11 June 2003

NHS PAY MODERNISATION GETS THE GO AHEAD

Pay for modernisation

Reform of the NHS pay system is taking a further step forward. A
meeting of representatives of unions, health service employers and
the UK Health Departments today approved the start of full-scale
testing of the new Agenda for Change pay system.

This follows publication of the results of union ballots showing
strong support for the proposals among union members.

Here is the press release from the DOH website, which also confirms that Foundation Trust will also implement AfC. Interestly it states "The reform package includes a 10% basic pay increase over three years for all staff", does this mean anyone who moves to a lower band will still get the 10% over 3 years.


Wednesday 11th June 2003
NHS PAY MODERNISATION GETS THE GO AHEAD
Pay for modernisation


Reform of the NHS pay system is taking a further step forward. A meeting of representatives of unions, health service employers and the UK Health Departments today approved the start of full-scale testing of the new Agenda for Change pay system.

This follows publication of the results of union ballots showing strong support for the proposals among union members.

In a statement, unions, employer representatives and health departments said:

"Modernising the NHS pay system is important, not only to ensure staff are rewarded fairly for what they do, but to help deliver fast, modern services for patients. Today we have taken one more step forward. There is much still to do. We will continue to support and promote a partnership approach to early implementation in all the selected sites. This will include monitoring progress and working constructively with them to resolve any issues. "

Health Minister John Hutton said:

"This is a good outcome for the NHS, for NHS patients and for over 1 million NHS staff. I should like to pay tribute to the NHS trades unions who have worked so hard to explain the new system to NHS staff. This is the product of four years of effective partnership working and some tough negotiations. We will be working together in partnership to ensure the new pay system is effectively implemented."

Agenda for Change will help to bring teams of NHS staff closer together by harmonising conditions of service and breaking down old-style demarcations. It will provide a fair pay system based on a national job evaluation scheme purposely designed to meet the needs of the NHS. It will provide better links between pay and career progression, using the new NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework.

These new tools will provide clearer career paths and better targeted training, enabling more staff to develop their skills and roles. All this means a more transparent system, more varied and stimulating jobs for NHS staff and a better deal for patients and their care.

Agenda for Change was negotiated by staff organisations, NHS employers and the UK Health Departments working in partnership. The application of all aspects of the new pay system will now be rigorously tested in the early implementer sites. These will work with the continuing support of the national negotiators. The Modernisation Agency is providing best practice facilitators who will work with each site to ensure the intended benefits for staff and patients are achieved.

The reform package includes a 10% basic pay increase over three years for all staff. When the costs of the reform package are added in over the three-year period from 2003/04 to 2005/06, it will be worth an average increase of 12.5% on basic pay.

Negotiations on the new pay system were concluded in November 2002. The trades unions began consulting with their members earlier this year. National roll-out is planned to start in October 2004.

The following 12 sites have been selected to begin testing the new system in June 2003:


James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust
Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust
Papworth Hospital NHS Trust
Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust
Herefordshire NHS Primary Care Trust
Central Cheshire Primary Care Trust
North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust
East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust

In addition, the Department has confirmed that Agenda for Change will apply to the first wave of NHS Foundation Trusts.

Pay modernisation is an integral part of the four pillars set out in the HR in the NHS Plan:

- making the NHS a model employer;
- ensuring the NHS provides a model career through the concept of the skills escalator;
- improving staff morale; and
- building people management skills.


Ends

Media enquiries only to Alicia O'Donnell-Smith at the Department of Health press office on 0207 210 5222.

I think RL has the right idea "Technicians may not be impressed but at this time IPEM is the only professional body that is in a position to do this for EBME/Medical Physics techicians/technologists working in the NHS. A whole host of conditions will have to be met before state registration can be obtained, as was the case when Medical Physicists were granted their protected title, I think. Being pragmatic, for Technologists, the voluntary register established and maintained by IPEM (and IIE) is probably the only route to achieving this, quickly, if at all."
We need to quickly get ourselves sorted into a
situation where we can be easily filtered out from other people that are less professional than ourselves. Either that or we will end up with the flotsome that will be left once the Afc is really starting to kick in. The only viable way of doing this ASAP is via the IPEM scheme.
From what Ive seen / heard the usual misgivings that techs have with this organisation will start to change, I think theyve realised that there are other people within their rankings and will start to take this into account.
Ive personally spoken to people from within IPEM and was impressed by what I was hearing, no more the physicists of the old worlde who see themselves as our bosses with some sort o deity rite.

