‘15% R&R premia needed to get
radiographers to stay’
 A 15 per cent recruitment and retention payment is needed to encourage new people into the profession and persuade radiographers to stay, according to the Society of Radiographers in its submission to the Pay Review Body.
The Society claims “there is little evidence of adequate planning or support to replace key skills and staff.”
Warren Town, the organisation’s director of industrial relations, says that “the payment of a national recruitment and retention premium of 15 per cent is not unreasonable even in the current financial climate and will go some way to ensuring that skilled staff necessary to deliver key future service plans will remain in the NHS.”
The Society contends that delivery of government plans such as the 18-week target from referral to treatment and the delivery of the National Cancer Plan are now in serious jeopardy.
“Everything has been overshadowed by the now daily confrontation with employers about cuts to services in order to meet financial targets set by the government, as well as looming threats of redundancy,” Town says.
“Low morale amongst NHS staff is as bad as it has ever been. Privatisation of the health service, continuous interference by Whitehall, never-ending reforms, and the snails pace implementation of pay and condition agreements do not provide the environment in which to entice qualified staff to stay, or in which to recruit new people.
“This government seems to forget that it needs the support and co-operation of staff to deliver what it has set out to achieve. It has alienated a significant part of the workforce and risks losing their support forever.”
“We would like to thank the managers who participated in the survey that made up a substantial part of the Society’s evidence,” says Richard Evans, the Society’s CEO.
“By having information straight from the ‘coal face’, our submission has greater credibility and substance.”
Click to read a summary of the survey results.
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