King's Fund: NHS pay deal failed to deliver for patients and staff

The overhaul of National Health Service pay was rushed, went over budget and has produced little benefit for patients, the Government will be told today.

Under the new system, more than one million NHS employees - including nurses, midwives, porters and most managers - were put into one of nine salary bands in an attempt to harmonise pay across the country.

But the King's Fund, an independent health think-tank, has delivered a damning verdict on the pay structure, which was finally introduced after five years of negotiations with unions.

It concluded that transferring staff to the Agenda for Change system became "an end in itself" for some NHS trust managers rather than a way to deliver benefits such as treating patients more quickly.

The fund found nurses were unhappy with the pay structure and it warned that the costs of the new system, which exceeded its budget by £220m, were more obvious than the benefits.

Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the King's Fund, said: "As yet there are few signs it has delivered increased productivity or transformed practice and there is evidence that many staff are far from satisfied by the process."

He said it was "indefensible", given the amount of taxpayers' money at stake, that an independent evaluation of its introduction had not been made.

Alastair Henderson, the deputy director of NHS Employers, which represents trusts on workforce issues, said: "Agenda for Change provides a fairer and more transparent pay system for the NHS. "By itself it can not improve care for patients. It is a tool for managers to use to help make the changes they need to improve services for patients."

Stephen O'Brien, the shadow Health Minister, said: "This damning report exposes the Government's failure - a failure which contributed substantially to last year's deficits in our NHS."

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