The Department of Health and Social Care published the June 2026 resident doctors offer on 17 June 2026, confirming that ministers had set out a formal proposal to the BMA resident doctors committee on 12 June to resolve the current dispute in England. The department says the document reflects feedback from the BMA committee and is intended to strengthen and clarify the offer first made in March 2026. (gov.uk) In practical terms, the June paper goes beyond a headline pay settlement. The document runs across 2026/27 to 2028/29 and combines contract, training and implementation commitments, so the referendum is about the wider terms of resident doctor employment as well as the immediate dispute. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The government has organised the package into five parts. These cover nodal point pay reform alongside annual DDRB awards; wider support measures such as exam, membership and portfolio costs; up to 4,500 specialty training posts; changes for locally employed doctors; and a new industrial relations process to oversee delivery. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) That structure is significant because it places workforce progression and industrial relations alongside remuneration. Rather than treating the dispute as a single-year pay question, the offer links retention, progression and job security to a three-year implementation timetable. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
On pay, DHSC has accepted the 2026 DDRB headline recommendation of 3.5 per cent for resident doctors, backdated to 1 April 2026, with negotiated nodal point reform added on top. The June offer shows Foundation Year 1 basic pay moving from £38,831 to £41,226 in 2026/27 and Foundation Year 2 from £44,439 to £47,610, while later training grades receive different uplifts depending on nodal point. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The BMA’s June 2026 summary describes the overall package as an average 6.6 per cent uplift delivered by April 2027, with April 2026 increases ranging between 3.5 per cent and 7.1 per cent depending on grade. The same documents also set out a more competency-linked model of progression, including default 12-month ARCP timing for less than full-time trainees and an enhanced appraisal route for locally employed doctors. (bma.org.uk)
The offer also reaches beyond salary. The government proposes reimbursement of the first two attempts of mandatory royal college and faculty exams for resident doctors in training and in local employment in England, backdated to exams sat from 1 April 2026, with relevant dental exams included. From 1 April 2027, the package extends to mandatory royal college or faculty membership fees and portfolio fees, while the Clinical Academic Flexible Pay Premia would rise to £10,000. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) In policy terms, that reduces costs tied directly to career progression rather than discretionary spending. It also broadens the settlement beyond doctors in formal training, recognising that locally employed doctors can face the same exam and revalidation costs while sitting outside standard training pathways. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
On workforce supply, the June offer links pay reform to access to training places. The document promises a minimum of 4,000 new additional specialty training posts over three years, with scope to reach 4,500 if service appetite, training capacity and patient need allow; at least 1,000 are planned by August 2027, including 250 starts in February 2027. A Training Allocation and Distribution Group, with BMA involvement, would advise on where those posts sit geographically and by specialty, and the BMA says none of the additional posts would sit in general practice. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The same part of the offer is aimed at reducing insecurity for locally employed doctors. DHSC says no locally employed doctor contract will be terminated early because a post is being converted into a training number, while the BMA says the proposed distribution process is intended to give the union data and oversight as posts are allocated. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
For locally employed doctors, the proposed contract changes are substantial. Trusts would be expected to move LEDs onto repurposed 2016 terms by September 2026 while a standard national contract is developed, and from August 2026 employers would be expected to use substantive contracts unless there is a clear reason for a fixed-term arrangement. The offer also sets out the phase-out of remaining 2002 contract pay scales, a new pay protection mechanism for doctors moving across, and national collective bargaining arrangements to maintain the doctors in training contract, with pay kept outside that route. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) Delivery would be overseen through a Resident Doctors Industrial Relations Committee involving DHSC, NHS England, NHS Employers and the BMA. The BMA says it has cancelled the strike action that had been scheduled for 15 to 19 June 2026 and will run an online referendum from 3pm on Thursday 18 June to noon on Friday 26 June 2026; if members accept, the current formal disputes on pay and jobs in England would end, although the BMA says its broader campaign for full pay restoration would continue. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)