A reformed contract fit for 2025
Since March this year we have been negotiating with NHS Wales employers on new terms and conditions of service for resident doctors and dentists in Wales.
In July, these negotiations concluded, and your committee voted unanimously that the contract offer, which includes 4% additional investment in resident doctors in Wales, should be put to you, BMA resident doctor members, in a referendum.
The committee believes this represents a significant step forward in improving working conditions, furthering our pay restoration journey, tackling medical unemployment and delivering study budget reform. We believe this is the limit of what we can achieve without entering a trade dispute and undertaking industrial action.
It’s now time to have your say on the new contract. Your committee reps will be visiting hospital sites across Wales in the coming weeks, as well as holding an online meeting on 23 October.
These events will be your opportunity to hear from the committee about the contract offer and to have your questions answered.
We’ll then launch an online consultative referendum of our members between November 24 and 15 December. Only BMA members will have a say in this important referendum which will ultimately decide whether we accept or reject this contract offer.
Not a member yet? You’ll need to join us by December 9 to have your say.
Your contract offer in brief
The contract being presented is specifically designed for resident doctors in Wales. The proposed terms and conditions of service include the following key features:
- A reformed basic pay scale with fewer pay points ranging from £40,000 to £78,000 per year, based on a 40-hour working week.
- Registrar post-foundation years pay will continue to progress with years-in-service with an ability to claim incremental credit as is currently the case.
- An hours-based pay system – meaning if you work more than 40 hours on average a week, you will get paid for the additional hours. If you work LTFT then your pay will accurately reflect your actual total hours.
- Continuation of your existing plain time hours at 7am-7pm, Monday to Friday. At our engagement events prior to contract negotiations you made clear that you did not want to move toward 7am-9pm Monday-Sunday as is the case in England. Any hours actually worked outside of these plain time hours attracts a rate of 1.5 times your basic hourly rate.
- Individual resident doctor job plans which set out your typical hours of work, training objectives, educational and development time (EDT) entitlements, and minimal staffing levels on shift.
- A new exception reporting system, separate from overtime reporting, for when your personalised job plan does not reflect your actual working conditions. For use when there are breaches of safe working limits, staffing or EDT and teaching entitlements. This could result in the award of compensatory EDT and/or fines for the employer.
- A simple overtime system that will allow you to directly claim for any work you're not rostered to do. This will require no supervisor involvement or electronic proof and will replace rota monitoring for everyone even if you remain on the old contract.
- A simple availability allowance for non-resident on-call (NROC) shifts: you’ll receive 50% of your basic rate for any hours you are required to be available; you’ll then report any hours worked and be topped up to 100% of the relevant hourly rate. If you work over 75% of an NROC shift, this will then be paid as a full shift.; any work done outside plain time will be paid at 1.5 times the rate.
- A pay scale that frontloads higher pay earlier in your career, and a greater proportion of your overall earnings given as basic pensionable pay. This means an increase to the value of your pensions and it also helps to reduce the gender pay gap.
- A safer contract that makes the principles of the Fatigue and Facilities Charter a contractual right. This includes weekend frequency limits, giving 48 hours rest after nights and ending runs of more than seven shifts. This also introduces employer responsibilities for providing facilities, including rest spaces when you’re too tired to drive home, food at night, and parking at night. This also includes introduction of new Guardian of Safe and Flexible Working roles in every health board/trust, with a Lead Guardian in place at the single lead employer. These guardians will monitor overtime and exception reporting. They will be able to levy fines and will set up resident doctor forums in every employer.
- A higher study budget with greater flexibility on when you can take study leave and reimbursement at the point you pay. These changes will come in ASAP and caps for study budgets, relocation and excess travel will start to be uplifted each year in line with annual inflation. Further work on study reform will also take place with an aim to centralise funding and have courses pre-booked and pre-paid for you
- Stronger leave rights and entitlements as seen for other NHS staff groups and for resident doctors in England. This means employers must respond positively to leave requests and allow leave to be taken when requested for a life-changing event, provided sufficient notice is given.
- A pay premium paid at 30% of point 1 of the registrar pay scale for GP registrars working in a general practice placement. Further information on why this premium is being introduced can be found in our FAQ document.