It is 1:31 in the morning of Thursday the 19th June 2003.

I am trying to produce a business case for equipment replacement, blah, blah.

You guys and girls are correct in everything you all say. However, do you all deserve a pay rise anyway? How good are you really, what makes you different or better than the rest, who ever they are?

Can I be simplistice for a moment? Let us for the moment split the EBME fraternity into two specials, that is Electronics, (of yesteryear) and Instrumentation, (the real Artisans).

Digress for a moment, in the old days, the job was about conditions, true, lovely job, poor pay.

Later in life became, in my opion, (sush), became, ok job, ok pay. Still later, let us be positive, MTO stuff, great pay, conditions, well, ok.

What do we have now, good pay and a good job, be positive.

Why do you want more money for a great job?

Go back to the start, where are the bods and the Artisans? I can tell you they expect the pay and they deserve it. Don't they, who are they by right?

You want more money, work for it?

Answer these questions, if you can, if not you are being paid too much anyway:


What are the colours of the rainbow, in the correct order?

How many millimetres in an inch?

What is the angle of a BA, BSW, Metric thread?

If you know, great, if not, get lost you just want the money and think you deserve it.

For the Electronic fraternity:

If a Silicon diode conducts at about 0.7V, what does a LED conduct at, watch the replies from your departmental people.


What is an LED made of, watch out?

Ask everyone in your department with a piece of paper to reply on, what is a typical atomospheric pressure?

You will be disgusted!

These questions are meant to be simple and so they should be, our job is very simple, we support the experts and hopefully we are the experts.

Think you are clever at this point, do you?

Ask the Artisans a question:

Name a unit of Torque and get them to write it down, you will be horrified, if you know your job.

Ask the Electronic fraternity a simple question:

Carrying out an Electrical Safety Test with any safety tester that they use, (be careful), how does the tester carry out the test at 110% of the mains and why? Watch out for the red herring, if there is one.

NB! I have not asked simple medical engineering questions, yet!

Why do you want more, give more and get more, deserve more or you will not get it, I will not give you it, earn it, for the PATIENT.

Now answer the simples and learn, if you are the mangers and can not answer the questions, god help us.

By the way, I am an MTO 5 and happy, we have enjoyed three star status for a while, and received another days hoilday for it too, EACH YEAR. We are the second only hospital in the country to achieve CNST Level 3.

It is not about a lower insurance premium, it is about providing better patient care.

So come on guys and girls do what you do best!

Live long and prosper, may the force be with you, always. I only say this to my friends and I always mean it.

WHAT!

Are you joking?

Who cares what a bloody LED is made of or the colours of the rainbow. I'm qualified to MSc level and there is a very good reason for not knowing any of this rubbish now! We don't bleedin' need it!
We have 14,000 bit of kit to keep running in this trust and there is only 6 techs - work the maths out and you can see we don't have time to stand around discussing the angle of a BA thread.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

As for better patient care! The only thing detrementle to patient care (in my opinion) is the managers fannying around in committee meetings inventing rules to hinder our progress out in the wards and dept's.

Phew - got that off my chest then!

I'm sorry but I think we're worth it (and more!)

Only recognition, a continuing demand for your expert services and state regisitration will protect the job roles of MTO's Jim, not whether your hospital has 3 star status. Raw knowledge and a superior attitude just gives us the "tools" to get there.

I can see where Jim is coming from, AFC is basically to give the nurses and HCAs a pay rise not us. My friend is a nurse and he works flippin hard, on shifts including nights and is only paid the equivalent of a MTO 2, not much hey?
Does he get time to surf the net during work hours? No.
His knowledge base is just as good if not better than your average Tech. No manuals to help with Mr X, Mrs Y or Ms Z. Just pure experience and I think thats what Jim is trying to get across, patting ourselves on the back and telling each other how good we are doesn't justify a pay rise, hard work does!

