Revised offer for the consultant workforce in England

A revised second and final offer has been negotiated between NHS Employers, Department of Health and Social Care, and Trade Unions, and will now be put to union members to vote on.

The below is a high-level summary of the elements of the offer that have been changed from the November offer.

Department of Health and Social Care offer for the consultant workforce in England.

Reform of the consultant (2003 contract) pay scale:

The government has agreed to:

• Uplift the pay point value for Y4-7 by £3,000. This change has resulted in five pay-point values in the new pay scale (as opposed to four in the original offer). See Annex A for structure of new payscale.
• The effective date for pay scale reform has been altered to 1 March 2024. This is to reflect the two-month delay incurred as a result of engaging in further negotiations to agree on a revised offer that can be put to members. Further funding for payscale reform will be released through the attrition of consolidated local clinical excellence awards.

Supporting professional activities:

• Recognising that this element of the original offer caused concerns among members, this has been removed and does not feature in the new offer.

Pay progression:

The original offer included the following separate pay progression criterion:

• Demonstrated effective use and impact of SPA time in order to generate service improvements, this can include training and teaching

This has been amended to the following wording and incorporated into the job planning criterion, reflecting the link to the job planning process set out in Schedule 3 of the consultant contract.

• Setting and meeting personal objectives in the job plan, or where this is not achieved for reasons beyond the doctor’s control, made every reasonable effort to do so. This would include demonstrating any service improvements (including via training and teaching) set out in personal objectives.

Changes to the operation of the DDRB:

The government has provided further detail on the proposed DDRB reforms to ensure trade unions can have confidence in the process. The offer sets out more detail in relation to:

• The involvement of trade unions in the DDRB appointment process, including in the preparation of job specifications and sifting panels.
• Full details of the new Terms of Reference.

Next steps

The BMA and HCSA have confirmed that they will hold a referendum with members from 14 March to 3 April 2024.

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