Quiz Answer: NSFT’s Trust Secretary enjoys an annual salary of £81,618, excess travel payments of £3,323.70, on call payments of £2,448.60 and a final salary pension

Kermit in the money bath

The most popular quiz answer for the annual pay of the NSFT Trust Secretary was between £30,000 and £39,999 which seems quite reasonable.

18% of you guessed the right amount, which was between £80,000 and £89,999 per year.

68% of you thought the Trust Secretary, Robert Nesbitt, would earn less than he actually does. Only 14% of you guessed more.

SMHPT Remuneration Report Nesbitt

In 2008/9, Robert Nesbitt was earning between £60,000 and £65,000 as Director of community engagement at the Suffolk mental health trust which merged with the Norfolk mental health trust to form NSFT. His pay had to be published in the annual report.

By 2009/10, Robert Nesbitt’s total remuneration had risen to between £65,000 and £70,000 and had to be published in the annual report.

Today, Robert Nesbitt is the NSFT Trust Secretary and his total remuneration is £87,309.30 and does not have to be published in the annual report as he is no longer a director.

Robert Nesbitt’s remuneration has risen by somewhere between 34% and 46% between 2008/9 and today, while services have been slashed, there has been a public sector pay freeze and frontline colleagues have lost their jobs in CIPs and the disastrous radical redesign.

The figures quoted are from a Freedom of Information Act response and the 2009/10 Suffolk mental health trust annual report which can be accessed by clicking on the table above.

The graph below shows what has happened to frontline and managerial pay in the NHS since 2010.

Out of control executive pay in the NHS

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6 thoughts on “Quiz Answer: NSFT’s Trust Secretary enjoys an annual salary of £81,618, excess travel payments of £3,323.70, on call payments of £2,448.60 and a final salary pension”

  1. That’s not the issue. If  “we are all in it together” surely senior managers in the NHS should be showing a lead and be downgrading themselves. How come frontline staff are being made redundant, are being downgraded and left with twice as much work as they had previously. The gap between rich and poor is getting bigger while politicians, city bankers and senior bureaucrats in all organizations are overpaid and completely unaccountable when they make a mess of things. However, I’m sure they are all very nice people who never pick on individuals.

  2. The point seems to be that the rise in pay of senior managers seems perfectly reasonable (close to RPI), while that for qualified nursing staff seems unreasonably low. Greater spending is needed on nursing staff. If overall cuts on staff costs cannot be avoided, they perhaps should be made proportionately across all categories of staff.

  3. I’m with Liz.   This item again shows that the “Campaign” is more interested in generating heat than light.   If Mr Nesbitt “enjoys” a salary of £81618 a look at the Agenda For Charge (AFC) pay scales shows he is paid on Band 8d.   Instead of comparing his salary now with what he earned three years ago as a director of the former (and much smaller) Suffolk trust, it would be more sensible to compare the pay scale he is now on with that “enjoyed” by the last Trust Secretary of the former Norfolk and Waveney Trust.   I’ll wager his banding is lower, showing that NSFT pays him less than it used to pay his predecessor for the job when it only covered Norfolk and Waveney.    As he is on an AFC band he will have received the same minimal percentage pay rises as the rest of the Trust’s staff and to suggest his pay has risen by something approaching RPI or CPI is just misleading.   You also highlight his receipt of on-call payments, excess travel payments and a final salary pension; as he is on an AFC pay scale it seems to me he is perfectly entitled to the benefits that go with it.  Perhaps we could hear from Terry Skyrme or Emma “Unison” Corlett whether the “Campaign” is now opposing final salary pensions or AFC benefits for staff of the Trust who are entitled to them?   I think the “Campaign” owes Mr Nesbitt an apology for implying he has somehow benefitted unreasonably in terms of his remuneration and should stop targeting individuals in this way (or at least check its claims before it does so) – it does it no credit.

  4. Bill ignores the issue of the downgrading and demoralization of frontline staff; I’ve witnessed the disgusting spectacle of qualified, experienced and valued (by their team) staff being downgraded from Band 7 to 6 to 5, and then be expected to do much the same job; so much for the Agenda for Change agreement. To me leadership implies not expecting your staff to undergo something you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself. As for picking on individuals there’s nothing worse than being picked on to be made redundant or downgraded. Individuals have made the decisions which have led NSFT to the brink of disaster. I’ll say nothing about the members of staff who have been picked on for daring to speak to the media or to this Campaign. I’m amazed that NSFT do not appreciate the level of anger and heat they have generated by their actions.

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