Moderate pay rises for most public sector workers

Many of the awards recommended by the public sector pay bodies are below inflation this year, with some higher rises for senior staff to compete with higher private sector salaries.

Key points     Public sector workers covered by pay review bodies received basic rises ranging from 2.5% for most prison officers to an average increase of 4.2% for senior civil servants.     Recruitment and retention is a key theme of this year's report, particularly in the higher reaches of the civil service and the prison service, as well as in the armed forces.     Pay reform continues apace for schoolteachers, with new allowances and changes to the top of the pay scale, but it has slowed in the prison service, with employers urged to make progress on a new pay system.

Around 830,000 public sector workers - including teachers, armed forces personnel, prison officers, senior civil servants, doctors and dentists - received pay rises on 1 April 2005. The majority of awards ranged from 2.5% to 3%, below the current retail prices index (RPI) inflation rate of 3.2%.

Pay rises varied from a 2.5% award for most prison officers and senior military officers to an average basic pay award for senior civil servants of 4.2%. For some senior operational managers in the prison service, a basic pay award of 2.5%, plus increases of 6%, to the minima and maxima of their pay scales may bring a 5.5% increase for employees who achieve the top performance rating.

For armed forces personnel and senior military officers, doctors and dentists, pay awards were slightly lower or the same as the previous year. For schoolteachers, the senior judiciary, prison service staff and the senior civil service, however, pay awards were slightly higher.

All the recommendations made by the pay review bodies¹ (with some minor changes and further consultation on the schoolteachers' pay review body report) were accepted by the government.

Table 1: Summary of review body awards, 2005

Group (numbers covered)	Increase (from 1.4.05)	Previous increase (from 1.4.04)
Armed forces (190,000)	Increase of 3% to basic pay, and increases to allowances including a 5% rise in separation allowances.	Basic increase of 2.8% and 3.2% for privates and lance corporals.
Doctors and dentists (91,550)	Increases in salaries and fee scales ranging from 3% to 3.4%.	Increases from 2.7% to 3.225%.
Judiciary (2,000)	3% increase.	2.5% increase.
Prison service - governors, managers, prison officers and support grades (33,162)	Prison officers, in-charge governors and other operational managers will receive a 2.5% increase from 1.4.05, with a 3% rise for senior prison officers. Pay scale minima and maxima for senior operational managers rise by 6%.	2.4% increase for prison officers and 1.5% increase for operational managers.
Schoolteachers, England and Wales (509,000)	A 2.5% increase from 1.4.05, topped up to 3.25% on 1.9.05, in the final stage of a two-and-a-half-year pay deal.	Basic pay rise of 2.5% as first part of multi-year deal.
Senior civil service (3,850)	Individual basic pay increases will range from nil to 9%, depending on performance, with an average basic pay award of 4.2%. Pay band minima and target rates increased by 2.5%, and recruitment and performance ceilings (or maxima) by 3%.	Pay bands and targets increase by 2%, with individual awards ranging from nil to 9% and averaging 3.5%.
Senior military (123)	All points on the pay scales for two-star, three-star and four-star officers are increased by 2.5%. A new pay scale for the Chief of Defence Staff introduced.	2.8% increase for all ranks.

Pay restraint continues … but reform costs

The pressure from government for lower earnings growth in the parts of the public sector covered by pay review bodies has eased slightly this year, but there is still a strong imperative to maintain wage restraint. The government drew the attention of all the pay review bodies to the consumer prices index (CPI) inflation measure, with its target rate of 2%. For civil service departments and non-departmental bodies, which negotiate their pay awards individually, the Treasury has set a limit of 3.5% earnings growth on 2005-06 pay awards.

Where higher awards have been given to pay review body remit groups - for some senior civil servants and senior prison service managers - they are primarily performance-based and focus on recruiting and retaining people in competition with higher private sector salaries.

A number of pay review bodies made the case that if the government wanted public sector pay to meet modernisation objectives, further investment as well as reform would be needed. The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) expressed its concern that there was "inconsistency between the government's restated longer-term objectives for senior civil service pay, in particular its commitment to a strategic and market-facing approach, and the funding that it is prepared to make available in the short term". It says that this inconsistency "puts at risk the credibility" of the pay system as a means to improve the "performance and motivation" of senior civil servants, and "damages their perception of the fairness of the pay system".

