The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have confirmed a four per cent pay rise for consultants, speciality doctors, specialists, GPs and dentists, which will start from August 2025. Pay uplifts will be backdated to 1st April 2025.

Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors until 2024, will see an average pay rise of 5.4 per cent for 2025 to 2026, comprising a four per cent pay rise alongside a £750 consolidated payment, which is the highest pay award across the public sector this year. This works out to an average pay increase of 28.9 per cent over the last three years, meaning that the average full-time salary for resident doctors will reach around £54,300 in 2025-26.

Agenda for Change (AfC) staff including nurses, health visitors, midwives, ambulance staff, porters, and cleaners will see their pay increase by 3.6 per cent for 2025-26, after last year’s pay rise of 5.5 per cent.

This means that the band two starting salary is now £24,465, up by more than £4,000 more than in 2022-23, and the band five starting salary will be around £31,050, which is almost £4,000 more than it was three years ago.

Additionally, the government have accepted the Pay Review Body’s Recommendation to fund changes to the AfC pay structure, which will see the DHSC work with trade unions and employers to negotiate improvements to the pay structure in 2026-27.

These pay rises mean that, for the second year in a row, NHS workers will receive real terms pay rises; that is, pay increases above inflation.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: “These are thoroughly deserved pay rises for all our hard-working nurses, doctors and other NHS staff. We inherited a broken health service with extremely low morale after years of pay erosion and poor industrial relations.

“Which is why, despite the difficult financial situation the nation faces, we are backing our health workers with above-inflation pay rises for the second year in a row. This government was never going to be able to fully reverse a decade and half of neglect in under a year, but this year’s pay increases — and last year’s — represent significant progress in making sure that NHS staff are properly recognised for the outstanding work they do.

“In the past ten months, through our Plan for Change, we have worked with staff to cut waiting lists by 200,000 and put the NHS on the road to recovery. These real terms pay rises demonstrate our commitment to continue on our shared mission, to build an NHS fit for the future.”