CSP submits evidence to NHS pay review body

In evidence to the pay review body (PRB), the CSP cited severe workforce shortages that are placing enormous strain on patient care and the health and wellbeing of physiotherapy staff.

The submission drew on testimony from local representatives that provided a stark insight on working in the NHS. One member quoted in the submission said: 

Winter has hit us already and the physiotherapy staff, all AHPs for that matter, are beginning to feel burnt out

‘Extra areas have been opened with no extra physiotherapy staff to cover these wards.

‘We are following our own patients if they move to these areas as there is no funding for additional physiotherapy staff to cover.

‘Staff morale is really low, we are doing the bare minimum to create flow but that still isn’t enough.’

Claire Sullivan, CSP director of employment relations and union services, thanked members for contributing to the submission and urged both the PRB and the government to take note.

‘These stories from the frontline of the NHS make for hard reading but are important for everyone to hear,’ she said.

‘Our members are delivering services under the harshest of conditions and simply need more support.

Pay is an important component of retaining staff and it’s essential the government continues to make up the ground that was lost under its predecessors.

‘But it’s critical also that the NHS gets more physiotherapy staff to deliver for patients.’

The CSP chose to participate in the the current PRB process but called for the government to complete a review of the system to ensure proper independence for the future .

The submission also encouraged the government to get the timings of pay rises back on track, with increases regularly coming some months into the financial year.

The government has already conceded that the 2025/26 pay rise will be delayed but has committed to improvements in future years. In parallel, NHS trade unions have signed off an update detailing how non-pay commitments secured as part of the 2023 pay award for England have been progressed.

Recommendations, including how to reduce violence against staff, are now with government and the CSP will continue to press for all of these ‘non-pay’ improvements to be implemented without delay.