Looking to the future, some long-term awards may be in the pipeline. The SSRB has asked the government to consider whether there may be merit in a multi-year settlement to ensure progress and stability "over the next three years or so". The government has already written to the school teachers' review body asking it to examine the case for a two-year deal for teachers from 2006. A new job evaluation scheme should be ready for the senior judiciary next year, and progress on a reformed pay system is expected in the prison service.

Senior salaries

Table 2: Senior civil service, pay band values, 1.4.05

Pay band	Minimum	Progression target rate	Recruitment and performance ceiling
3	£93,139	£132,586	£198,197
2	£75,607	£101,905	£159,659
1A	£63,555	£85,469	£126,627
1	£54,788	£76,156	£115,616

Recommendations on pay for the senior civil service (SCS), the judiciary and the senior military are made by the SSRB. This body also indirectly sets pay rises for members of parliament and ministers, whose pay is linked automatically to the movement of the midpoint of the pay bands for the senior civil service. This means that they received a 2.8% salary rise on 1 April 2005.

Whitehall pay rise to address retention concerns

The largest group covered by the SSRB are the 3,850 senior civil servants, their numbers up from 3,700 in 2004. In its evidence the government acknowledged that, despite rises in average basic pay in recent years, there was a "real shortfall" in SCS reward packages compared with those in the private sector, even taking into account high-quality pension packages.

The SSRB recommended that from 1 April 2005, senior civil servants below permanent secretary level should see their pay band minima and progression target rates revalorised by 2.5%, and recruitment and performance ceilings (or maxima) by 3% (see table 2). Individual pay increases will range from nil to 9% - the same range as in 2004 - with an average basic pay award of 4.2%, higher than last year's 3.5% average rise. The bonus pot will be 5% of the paybill in 2005 - up by 1% from 2004 - with a minimum bonus of £2,500.

For permanent secretaries, the pay band minima will also be uprated by 2.5%, and the maxima by 3%. In order to alleviate the overlap between permanent secretaries in the lower pay band (A) and the highest pay range for other senior civil servants, the minima for pay band A permanent secretaries will be raised by 5% on 1 April 2005. This means that the salary range for permanent secretaries will be from £130,350 to £264,250.

Union response

The First Division Association (FDA) described the rise in base pay as "a welcome if small step forward in remedying the lack of effective progression through the pay system for most members of the SCS", but "clearly insufficient to address the longer-term problem". Last year's accusations by the union that a "two-tier" pay structure was developing are found to be justified by this year's report, which shows that the median salary of all new joiners from the private sector in 2003-04 was 22.4% higher than those recruited from within the civil service. The FDA argues that this can only be remedied by "a substantially higher increase in the overall levels of SCS pay".

3% increase for judiciary

Table 3: Judiciary annual salaries

Group	Job examples	Former, 1.4.04, £pa	New 1.4.05, £pa
1	Lord Chief Justice	£205,242	£211,399
1.1	Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland	£185,705	£191,276
2	President of the Family Division, Lord Justice Clerk	£179,431	£184,814
3	Inner House judges of the Court of Session, Lords Justices of Appeal	£170,554	£175,671
4	High Court judges	£150,878	£155,404
5	Chairman, Scottish Land Court, chief social security Commissioners, senior circuit judges, employment tribunals president	£122,139	£125,803
6.1	Circuit judges, sheriffs, county court judges (Northern Ireland)	£113,121	£116,515
6.2	Lands Tribunal members, chairmen, VAT and Duties Tribunals	£108,850	£112,116
7	Chairmen, appeal tribunals, masters and registrars of the Supreme Court, immigration judges, district judges (magistrates courts)	£90,760	£93,483

The 2,000 senior members of the judiciary covered by the SSRB received a 3% increase from 1 April 2005. This brings the annual salary for a district judge, at the lowest end of the scale, to £93,483, and increases the salary of the Lord Chief Justice to £211,399 (see table 3).

As recommended in last year's report, a major review of the judiciary salary structure is ongoing, with the objective of producing a salary structure that "attracts the right calibre of people, recognises the demands of particularly complex roles, and provides assurance that pay is set fairly, whilst taking account of recent reforms". A job evaluation exercise is being conducted which will assess posts against five factors. Conclusions will be published in summer 2005, with finalised proposals to be made in the 2006 SSRB report.