- A pay premium paid at 8.6% of point 1 of the registrar scale for residents undertaking higher training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Further information on why this premium is being introduced can be found in our FAQ document.
Training post expansion to relieve bottlenecks has already been recommended by HEIW for next year following BMA Cymru lobbying. If the contract offer is accepted, Welsh Government and NHS Wales Employers have also committed to a dedicated working group with us to investigate training bottlenecks and will work to explore options for increasing training and local posts in affected areas.
In addition to exploring an increase in training posts, if this offer is accepted, NHS Wales Employers has committed to working together with us to develop a clear process for eligible resident doctors to secure permanent employment as specialty doctors. This, alongside increasing the number of training posts and standardising all locally employed doctor contracts, will reduce the number of doctors who work on uncertain fixed term contracts, providing better opportunities for career development and a more stable NHS Wales workforce.
Transition to the new contract
If accepted by members in the referendum, implementation will be staged from August 2026. It will begin with resident doctors in the foundation programme or a specialty training programme where the rota does not attract a banding in the 2002 contract. From this point onwards, the 2002 contract will be closed to new entrants.
By August 2027, the aim is that all new starters in core and specialty training will be employed on the new contract. At this point those already in a core training programme will be transferred to the new contract and resident doctors already on a specialty training programme will have the option to transfer to the new contract or to remain on the 2002 contract, which will continue to receive annual uplifts.
We recognise that a small number of doctors on certain rotas and rotations currently benefit significantly from the banding system of the 2002 contract. For example, a doctor may get 50% banding but work far fewer than 48 hours on a week on average. Doctors in this position may therefore wish to consider delaying transfer until a future rotation or rebanding occurs, then moving to the new contract with pay protection. The new contract salary will then overtake their protection as they progress.
In August 2028, with the exception of those within 12 months of CCT, all remaining specialty registrars will be transferred to the new contract.
As part of contract reform, NHSWE has also committed to developing further criteria for exceptional consideration regarding transition to the new contract. This will be dealt with in partnership as part of implementation. We anticipate this will relate to those with protected characteristics or those with extenuating circumstances, however this will be subject to further discussion.
Investment in resident doctors
The Welsh Government has provided additional investment that equates to 4% of the current total resident doctor workforce cost towards contract reform. This is recurrent funding – a permanent uplift to the spending on pay for resident doctors in Wales that would not have otherwise occurred outside of contract reform.
In addition to this contract investment, resident doctors in Wales will be eligible for a pay award next year, and in future years. This will be through the same annual pay consideration process for all other branches of practices and confirmed by the circulars issued by Welsh Government. In fact, the Welsh Government has already submitted evidence to the pay review body for the 2026/27 pay year which recommends uplifting pay for resident doctors in Wales. Therefore, it is likely that the Welsh Government will announce an uplift to the pay scales currently set out in the offer before any resident doctor moves on to them.
What about full pay restoration?
The majority of the investment in this contract offer goes directly into the pay structure. Therefore, the additional 4% investment on top of the average 5.4% pay award already received this year represents a further step in our journey towards full pay restoration. If forecast RPI is correct for 2025/26, accepting this contract offer could see a return to pay levels in real terms that’s not been seen for over 10 years – and that’s before any uplift for 2026/27.
As detailed above, the Welsh Government has already remitted the pay review body to provide a pay recommendation for the 2026/27 year. Regardless of whether the new contract is accepted, we would expect a pay award in April 2026 that further restores our pay and we will be seeking direct pay talks if it doesn’t.
Supporting documentation
Framework agreement
The joint agreement document with NHS Wales Employers which provides a more in-depth overview of the contract offer.
Offer pay tables
This document estimates pay for full-time resident doctors and is based on the details of pay as set out in the framework agreement.
Additional supporting documents, including FAQs and pay journey information, will be provided throughout the consultation period to assist you in making an informed voting decision. Please check back for updates.
What happens next?
Online explainer event
Join your WRDC officers at 7pm on Thursday 23 October to hear an overview of the contract package and ask any questions you have around the offer.
In person explainer events
We’ll be holding a range of event across Wales and online to provide you with the opportunity to hear more about the contract offer and ask your BMA representatives questions about the offer. These talks will take place at lunchtimes either during pre-arranged training events or as standalone talks. They will last approximately one hour and lunch will be provided.