That's why a framework for assessing individual's competence and recognition of this, by the state, is required. I agree with Jim, actually.

Jim, has your missus cancelled your subscription to the Playboy Channel again.

That's the only reason you should be up at 1.30 in the morning.

As far as I'm aware asking for a payrise is not something I've considered, if it comes thank you very much and I'll invest more heavily in malt loaf.

I think the main thread is being either de-valued or under valued when the AfC exercise takes place.
At this moment in time we have a certain position within healthcare "professionals". If these people fight their cause, and good luck to them, and move higher up the "food chain" then if we don't, and in my opinion, we have been "down graded".
Nothing to do with money Jim

You say "if you want more money work for it"
I've never known that to be the case.
You must all be on MTO 5's at Chester because of you star rating

I've always believed if you want more money, leave and go somewhere were they are prepared to pay you what you can get, otherwise be happy with the situation you originally joined for, the exception being a change to your circumstances that justify negotiation.

Answers to your questions Jim
1/ Hope that question isn't aimed at discriminating at the visually challenged.

2/ Trick question :p Even I know the sud-division of inches is 1/8's, 1/4's and 1/2's not milimetres

3/ Depends what angle your holding it at

4/ Another trick question hey Jim, LED's don't conduct they shine. I know I've seen them, well the ones that work anyway

5/ Why did it change from A to AN, trying to fool us again, depends which colour anyway

6/ Is this atmospheric pressure at normal head height or your head height Jim

7/ If we support the experts and we are the experts and we choose not to support the experts, does that mean there are no experts

8/ What are you trying to catch out here Jim, they don't know the unit or they can't spell/write

9/ Is this Red Herring supplied with the Electrical Safety Tester and if so have I been short changed by Seaward with our new one, that's why they must be called Seaward...it all becomes clearer

Your N.B. threat of "I haven't asked the simple questions YET!" doesn't frighten me. it might mean I may get some right...I can just imagine Jim as a Primary School teacher with his Yr 2 class quivering after asking them to explain the Theory of Relativity followed by " and I haven't even asked the simple questions yet"

With reference to your star rating I'm pleased to see you;ve made it at last into the Chester Tourist Guide "places to visit" listings.
Does 3 stars now mean John serves a mean cream tea.

I was a bit worried with your "God help us" remark closely after the "Why do you want more, give more..." statement, I thought in your desperate search for the Playboy Channel you'd flicked onto God TV, now that's a frightening thought, Jimmy got religion.

I have an alternative to Jims "test", is the below you?


· Medical Engineers consider themselves well dressed if their socks match.
· Medical Engineers buy their spouses a set of matched screwdrivers for their birthday.
· Medical Engineers wear mustaches or beards for "efficiency". Not because they're lazy.
· Medical engineers have a non-technical vocabulary of 800 words.
· Medical Engineers think a "biting wit" is their fox terrier.
· Medical Engineers know the second law of thermodynamics - but not their own shirt size.
· Medical Engineers repair their own cameras, telephones, televisions, watches, and automatic transmissions.
· Medical Engineers say "It's 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 degrees Celsius, and 298 degrees Kelvin" and all you say is "Isn't it a nice day"
· Medical Engineers give you the feeling you're having a conversation with a dial tone or busy signal.
· Medical Engineers wear badges so they don't forget who they are. Sometimes a note is attached saying "Don't offer me a ride today. I drove my own car".
· Medical Engineers' politics run towards acquiring a parking space with their name on it and an office with a window.
· Medical Engineers know the "ABC's of Infrared" from A to B.
· Medical Engineers rotate their tires for laughs.
· Medical Engineers will make four sets of drawings (with seven revisions) before making a bird bath.
· Medical Engineers' briefcases contain a Phillips screwdriver, a copy of "Quantum Physics", and a half of a peanut butter sandwich.
· Medical Engineers don't find the above at all funny. :p

If it is then the AFC is for YOU!!!!!!!