2.5% on rates for senior military

Table 4: Senior military officers pay scales, 1.4.05

Pay scale point	Two-star officers	Three-star officers	Four-star officers	Chief of defence staff
7	£100,978	-	-	-
6	£99,068	£120,728	£149,477	-
5	£97,158	£117,709	£146,546	-
4	£95,247	£114,766	£143,673	£210,289
3	£93,337	£111,897	£140,857	£206,165
2	£91,543	£109,099	£138,094	£202,123
1	£90,186	£106,372	£135,386	£198,160

For the 123 most senior officers in the armed forces, there have been performance-related pay scales since 2002, with the exception of the Chief of Defence Staff, who until now has received a spot-rate salary. From 1 April 2005 there will be a separate pay scale for the Chief of Defence Staff, broadly aligned with that of the Cabinet Secretary in the civil service. All points on the pay scales for two-star, three-star and four-star officers are revalorised by 2.5% from 1 April 2005 (see table 4).

Prison service

Table 5: Prison service pay examples

	Former 1.4.04		New 1.4.05
Grade/ Pay band	Min, £pa	Max, £pa	Min, £pa	Max, £pa
Senior manager A	£48,742	£69,455	£53,043	£75,583
Senior manager B	£46,836	£66,406	£50,968	£72,265
Senior manager C	£41,762	£59,803	£45,444	£65,080
Senior manager D	£37,237	£54,667	£40,524	£59,490
Manager E1	£26,395	£41,141	£27,876	£42,170
Manager F1	£23,068	£34,898	£24,365	£35,771
Manager G11	£20,566	£28,587	£21,723	£29,302
Principal officer	£28,970	£29,895	£29,695	£30,643
Prison officer2	£16,896	£24,868	£17,319	£25,490
Operational support grade	£13,640	£16,119	£13,981	£16,522
Prison auxiliary	£11,014	£12,261	£11,290	£12,568

¹Operational managers in paybands E to G receive a required hours addition, to be raised by 2.5% to £5,142 from 1.4.05.

²Long service increments can take salary up to £26,433 from 1.4.05.

The award recommended by the Prison Service Pay Review Body, which covers a total of 33,162 governors, operational managers, prison officers and support grades, represents a paybill increase for the Prison Service of £20.3 million, or 2.4%. The key recommendations are:

a 2.5% basic increase to pay rates for prison officers and related grades and all operational managers from 1 April 2005 (see table 5);

a 3% basic increase for senior officers from 1 April 2005;

an increase of 6% to the maxima and minima of the pay scales for senior operational managers (grades A to D) and a 3% rise to the minima for operational managers (grades E to G);

an increase of 2.5% in the required hours addition payment received by operational managers, bringing it to £5,142 per annum from 1 April 2005;

the healthcare specialist allowance is increased by 2.5% but all other specialist allowances are frozen at current rates; and

an increase of 2.5% on all other allowances, except for the care and maintenance of dogs allowance, to be increased by 1%.

This year there is no increase to the four rates of local pay allowance, which range from the lower rate of £1,100 per annum to the top rate of £4,000.

The Prison Service Pay Review Body also made recommendations on pay for the 1,631 governors and officers employed by the Northern Ireland Prison Service, which were accepted in full by government. The principal recommendations were for a basic pay increase of 2%, with unconsolidated performance awards of up to 1% for all staff and individual performance awards for governor grade staff of up to 4%.

Armed forces

Table 6: Armed forces pay examples¹

	Former 1.4.04		New 1.4.05
Rank	Min £pa	Max £pa	Min £pa	Max £pa
Private and lance corporal	£13,461	£24,313	£13,866	£25,043
Corporal	£22,185	£27,879	£22,849	£28,715
Sergeant	£25,218	£31,025	£25,973	£31,956
Warrant officer 1	£32,427	£39,278	£33,401	£40,457
Lieutenant	£13,082	£27,474	£13,476	£28,298
Captain	£31,854	£37,883	£32,810	£39,019
Major	£40,124	£48,056	£41,329	£49,498
Colonel	£65,218	£72,084	£67,175	£74,245
Brigadier	£78,227	£81,563	£80,574	£84,008

¹Rates shown are for army personnel, but they also apply for equivalent ranks in the air force and navy.