Have your say in the contract referendum
Between 9am 24 November and 12 noon 15 December, an online referendum will take place on whether we should accept or reject the contract offer.
The referendum will only be open to BMA members. It is therefore more important than ever that you are in BMA membership. Join the BMA by 9 December to secure your vote in this important referendum.
Keep an eye out on Monday 24 November for your referendum voting link, which will be issued to you by email.
Make sure that your membership details, including workplace information, are up to date to ensure that you get your ballot if you are eligible.
Who is eligible to take part in the referendum
- Doctors and dentists in foundation, specialty or core training in Wales, including clinical academics.
- Locally employed doctors working in resident doctor roles (‘F3s’, clinical fellows, etc) employed by Welsh NHS organisations.
- Medical students in their final year of training in Welsh medical schools.
How we got here
Between August 2019 and September 2022, the Welsh resident doctor committee (WRDC) was engaged in negotiations with the Welsh Government and NHS Wales Employers on a renewed contract for resident doctors working in Wales.
These negotiations concluded with a proposed contract similar in core principles to the resident doctors’ contract in place in England with several significant amendments and additions. In October 2022, this proposed contract was put to members in a referendum and was rejected by a majority of voting members, with 64% voting against the introduction of the contract on a 34% turnout.
Following this rejection at referendum stage, we did not accept the proposed contract and instead prioritised our campaign for full pay restoration.
Following three rounds of strike action by us and ballots of both consultants and SAS doctors in Wales, all three branches of practice were invited to re-enter pay talks for the 2023/24 pay year. For resident doctors these talks resulted in an increased pay offer of 12.4% fully backdated to April 2023, as well as study budget reforms and F&F charter recommitments. This offer was overwhelmingly accepted by you, with 96% voting in favour of accepting on a turnout of 73%.
As part of the offer, we also agreed to re-enter contract negotiations with the Welsh Government with the ambition of reaching an agreement that would be put to members for implementation in 2025/26. During talks, we made clear that any renegotiation of the rejected contract proposal of 2022 must deal with the significant concerns regarding the pay systems and working hours that members raised and include appropriate investment.
We all know that the current contract is out of date and needs reform. It no longer works for resident doctors here in Wales: it doesn’t provide the protections we need, nor the modern working arrangements and training guarantees we deserve.
However, in 2022, you made clear that the proposed contract then on offer wasn’t good enough. Before re-entering contract negotiations, we knew it was vital we heard from you about what you wanted from a new contract and how we resolved the issues with the proposed 2022 contract.
To do this we held a series of lunchtime listening events at hospitals and GP training sessions across Wales. We also held an online workshop for those who were unable to attend on site or at lunchtime. At these sessions we provided an overview of the key areas of the proposed 2022 contract that, at the time it was rejected, you told us you supported and the areas you told us were reasons you rejected it. This then allowed us to discuss what alternatives you might find acceptable in a reformed contract. We also used the sessions to explore what other areas you might want included in contract reform.
We also launched an online survey in late 2024 to gather views from as many resident doctors in Wales as we could on the proposed areas for contract reform.
What is a negotiation mandate?
The negotiations mandate is a way of delegating the role of negotiations from the wider committee to a smaller group of negotiators. The mandate sets out in detail what the committee’s opening asks are, and its red lines across all aspects of contract reform. To put it plainly, the mandate sets out to the negotiating team the best case and the very minimum it should accept in each area of contract reform. It’s important to note that the negotiations team only negotiated within the parameters which were set out in the mandate from the committee and reaching a red line would have meant a return to the committee to determine if proceeding with negotiations was viable.
How was our mandate put together?
Having taken the time to listen to your views in both the engagement sessions and the online survey, WRDC then discussed at length how your views could be formed into a mandate for negotiations. This work was then taken forward by the WRDC terms and conditions subcommittee who drew up a mandate which was then approved by the full WRDC.
How were negotiators selected and trained?
All WRDC elected representatives were eligible to put themselves forward as negotiators. Those who applied as negotiators then underwent an assessment process conducted by the BMA National Negotiations and Representation team to assess and select negotiators based upon their aptitude. The individuals selected were then provided with further training in BMA negotiation strategy, as well the current terms and conditions of service.
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