MENTAL HEALTH nurses and midwives could be the first staff groups to benefit from salary bonuses designed to cut vacancy rates.
Unions say these are the two most deserving groups to receive recruitment and retention premium payments from April 2005. The sums involved would be a matter for negotiation but the maximum figure is 30 per cent of salary.
The idea of the supplements was introduced in the Agenda for Change pay modernisation scheme and is designed to help trusts attract and retain staff for hard-to-fill posts. It has already been agreed that newly qualified midwives will receive a premium, although in their case it is to safeguard them against earning less than ...