The government’s signalling of the end of the public sector pay cap (Report, 12 September) is a welcome development, but no additional funding was offered to pay for it, which sets a worrying precedent for the NHS. The NHS is struggling to recruit and retain nurses. One in 10 nursing posts are unfilled and the reliance on overseas staff is at risk with Brexit and the falling value of the pound.
Pay is not the only factor behind the growing crisis, but nurses have seen a 6% drop in the real value of their pay since 2010. Pay restraint has been central to making the big efficiencies expected from the NHS, and ending it without proper funding will not work. Hospitals are already struggling to balance their books this year, before there is even a hint of winter pressures. Ending the pay cap will require a commitment to properly fund it, but it will not solve the NHS’s growing workforce issue – for that there needs to be a credible long-term strategy for the NHS and social care.
Anita Charlesworth
Director of research and economics, The Health Foundation
• Although it is far too late, it is at least a good sign that the government has, at last, started to relax the limit on public sector pay increases. Could we, though, put a stop once and for all to the myth that the public sector pay review bodies are independent? They have to take into account what the government says about affordability. In other words, they are bound by a unilateral criterion imposed by the government. I have never understood how that can be consistent with true independence.
Dr Stephen Pacey
Newark, Nottinghamshire
• The decision to release the pay cap only for police and prison officers will inevitably attract strong criticism from nurses and others, but it makes sense. Most Tory MPs probably have private healthcare, but they might well need the services of the police to intervene between them and the electorate during the conference season and beyond. Tory peers should also support the decision; Lords Archer, Hanningfield and Taylor of Warwick could tell them how helpful prison officers can be at difficult times.
Geoff Booth
Knebworth, Hertfordshire
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