHS Staff Council on 2 May 2023 covered staff directly employed by National Health Service organisations. These organisations are set out in Annex 1 of the handbook on Agenda for Change terms.

NHS social enterprises are independent providers and remain free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. This includes the pay scales that they use and any non-consolidated pay awards they choose to make. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate, and how to recoup any additional costs they face.