NHS-wide pay system will cost £3bn

Chancellor Gordon Brown must make£3bn available in the forthcoming comprehensive spending review if an NHS-wide pay system is to be implemented effectively, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

The long-delayed pay system being negotiated in the Agenda for Change talks stalled again in November, when health secretary Alan Milburn told unions that no money had been allocated to cover the costs in the current spending review.

Now an RCN submission to Mr Brown's forthcoming review says: 'It is critical that the spending review 2002 delivers adequate resourcing for Agenda for Change, and that the timetable for implementation enables reform to continue at the pace required.'

The union puts the cost at£3bn over five years - 15 per cent of the total UK NHS pay bill. It says this is a 'ball-park figure', with the true cost dependent on the final shape of the programme that emerges from negotiations. The RCN figure more than doubles earlier estimates, which put the sum needed at around£1.25bn.

The union claims that the£3bn figure includes costs associated with early implementer sites, the job evaluation system and the new grading structure. It also takes into account the cost of harmonising conditions of service across the NHS, assimilating staff into the new pay and grading structure, protection of earnings for existing staff, and the cost of recruitment and retention premiums.