HR negotiation skills vital to NHS local pay plan

The government’s proposed shift away from national pay bargaining in the NHS has been met with caution by senior health figures, with a lack of negotiation skills in local HR departments causing particular concern.

The coalition’s white paper on NHS reform stated that “in future, all individual employers will have the right, as foundation trusts have now, to determine pay for their own staff,” suggesting that more and more trusts will be released from the Agenda for Change framework.