The Armed Forces' Pay Review Body recommended a 3% basic increase in military salaries from 1 April 2005, covering army, navy and air force personnel (see table 6). To reflect evidence that separation was the single most consistently cited factor influencing retention, the review body recommended an increase of 5% in daily rates of Longer Separated Service Allowance (LSSA) and Longer Service at Sea Bonus (LSSB), designed to compensate for the separation of individuals from their families. It also recommended a 3% increase to the various rates of specialist pay, such as submarine or diving pay, and compensatory allowances. The cost to the defence budget will be £216 million, with an estimated 3.1% increase to the overall paybill.

Last year armed forces personnel received a 2.8% rise from 1 April 2004, with a higher increase of 3.2% for privates and lance corporals.

Police service

Table 7: Police pay ranges, 1.9.04

Constables	£19,803-£31,092
Sergeants	£31,092-£34,944
Inspectors	£39,840-£43,212 (£41,586-£44,970 in London)
Chief inspectors	£44,094-£45,909 (45,852-£47,664 in London)

Police constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors throughout the UK received a 3% rise from 1 September 2004 (see table 7).

Constables can expect to earn between £19,803 and £31,092 from 1 September 2004, and the pay range for sergeants is from £31,092 to £34,944. Officers who have been on the highest point of their pay scale for a year have access to a competence-related threshold payment, increased by 3% to £1,032 a year from 1 September 2004.

In the final part of a 2003 agreement, further changes to shorten the pay scale for constables took effect from 1 April 2005, removing the current pay point nine to create a new 11-point scale.

Recommendations on police pay for 2005-06 are due to be published by the police negotiating board in June or July this year, effective from 1 September 2005.

Schoolteachers' pay

Table 8: Pay scales for qualified teachers, England and Wales

Pay spine point	England and Wales, from 1.4.05	England and Wales, from 1.9.05	Inner London, from 1.4.05	Inner London, from 1.9.05	Outer London, from 1.4.05	Outer London, from 1.9.05	Fringe, from 1.4.05	Fringe, from 1.9.05
Main pay scale
M1	£19,023	£19,161	£22,611	£23,001	£21,384	£22,002	£19,935	£20,082
M2	£20,526	£20,676	£24,138	£24,315	£22,887	£23,316	£21,438	£21,597
M3	£22,176	£22,338	£25,818	£26,007	£24,540	£24,978	£23,091	£23,239
M4	£23,883	£24,057	£27,555	£27,756	£26,244	£26,697	£24,801	£24,981
M5	£25,764	£25,953	£29,463	£29,676	£28,128	£28,593	£26,682	£26,877
M6	£27,801	£28,005	£31,518	£31,749	£30,159	£30,642	£28,713	£28,923
Upper pay scale
U1	£30,120	£30,339	£35,721	£35,985	£32,481	£32,979	£31,032	£31,260
U2	£31,236	£31,464	£37,479	£37,752	£33,594	£34,101	£32,148	£32,385
U3	£32,391	£32,628	£38,634	£38,916	£34,755	£35,268	£33,306	£33,549

As part of a two-and-a-half year deal from April 2004, teachers received a 2.5% increase on 1 April 2005 to be topped up to 3.25% on 1 September 2005, giving a 2.95% increase over the financial year 2005-06.

This brings the minimum starting salary to £19,023 for a teacher outside London from 1 April 2005 and £22,611 for a teacher in inner London. There are separate scales for the leadership group, for advanced skills teachers and for head teachers. All these pay scales have separate ranges for staff in inner London, outer London, the fringe area and the rest of England and Wales (see table 8).

The main recommendations in the 2005 report include a new system of teaching and learning payments and an excellent teacher scheme to replace the top two levels of the upper pay scale that were removed from September 2004. The Secretary of State for Education and Skills accepted in principal all the recommendations, with some suggested changes on the detail of implementation. The proposals were subject to a further consultation period, which ended in March.

Scottish schoolteachers, who are not covered by the review body, received a 2.9% rise on 1 April 2005 in the second year of a four-year pay deal.

New teaching and learning payments

The 2005 review body report set out detailed proposals for Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) payments, to replace the current system of management allowances, which have been frozen in value since 1 April 2003.

