Settlement Agreements for NHS Staff and Healthcare Professionals

Settlement agreements involving NHS Trusts and other healthcare employers raise issues that don't come up in most private-sector exits, particularly where patient safety, whistleblowing, or a professional regulator is involved. Getting these points wrong can affect not just your compensation, but your ability to practise.

Whistleblowing protection cannot be signed away

If your exit follows a patient safety concern you raised, a settlement agreement cannot lawfully prevent you from making a protected disclosure in the future, including to a regulator such as the CQC, GMC or NMC, or under your Trust's Freedom to Speak Up policy. Any clause that tries to gag whistleblowing about patient safety is unenforceable, and its presence in a draft agreement is itself worth challenging. This is one of the most important checks in any NHS settlement agreement, and one of the easiest for a non-specialist to miss.

Regulator referrals and fitness to practise

If your departure could trigger a referral to a professional regulator — the GMC for doctors, the NMC for nurses and midwives, or an equivalent body — a settlement agreement cannot lawfully prevent your employer from making a referral where it's under a professional or regulatory duty to do so. What can, and should, be carefully negotiated is the accuracy and framing of anything your employer says about the circumstances of your exit, both to a regulator and in any reference.

Why references need extra care

For doctors, nurses and other regulated professionals, a reference isn't just about getting your next job — it can also feed into revalidation and appraisal processes. It's worth checking the exact wording of any agreed reference or statement, not just whether one is being provided at all.

Redundancy, restructuring and NHS pay terms

NHS settlement agreements often follow organisational restructuring rather than individual performance concerns, and involve NHS-specific pay and redundancy terms (such as Agenda for Change or MHPS — Maintaining High Professional Standards — processes) that a generalist solicitor may not deal with day to day. It's worth checking how any NHS-specific process you've been through interacts with the settlement agreement being offered.

What to have ready before you take advice

• Your NHS contract of employment and any relevant Trust policies (such as Freedom to Speak Up or MHPS documentation).
• Any correspondence relating to a raised concern, grievance, or restructuring process.
• The settlement agreement itself, and any proposed reference wording.

Advice for NHS staff across London

Deen & Co Solicitors regularly advises NHS staff and healthcare professionals across London, including those working near Barts Health NHS Trust and the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. In almost every case, your employer pays our fee, and we can usually review your agreement the same working day. Read more about our settlement agreement service, or send us your agreement for review.