Yeah, You have hit the nail on the head. For this whole process to work it is vital that the same pay is applied for the same job regardelss of where you work.
As you say and as I and everyone else involved in this at this stage would agree there is currently no one national scheme of what Clinical Engineering is about or what it involves and this the problem.
I agree with every point you have made. If you look at the trusts working on this early implementation there is representation right across the board from highly specfic trust suchas my own to district generals covering everytime of equipment to be supported. The work being done in matching or evaluating posts is being sent back to centre and combined with the specfic additional support work we have undertaken to identify job content is being used to produce the natinal agreed profiles you see on the DOH website.
I will concede now that that at the moment the situation vis how R&R is to work fairly is still not clear. Yes there may be and I would hope not some kinf of post code lottery, possiblly along the line of the old London type weightings.
Where asscessment is being undertaken locally this is done strictly in line with national agreed protocols and takes the following format.
1] Local matching panels identify posts to be covered by national profiles - where there is no national profile this is covered by local evaluation (I'll explain this in a moment)
2] Matching panel is given relevent job descriptions for jobs o be matched and additional job information in the form of a questionaire which is completed by postholders
3] Matching panels co-opt relevent managers and postholder representatives to provide infromation/advice about the job
4] Matching panel determine the matching outcome - one of three possible outcomes, aprofile match, a band match or no match (for those with no match at this point it goes to local job eveluation
5] matching panel documentation is sent to core panel for consistancy check
6] post holder and line manager infromed of the decsion
7] if satff are unhappy with the result they can request a reamtch of panel - must be done within 3 months of the orginal panels decsion
8] this second panel follows the same process as thefirst and can confirm - same match, confirm match to a different profile or refer to local job evaluation as no match
9] again the post holder / manager are infromed of decsion
10] job graded into the new structure
11] Post holder has no right of review against the 2nd panel - in th event that the postholder feels process misapplied can pursue local grievence but not aganist matching or grading decsion.
As to local job eveluation the process is as follows.
1] Jobholder completes job questionaire a complex document of 38 pages covering every aspect of the job.
2] Job analysis interview - job holder interviewed by a team of 2 trained job analysts who aim to improve upon and verify the questionaire
3 Signing off the ammended job questionaire is checked by the line manager and then signed off by the job holder / line manager and the job analysts.
4] Job questionaire evaluation the completed questionaire is considered by an evaluation panel
5] data Input - validated factor analyses / evaluations input into computerised system for evaluation, scoring, weighting and job holder / manager informed of outcome.
6] If post holder is dissatisfied about the outcome of local evaluation they can request a second evaluation. But must supply details of why they disagree.
7] 2nd evaluation panel meets and reevaluates the post
8] Panel confirm their evaluation decision. The post holder has no right of appeal beyond thsi second evaluation. If the post holder feels process incorrect they may use local grievence proc. But may not pursue a grievence about the outcome of the grading decision.
9] Job graded in new structure.
These are the processes in use at early implementors - I don't know if these are the processes to be used at national role out as you see they are time consuming.
I also feel as you do that for something which is going to effect everyones primary work driver i.e. how much you get paid it is being handled very badly as a PR exercise.
I hope this information and these comments are useful.
