NURSES’ leaders have condemned delays in making a one-off payment to healthcare workers in non-NHS organisations after the government finally released funding for it.

Under the government’s Agenda for Change for the National Health Service, healthcare staff employed by organisations such as charities, social enterprises and local authorities are entitled to a one-off payment of £1,655, which is part of the NHS wage settlement.

NHS employees received the payment four months ago, but it has taken the Department of Health and Social Care until now to release the money for workers in non-NHS organisations.

Nurses’ union the Royal of College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed the move.

RCN England director Patricia Marquis said: “This significant progress is not before time.

“In the four months after the one-off payment was given to the majority, we have campaigned alongside the nursing staff who were left without.

“The government should learn from this situation for all future pay awards to ensure these staff are not forgotten and these delays are not repeated.”

Public service union Unison insisted that non-NHS health providers should ensure that the cash is passed on to their employees.

Unison head of health Sara Gorton warned that the release of the money “won’t stop thousands of contractors and ‘bank’ providers [agencies] from ignoring calls to do the right thing by paying the lump sum to outsourced and temporary staff in the NHS.”

“Many of these workers are on low wages and insecure contracts,” she said.

“Ministers must end the two-tier employment scandal in the NHS and ensure all employers in the service play by the same rules.”

NHS Providers director of policy and strategy Miriam Deakin also welcomed the announcement, but she said that, for some organisations and patients, it “will have come too late,” since some employers had been forced make service cuts to cover the cost of making the payment.