The report proposes two broad ranges of TLR payments, replacing the current system of five fixed levels of management allowances, which range from £1,638 to £10,572. There will be no automatic read-across from management allowances to the new TLR payments.

For the lower band, TLR2, the range of payments will be from £2,250 to £5,500, and the range for the higher band, TLR1, will be from £6,500 to £11,000. Schools will determine the value of payments within the minimum and maximum for each range, but must maintain a differential of £1,500 or more between the levels of higher and lower payments.

The report sets out criteria by which schools should award TLR payments, and the factors that should be taken into account. The payments will be made to teachers who are "accountable for a significant, specified responsibility focused on teaching and learning, that is not required of all classroom teachers", requiring teachers' "professional skills and judgement".

The government proposes that all schools should finalise their revised structures by 31 December 2005 with a timetable for implementation. No new management allowances will be awarded from 1 January 2006, when TLR payments will be available. A three-year transition period ends by 31 December 2008, until which time existing management allowances will be safeguarded, but frozen in value.

Excellent teachers

The report fleshes out the details of an Excellent Teacher Scheme (ETS), based on detailed proposals drawn up by the Reward and Incentives Group drawn from unions, employers and government. It describes the new role, which it suggests should be called "principal teacher", as a "gold standard" to which teachers can aspire, which "motivates teachers to develop themselves, their colleagues and their teaching practice right through their careers".

The new posts will be introduced from 1 September 2006. To achieve accreditation, teachers will have to pass a "rigorous" application process and have been on the highest point of the upper pay scale for two years.

A separate spot-rate salary will be introduced for the new post. The review body has not proposed a 2006 salary but, to give schools some indication of budget costs, it has set a baseline 2005 salary of £41,745 for inner London, £37,832 for outer London, £35,988 for the fringe area and £35,000 for the rest of England and Wales.

Further local pay postponed

The pay review body returned to the issue of dealing with persistent recruitment and retention problems in particular schools. While acknowledging the evidence that action at regional or local education authority level would "miss the target" and that the problem was "on a school-by-school basis", the STRB nevertheless felt that some type of mechanism would have to be found to give schools some flexibility in this area. "Otherwise," the report noted, "the concept of local pay is left devoid of substance." The secretary of state was content to return to the matter in the next remit.

Union responses

A number of teaching unions were part of the Reward and Incentives Group (RIG) - which drew up much of the detail of the proposed TLR payments and the ETS - and therefore welcomed the proposals. NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said that "the structure recommended in the report will introduce a pay system which at long last rewards teachers for their skill and expertise in teaching and learning".

The NUT, which was not part of the RIG, has concerns about the proposals. It accuses the government of proposing TLR payments in order to "cut both the number of posts of responsibility in schools and the pay bill for those posts". On the ETS, the NUT points out that teachers in receipt of TLR payments will not be eligible for the scheme, saying that it does not make sense that "teachers cannot qualify if they also hold a post of responsibility". It also points out that there is no guarantee of funding for the ETS, and that teachers could meet the requirements but find that no such posts exist in their school.

Doctors and dentists

Table 9: Example whole-time salaries for doctors and dentists on main grades, 1.4.05

Job	Point on scale1	£pa
Hospital doctors and dentists
House officer	Minimum	20,295
	Maximum	22,907
Senior house officer	Minimum	25,324
	Maximum	35,5112
Specialist registrar3	Minimum	28,307
	Maximum	42,9854
Staff grade practitioner	Minimum	30,808
	Maximum (normal)	43,8715
	Maximum (discretionary)	58,5626
Associate specialist	Minimum	34,158
	Maximum (normal)	61,9355
	Maximum (discretionary)	75,2336
Consultant (2003 contract, England and Scotland)	Minimum	69,298
	Maximum (normal)	93,768
	Maximum (CEA)	33,4687
	CEA8 (bronze)	33,468
	CEA (silver)	43,997
	CEA (gold)	54,996
	CEA (platinum)	71,495
Consultant (2003 contract, Wales)	Minimum	67,130
	Maximum	84,6959
	Maximum (commitment award10)	24,168
Consultant (pre-2003 contract)	Minimum	57,370
	Maximum (normal)	74,658
	Maximum (discretionary)	98,82611
	Distinction award "B"	30,145
	Distinction award "A"	52,750
	Distinction award "A plus"	71,583
Community health staff - selected grades
Clinical medical officer	Minimum	29,472
	Maximum	41,011
Senior clinical medical officer	Minimum	42,050
	Maximum	60,380
Salaried primary dental care staff - selected grades
Community dental officer	Minimum	31,290
	Maximum	49,56412
Senior dental officer	Minimum	45,131
	Maximum	61,33812
Clinical director	Minimum	60,294
	Maximum	68,84512

¹Salary scales exclude additional earnings, such as those related to banding multipliers for doctors in training.

