Members of the Royal College for Nursing (RCN) working for NHS England have voted to reject the 2024/25 pay award from the UK government.

A record 145,000 eligible members cast a vote with two-thirds (64 per cent) of them saying they didn’t accept the award.

The pay award was announced by the Chancellor in late July as she accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB), awarding a 5.5 per cent consolidated pay increase across all bands. 

This is expected to be paid next month and will be backdated to 1 April 2024.

As this is a pay award rather than a pay offer, the results of RCN's consultation will not directly affect employers' payment of it.

Their consultation was not a vote on the issue of strike action. By law, a new statutory ballot by post would be needed to authorise industrial action.

RCN said the government must now demonstrate its commitment to nursing staff by showing that its NHS reform plans will transform the profession as a central part of improving patient care.

General secretary and chief executive professor Nicola Ranger wrote in a letter to health secretary Wes Streeting: “We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the determination of nursing staff to stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS they believe in.

“Many will support the new government’s health and care agenda as set out in recent weeks and fully recognise the diagnosis of a failing NHS. Working closely with all other professionals, nursing staff are the lifeblood of the service. The government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success.

“To raise standards and reform the NHS, you need safe numbers of nursing staff and they need to feel valued. Nursing staff were asked to consider if, after more than a decade of neglect, they thought the pay award was a fair start. This outcome shows their expectations of government are far higher.

“Our members do not yet feel valued and they are looking for urgent action, not rhetorical commitments. Their concerns relate to understaffed shifts, poor patient care and nursing careers trapped at the lowest pay grades – they need to see that the government’s reform agenda will transform their profession as a central part of improving care for the public.”