The government has confirmed NHS workers in England on Agenda for Change contracts, covering most staff apart from doctors, dentists and senior managers, have been offered rises of 3.6%.

Doctors and dentists have been offered 4% awards, resident doctors will receive an extra £750 on top, while senior NHS managers have been offered increases of 3.25%.

All pay uplifts will be backdated to 1 April and will appear in pay packets from August – two months earlier than last year and the earliest award in years.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘These are thoroughly deserved pay rises for all our hard-working nurses, doctors and other NHS staff. We inherited a broken health service with extremely low morale after years of pay erosion and poor industrial relations. 

‘Which is why, despite the difficult financial situation the nation faces, we are backing our health workers with above-inflation pay rises for the second year in a row. This government was never going to be able to fully reverse a decade and a half of neglect in under a year, but this year's pay increases – and last year's – represent significant progress in making sure that NHS staff are properly recognised for the outstanding work they do.'

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS chief executive, said: ‘Today's announcement of a real terms pay rise shows the government's support for NHS staff and is recognition of their huge efforts and hard work over the last year. 

‘It is particularly welcome as it comes amid significant pressure on the public purse, and so the NHS will in turn focus on reform, cutting waste and reducing duplication to be as efficient as possible, while also offering patients faster and better care.'

In response, Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: ‘The awards being made this year will elicit a range of reactions from different staff groups. I would urge all unions to await the government's longer-term plans for services and the workforce, and to seek dialogue and engagement as ways to resolve any concerns they may have on behalf of members. It is especially important that we make progress together on the longer term reform of our reward offer to staff.

‘The awards are above the level that the government previously indicated as affordable across the public sector. Our members will liaise with NHS England so that they can understand how this can be reflected in their financial plans this year.'

Director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, Isabel Lawicka, said it's essential that the NHS can recruit and retain staff to meet the challenges it is facing.

'We hope today's announcement will help to achieve this, though given ongoing pay disputes, it is a difficult starting point, she said.'

Lawicka added: ‘Given the severe financial pressures trusts face in turning around a nearly £7bn shortfall, it is vital that these pay awards are funded in full. Their finances are really stretched and they can't take a further financial hit through having to make up any shortfall in pay settlements at a time when jobs and services are already at risk.'

Unison head of health, Helga Pile, said health workers had high hopes this government would have learned from the mistakes of its predecessors, but a reliance on the 'slow, outdated and unnecessary' pay review body process has once again 'failed to deliver'.

She said: ‘Direct talks between ministers and unions in Scotland showed what's possible, with an 8% two-year deal and inflation-proof guarantee.'

Pile added: ‘The NHS is one team and should be treated that way. Nurses, porters, paramedics, healthcare assistants, cleaners and other workers on Agenda for Change contracts will feel less valued than their doctor colleagues. That will generate more discontent from an already demoralised workforce.'

Doctors have reacted angrily to the NHS pay rise announcement. Chair of the BMA council, Professor Philip Banfield, said: ‘Ministers are keen to laud their success in bringing down waiting lists, something that is purely down to dedicated doctors and their colleagues, but this derisory pay award risks undermining this progress completely. 4% is below the rate of the Retail Price Index inflation – the measure of inflation that reflects real-life costs like housing and food – and this means on the current trajectory, most consultants in England will never see their pay fully restored to where it should be, in their working lives.

‘Specialist, associate specialist, and specialty doctors (SAS doctors) – often the backbone and unsung heroes of the NHS – will too be bitterly disappointed. Both consultants and SAS doctors, our most senior and experienced doctors are in England are now left with no choice but to also re-enter dispute, and as a first step reinstate their rate card – BMA-set rates of pay for extra-contractual work.'

He added: ‘Doctors' pay is still around a quarter less than it was in real terms 16 years ago and today's "award" delays pay restoration even more, without a government plan or reassurance to correct this erosion of what a doctor is worth.

‘The DDRB has failed doctors. If this is the best it can do, Government needs to think again and now is the time to sit down with the profession to get the NHS and patients in all four nations from sickness into health through paying staff what they are worth.

‘No one wants a return to scenes of doctors on picket lines – we'd rather be in hospitals, in GP practices or in the community seeing patients, improving the health of the public – but today's actions from the Government have sadly made this look far more likely.'

Nurses are also unhappy with the news. RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: ‘This pay award is entirely swallowed up by inflation and does nothing to change the status quo, where nursing is not valued, too few enter it and too many quit. It is a grotesque decision to again favour doctor colleagues for higher increases than nursing and the rest of the NHS. Starting salaries for nursing staff remain too low.'

Prof Ranger said hundreds of thousands of RCN members in the NHS will be given a vote on this award.

She added: ‘By attaching themselves to a failed pay review body process and refusing to enter direct talks with unions, ministers ignored the nurse workforce crisis and charted the course for it to deepen.'

In addition, the GMB Union has begun balloting tens of thousands of NHS and ambulance workers in England on this year's pay award. The ballot opens today and closes on 17 July.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: ‘We're pleased dedicated NHS staff will get their pay rise closer to their anniversary date than they have in previous years.

‘The decision on whether this pay award is acceptable is for GMB members to decide.'