Health unions representing ambulance workers, nurses and midwives have backed a 5% offer pay rise following a meeting with the government.

The deal received majority backing following talks with 14 health unions although the Royal College of Nursing and Unite oppose the deal.

Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said: “I’m pleased the NHS Staff Council has voted to accept our pay offer, demonstrating that a majority of NHS staff agree this is a fair and reasonable deal.

“It is now my intention to implement this for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract and where some unions may choose to remain in dispute, we hope their members – many of whom voted to accept this offer – will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.  

“We will continue to engage constructively with unions on workforce changes to ensure the NHS is the best place to work for staff, patients and taxpayers.”  

Sir Julian Hartley, NHS Providers chief executive, said: “Trust leaders are breathing a sigh of relief at today’s decision. We hope that this brings an end to the most disruptive period of industrial action in NHS history.

“But the NHS isn’t out of the woods yet.

 “Despite this result, nobody can deny the scale of longstanding and mounting pressures facing staff, frontline services and the quality of care that they can give. We mustn’t forget that the various unions were not unanimous in their vote today, reflecting the strength of feeling among NHS staff.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s NHS members have spoken and they rejected the deal. Because of this, Unite used its seats on the staff council to also vote against it. In fact, we will be escalating strike action. The staff council vote is not binding on individual unions and therefore the vote will not stop Unite representing the best interests of our members.

“The current offer will not solve the huge issues surrounding understaffing that are destroying the NHS and Unite’s members have their union’s absolute backing in fighting against it. It now time for the government to reopen negotiations. The prime minister needs to stop hiding, step in and solve this dispute.”