²To be awarded automatically, except in the cases of unsatisfactory performance.

³The trainee in public health medicine scale and the trainee in dental public health scale are both the same as the specialist registrar scale.

⁴Additional incremental point, to be awarded automatically, except in the cases of unsatisfactory performance, as recommended by 2004 Review Body.

⁵Top incremental point extended, as recommended by 2004 Review Body.

⁶Additional discretionary point, as recommended by 2004 Review Body.

⁷Eligibility for Clinical Excellence Awards (CEAs) is after one year's service as a consultant. This figure represents the value of the maximum CEA award awarded by local committee.

⁸Higher national CEAs awarded by the Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA).

⁹Until December 2005.

¹⁰A total of eight commitment awards are awarded (one every three years) once the maximum of the scale is reached.

¹¹This figure represents the notional salary where the value of the maximum discretionary point has been added to the maximum of the scale.

¹²Performance-based increment.

The recommendations made in the 34th Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body (DDRB) report have been accepted in full by the government, and were implemented from 1 April 2005. The result is increases in salaries and scale fees of up to 3.4% (see table 9). However, as was the case last year, the DDRB was not required to make recommendations for consultants working under the new consultant contract; independent contractor general medical practitioners (GMPs) working under the new General Medical Services contract, or dentists working in the salaried primary dental care service. These groups of staff are covered by the third year of separate three-year pay and conditions deals. In addition, a three-year agreement now covers ophthalmic medical practitioners and optometrists in relation to the sight test fee. Taken together, these long-term deals cover almost 68,000 healthcare professionals - 42% of the DDRB's total remit group of more than 159,000 medical staff.

This means that, for the 2005 pay round, the review body made recommendations only in respect of the following groups, totalling an estimated 91,550 NHS staff:

doctors and dentists working in the hospital and community health service not covered by a three-year pay deal;

salaried GMPs;

GMP registrars; and

general dental practitioners (GDPs).

In coming to its conclusions, the DDRB takes evidence from a number of parties, including the Department of Health, the Scottish Executive Health Department, the National Assembly for Wales, the NHS Confederation, the British Medical Association and the British Dental Association.

The awards for 2005-06

In summary, the DDRB recommendations for 2005-06 are as follows:

Salaried GMPs - the original pay scale for this staff group was set by reference to the midpoint of the associate specialist pay scale and the top point of the pre-2003 consultant pay scale. The 2005 DDRB regarded these initial range minima and maxima as "artificial", and instead suggested that a more logical reference point would be the increase applied to other GMPs. It therefore recommended that the pay range for salaried GMPs employed in primary care organisations should increase by 3.225%, taking it to between £49,248 and £74,816. This mirrors the percentage increases triggered under the third and final year of the three-year pay and conditions agreement covering most other NHS employees, linked to the introduction of Agenda for Change - the blueprint for the modernisation of the NHS pay system.

Remuneration fees for GMPs working in community hospitals and acute trusts also rise by 3.225%, as do the sessional fees for doctors in the community health service, and fees for work under collaborative arrangements between health and local authorities.

In addition, the out-of-hours supplement for GMP registrars remains pegged at 65% of basic salary. The GMP trainers' grant increases in line with the general award, with a separate payment, pitched at £750 a year, towards continuing professional development costs.

GDPs - dentistry remains a political hotspot, with graphic reports of long queues of patients waiting to sign on with an NHS dentist making grim reading for the government. In response, there have been a number of key policy announcements since the DDRB's 2004 report, including further investment for NHS dentistry; plans to recruit additional dentists from overseas; and an expansion in the number of undergraduate training places.

