NHS Foundation Trusts: Living Wage
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department plans to take to support (a) Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (b) Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to become accredited as Living Wage Employers.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Individual National Health Service organisations are free to make local decisions to enhance pay and may choose, at their own discretion, to pursue Living Wage Employer accreditation. The Department does not have plans to provide direct support to foundation trusts to become accredited Living Wage Employers.
Following acceptance of the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation on headline pay for 2026/27, the Agenda for Change (AfC) entry hourly rate in England now sits 21p per hour above the National Living Wage.
Negotiations on reforms to the AfC pay structure are undertaken through the NHS Staff Council. We are working in partnership with them to agree changes in 2026/27, backdated to 1 April 2026.
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