13/02/2026
3.3% pay award for NHS staff
The government has announced NHS staff will receive a 3.3% pay award for 2026/27. This is due to be paid in April 2026.
Yet again, you’re expected to keep delivering more while effectively being given less, as pay slides behind living costs. So having an increase on time for once is only small comfort.
The government had been talking to us about sorting pay out through proper negotiations. Instead, they have announced an award set through the same old Pay Review Body process.
But ministers have also said they intend to do more on pay this year. This would involve negotiations with us on further changes to pay rates, with their priorities to improve pay for staff on the lowest pay bands and on graduate level pay bands across all professions.
They have said that, if agreed, these reforms could deliver additional pay increases for some staff that will be backdated to 1 April 2026.
Our health committee, made up of NHS workers from across the country, need to meet to consider what all this means before deciding our next steps. We also want to try and coordinate as much as possible with other NHS trade unions. This could take some time.
More than 10,000 of you contacted your MPs to pressure the government to act on NHS pay – be in no doubt that pressure has resulted in an award being paid significantly earlier than in previous years. But we need more than this and it’s not yet clear what could be on offer.
We will need you all to get involved in deciding how we push forward and we will be in touch again after our health committee has met.
Kind regards,
Helga Pile
UNISON head of health
