Overview
Fair pay for NHS staff, including dietitians, is essential to a safe, sustainable and effective health service.
Dietitians play a vital role across prevention, treatment and long-term care, yet their contribution is too often undervalued.
Fair pay affects recruitment, retention, morale and patient care, and the BDA will continue to press for action that properly reflects the skill and value of the workforce.
I want to take action now
What is the Fair Pay for NHS Staff Campaign?
The BDA’s Fair Pay for NHS Staff campaign calls for pay that adequately reflects the skills, responsibility and value of NHS staff.
Fair pay is essential to retaining experienced staff, attracting new recruits and supporting high-quality patient care.
Our members are already subjected to wider workforce pressures relating to career progression, morale and the long-term sustainability of NHS more widely.
Why is this needed?
NHS staff have faced years of pay erosion alongside rising workload, workforce shortages and growing pressure across services.
Dietitians and other NHS professionals work in highly skilled roles that are essential to prevention, treatment and long-term care, yet pay has too often failed to reflect that contribution.
Fair pay is essential to improving the retention of our members, supporting recruitment into the profession, strengthening morale and helping to ensure patients receive safe, high-quality care.
What are we doing about it?
The BDA is continuing to make the case for fair pay for our members and allied health professionals more widely. The current 3.3% pay award unfortunately does not address the years of pay erosion faced by our members.
With increased pressure associated with living costs this award does little to address wider concerns around Agenda for Change pay and career progression.
As part of the current phase of the campaign, we are working with other health unions to keep pressure on government and show the strength of feeling across the workforce.
We are also asking members to support the campaign by signing and sharing the joint union open letter.
Sonila Ellahi, BDA Director of Trade Union & Employee Relations, says, "Many of you took part in responding to our initial survey on the pay award, so thank you for all your feedback. It is now essential that BDA members engage in the next phase of the campaign and sign up to the letter.
"We are therefore asking reps in workplaces to arrange meetings and encourage your members to sign the letter and highlight the strength of feeling amongst our membership. Encourage other colleagues, friends and family to also sign up and show support. In addition to this you can also encourage other members of your community and allies to engage in the campaign.
"If you don’t have a rep in your workplace and are interested in finding out more about becoming a rep, please email [email protected]. We would love to have you on board to support the dietetic workforce and build our union.
"A memorandum of understanding has now been signed with the joint health unions and negotiations on the next part of this are due to commence shortly. As part of this we will be looking to secure key improvements on pay reform more widely for our members."
How can you get involved?
You can support the campaign by signing the joint union open letter and sharing it with colleagues. This helps show the strength of feeling across the workforce and keeps pressure on government to improve its approach to NHS pay.
You can also keep up to date with the latest campaign developments through the BDA’s news and campaign updates and look out for further opportunities to support the campaign.