12 March 2020


Our Public Affairs Manager Jack Feinmann discusses the impact of the Government's 2020 budget for the health sector.


As the coronavirus outbreak continues to dominate our headlines, the health sector is preparing for it to 'spread in a significant way' in the UK. Unfortunately, this unprecedented crisis has caused us to cancel our annual conference (find out more about the cancellation here) and adds to an already challenged and overstretched NHS and social care service.


Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, released the 2020 Budget on Wednesday 11 March. The unprecedented extra pressure that coronavirus brings means it is only right that resource is funnelled into tackling it. We don’t know how great the impact will be, but the service is bracing itself for a significant shock and ongoing issues in the NHS will not go away.


With this being the Government's first Budget to the House of Commons, we anticipated with Brexit ‘done’, regularity would return to parliamentary business and promises of 40 new hospitals and 50,000 nurses could start to be realised. However, the coronavirus outbreak and a weakened economic outlook has resulted in scaled down budget plans.


The Chancellor has stated he is ready to provide emergency cash to the NHS to help it cope, with a pledge of £5bn investment to support public services in tackling the virus. Measures are also being considered to support the economy through the possible pandemic, including ways to help companies "crippled by mass staff sickness". There were encouraging findings in the budget, with the Government announcing a 'multi-year funding envelope' for training, saying this would enable them to publish robust plans for increasing staffing.


Six billion in new funding for the NHS has been announced, with £5,000 in grants available to all new and existing students on nursing, midwifery and allied health courses in England from September 2020. Over the next few months, we’ll be working to ensure that some of this is channelled towards filling more rheumatology posts across the country.


Also see: scrapping of hospital car parking fees, and a large focus on research and development, which has been given an cash influx of £22bn. Where the research funding is directed is still to be clarified. The devil is so often in the detail, and whilst there has been a promise that most of the £6bn NHS funding will go towards the workforce, the detail on this was rather sparse, with no understanding of how it would boost recruitment and retention, or support under-pressure staff.


The publication of a long-term, comprehensive NHS People Plan has been repeatedly delayed and held back to allow for yesterday’s commitments, and we’re not sure when it will be released. On Monday, along with 28 other charities, we wrote to the Government asking for more investment in the UK’s health and social care, focusing on the need for the Government to act to create a healthier, happier and fairer society with health and wellbeing at its centre.


The budget was an opportunity for the Government to make inroads into its manifesto promise to "invest in preventing disease as well as curing it". The spending announcement to boost research and innovation is a step in the right direction and could help accelerate rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease advances, but significant investment in human capital is also needed to improve the circumstances in which people live that impact on health and wellbeing.


We eagerly await details of exactly how NHS workforce issues will be addressed while maintaining frontline care. You can find the letter we wrote to the Government here.