Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure NHS mental health workforce staff pay keeps pace with other sectors.

The National Health Service mental health workforce is made up of various professions. Staff on the national Agenda for Change contract, including nurses, midwives, and admin and clerical staff, are job evaluated. The Job Evaluation Scheme compares job demands and seeks to ensure that staff receive equal pay for work of equal value.

For medical staff, including doctors, there are separate national pay scales for basic pay which apply to each NHS medical workforce. However, the terms and conditions of service for each medical staff group do recognise and make provisions for the unsocial nature of work done in premium time, namely evenings, nights, and weekends, and this can lead to differences in pay by specialty due to different working patterns.