Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the NHS non-consolidated pay awards for 2022-23 on health and care services previously run by social enterprises.

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.