It can feel as if the plight of nurses in the independent health and social care sector is widely overlooked

Nurses’ strikes, national pay offer ballots and negotiations with government put the pay and conditions of NHS nursing staff in the public spotlight. Yet almost one in four registered nurses and midwives works outside the Agenda for Change contract – in social care, general practice, education and other settings. Some non-NHS nurses attract higher basic salaries than their NHS counterparts, but sick pay, pensions and other benefits are often inferior. And pay in social care is tightly constrained.