In December 2004, John Hutton highlighted the benefits to staff and patients of Agenda for Change. Key Messages included:-

• “Agenda for Change represents more than just a pay deal - it’s a huge reforming package which will benefit staff and patients ……….”
• “Agenda for Change is the final piece of the jigsaw ……. Which means greater quality at the heart of all the care that the NHS provides”
• “As NHS Staff develop new roles …… patients will experience higher quality care tailored to their individual needs ……… faster treatment and a more streamlined care pathway”
• “Staff will have increased opportunities to develop in new roles ….. to work more flexibly, meaning patients will get treatment at times most convenient to them”
• “Proper reward for the job they do rather than the title they hold”

It’s important that we keep reminding ourselves that all of these key messages signify real change in the way in which we can and will work together to develop and modernise the services that we are all employed to deliver. Opportunities to review, refine and develop service delivery will be realised and those delivering the services recognised appropriately.

June's joint statement is available to read online here

What’s happening next ……….

Assimilation Progress

A steady flow continues and by end of July over 2300 staff will have been issued with assimilation details and new contracts, nearly half way there!!

Letters issued explain that there is no need to sign and return any documentation, unless you decide to opt-out or wish to request a review of your banding.

However, you CANNOT request a review if you are unhappy at the point to which you have been assimilated, this will be based on your earnings as at 1st October 2004.

Please also notify us if the information you receive in your assimilation packs is not accurate as at 1st October 2004.

As at weekending Friday 17th June, 196 jobs will have been put through the matching process. According to the latest SHA figures, Wirral Hospital is in 3rd place behind Aintree and St Helens in terms of both the number of jobs processed and number of staff paid under A4C terms.

Click here for June's banding results

Payment of Arrears

Your assimilation information will detail when you should expect
to receive your first payment under the A4C pay bands. Any arrears
that may be due to you will follow WITHIN FOUR MONTHS of that initial payment.

Payroll are working extremely hard to meet these time scales and have said it may not necessarily take the maximum length of time stated, much depends on your current pay grades and hours worked.

Therefore, can we please ask for patience and understanding from any staff still waiting for arrears to be paid.

Job Descriptions

Fed up with uncertainty?? Just want to get on with the job??

The quicker the job description for your job is written and agreed, the quicker it can go to a Matching Panel.

Don’t let the fact that there doesn’t look like there is a national profile put you off!!!

Jobs with no National Profile will probably need to be evaluated, and the sooner this can be decided the better!!

If you are unaware of what is happening with your job description, please ask your manager. For any other advice please do not hesitate to contact us - see contact details on the last page.

Job Evaluation

In addition to jobs being matched against the national profiles, full job evaluation of the more unusual roles has commenced with 3 job evaluations completed to date and a further 8 in progress.

The evaluation process overall takes longer to complete than is the case with matching, but nevertheless should be finished within the project time scales.

Wondering Why We Are Advertising on the New Bands?

Many people have asked for the reason why we are advertising on the new bands before people doing the same job haven’t been assimilated yet?

The main reason is simple in that ALL NEW STAFF MUST BE APPOINTED ONTO THE NEW Agenda for Change conditions and pay. Also on a very practical note, if we didn’t do this, we would have to play “Catch Up” with all of the new staff in the Trust and assimilate them later. This would be incredibly difficult to do and would divert resources from ensuring that we implement A4C as effectively as possible for ALL EXISTING STAFF.

Annual Leave

An Annual Leave calculator has now been developed to assist in the process of identifying how much Annual Leave you are entitled to in any year. In addition all Directorate/Support Managers have been provided with the calculator. Attached is an example of a calculation of annual hours entitlement for a part-time member of staff please click here.

A calculator has been developed by Steve Johnston in A&E to enable managers to work out and record annual leave entitlements under the new Annual Leave Policy for non-medical staff.

The user enters contracted hours, the full years leave entitlement in days, and the number of bank holidays in the leave period. The calculator converts this to the appropriate entitlements in hours.

If you need to work out entitlement for part of a year, e.g. the six months from October 2004 to March 2005, the calculator can help with this, too.

Click here to download the Annual Leave calculator

Annual Leave Entitlement

To calculate your full year entitlement, including Bank Holidays, click here to download this document and add Tables 2 and 3.

All managers have been asked to calculate any additional entitlement for the period between 1 October 2004 and 31 March 2005. However, this additional leave can only be taken after the 1 December implementation date. For those people who can “opt out” of A4C this leave may be withdrawn if they chose to remain on Trust conditions.

Preparing and Agreeing Job Descriptions

In order to provide as much guidance/advice to managers and staff during the amendment/preparation of job descriptions for the purposes of A4C a number of sessions have been organised, to be held over the next few months.

The Training sessions are designed for Managers to attend to gain/reinforce the knowledge and skills required to prepare a job description.

We haven’t forgotten those staff at VCH and are happy to organise a session there if needed.

There will be a maximum of 20 participants on each session due to the practical elements of the training. Please contact Alan Rushton on Extn 2249 or JILL O'Callaghan on Extn 8581 in order to book a place.

(Please note, additional sessions will be organised subject to demand).

DROP INS

In addition, there will no doubt be managers and staff who have already started to review/ prepare job descriptions, who would welcome some individual guidance/advice, without necessarily attending the training.

These sessions will be run and will be available for both managers and staff to attend. As the name implies there is no need to book a place! (Again, additional sessions will be organised subject to demand).

KSF

Briefing sessions are being held for all staff to give an opportunity to gain an understanding of what KSF is and how it can support your development. For further details contact the Leadership & Development Centre 5027 or click here to open a flyer.

A Leaflet explaining how KSF will affect you is available in all Directorates and can be found here

KSF Training for Appraising Managers

Dates for training for appraising managers until Feb 07 are available by clicking here. The training consists of 1/2 day and will enable an understanding of how KSF will support staff development, career development and service redesign.