NHS nursing staff in Scotland have received a pay rise as of this month as part of a new pay deal.
The pay increase is part of an NHS pay deal that covered 2025-26 and 2026-27. It was negotiated by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the joint health trade unions.
The pay deal for the two years, which was accepted by RCN members in a vote, included a guarantee that the increases will be at least 1% above the average CPI inflation for the calendar year of the increase.
In January, 2025 inflation was confirmed as 3.4%. This means pay and all relevant payments will be increased by 0.15%, backdated to April 2025. This takes the overall 2025-26 increase to 4.4% and guarantees the value of the pay rise for 2025-26.
The RCN said that it expects the additional increase as part of the current agreement to be paid in February and back pay to 1 April 2025 in March. The same guarantee is in place for the next year of the pay deal. If inflation averages above the 3.75% pay increase for 2026-27, there would be another rise in early 2027.
Colin Poolman, executive director of RCN Scotland, said: “Hard working nursing staff deserve every help they can get. We have highlighted repeatedly how nursing pay has been eroded over the years. Current wages do not reflect nursing’s safety-critical role, even after the pay increases in the two years covered by the deal.
“Fair pay is vital to retain and recruit nursing staff, to fill the thousands of vacant nurse jobs and to ensure people receive the care they deserve. We will continue to lobby the Scottish government hard on reforming the Agenda for Change pay scheme and implementing the recommendations of the Agenda for Change review. We will be monitoring inflation over the rest of 2026.”