There are also changes planned in the way dental services are commissioned and funded, with a new contract for NHS dentists due to be implemented in full from April 2006, following an earlier postponement. Therefore, as was the case last year, the DDRB's recommendations again cover a transitional year before these new arrangements are expected to come into effect.

The DDRB recommended that gross fees for items of service and capitation payments should increase by 3.4%, as should both commitment payments and sessional fees for taking part in emergency dental work.

In coming to its conclusions in respects of dentists, the DDRB welcomed the additional cash allocation for 2005-06. However, the report sounds a distinct note of caution: "Whether it will be sufficient both to improve access and to encourage GDPs to return to the NHS remains to be seen, bearing in mind the difference in potential earnings from NHS and private work."

Consultants - the DDRB's recommendations in respect of consultants remaining on the pre-2003 contract was designed to protect the real value of their earnings, and took into account movements in both the various rates of inflation and pay levels. This led to a recommended 3% increase on the national salary scale, taking it to a minimum of £57,370 a year, compared to a minimum annual salary for consultants on the post-2003 contract in England and Scotland of £69,298 (£67,130 in Wales).

As well as the salaries paid according to the main scale, NHS consultants are eligible for a series of additional payments, including discretionary points, commitment awards, distinction awards and Clinical Excellence Awards (CEAs), the latter introduced, in the words of the Department of Health, to "recognise and reward the exceptional contribution of NHS consultants, over and above that normally expected in a job, to the values and goals of the NHS and to patient care". Although CEAs are only payable to consultants on the new, post-2003, contracts (a group not covered by the DDRB's recommendations for 2005-06 as they are currently party to a three-year pay deal), the review body was asked to deliberate on this element of remuneration.

As a result, the DDRB recommended that all these payments should be increased by 3.225% in line with the general pay uplift for consultants on the post-2003 contract.

Staff and associate specialists/non-consultant career grade doctors and dentists (SAS/NCCG) - as the DDRB notes, this category of clinician covers a disparate group of employees including associate specialists, staff grades, senior clinical medical officers, clinical assistants, hospital practitioners and doctors working in community hospitals. A sum of up to £75 million has been allocated to fund new contracts for doctors in the SAS grades, and the government has asked NHS Employers, an independent body linked to the NHS Confederation with responsibility for a number of workforce issues including the pay and conditions of all NHS staff, to negotiate new contractual arrangements for this employee group, to be implemented by April 2006. At the same time, the Department of Health is conducting a separate but parallel review examining the career development and training opportunities for SAS/NCCGs.

In light of this, the DDRB was loathe to "recommend any new pay arrangements which would place additional administrative burdens on both employers and their staff and which would pre-empt elements of the contract negotiations". Therefore, the DDRB concluded that "the simplest approach is to recommend a flat-rate percentage increase which will benefit all SAS/NCCGs and which will also be pensionable, easy to implement and not complicate the existing pay structure". A 3.225% rise is the result, with this uplift also applicable to the pay scales for clinical assistants and hospital practitioners.

Doctors and dentists in training - the contractual arrangements for this group of NHS staff were changed in 2000. As a result, employers were required to compensate junior doctors for high intensity work, or work done during unsociable hours through what is known as the "salary multiplier". The revised arrangements also incorporated rest requirements into the employment contracts of junior doctors in light of the Working Time Directive.

The DDRB concluded that it would be both "right and timely" that the operation of the contract should now be reviewed as both the working arrangements and the training regime for junior doctors is due to alter significantly over the next few years. This review should address what the DDRB describes as the "key question" of basic pay and the role, if any, of supplements once working hours are reduced. "The aim should be to ensure that pay is sufficient to attract good quality individuals to continue to enter into, and remain in, medicine."

It is worthy of note that, according to the DDRB, the data on recruitment to medical schools does not indicate that the prospect of student debt is currently acting as a deterrent to entering the medical or dental professions. This being the case, the scales for all grades of doctors and dentists in training increase by 3%.

Salaried primary dental care staff - the DDRB endorsed and recommended the 3.225% pay rise as agreed between the parties in the third and final year of a three-year deal.

Finally, the review body recommended an increase in the London Weighting payment to a level that would "protect its real value". After considering a wide range of pay and inflation indicators, a 3% uplift was proposed, taking to £2,161 a year for non-resident staff (£602 a year for residents).

¹All the pay review body reports referred to in this article are available at www.ome.uk.com.