18 June 2004
Finance staff worried about the introduction of a new pay system in the NHS were given a boost this week as an initiative designed to protect their salaries and career progression was unveiled.
Under the new Agenda for Change system, salaries will be based on job profiles that detail the skills and competencies needed for each pay band. However, finance staff felt the original profiles showed a clinical bias and undervalued the contribution of clerical and administrative workers. Senior NHS finance professionals feared a recruitment and retention crisis as jobs would effectively be downgraded.
Though current salaries would be protected, new staff would have been paid considerably less, by as much as £4,000 for payroll clerks, for example. The new profiles – which have been agreed by the Department of Health body overseeing the introduction of Agenda for Change – take a more general approach, with several finance jobs fitting into each band. The profiles will now go out for consultation.
Paul Cummings, immediate past chair of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, led negotiations with the department. He said he was hopeful the new profiles would remove the need for pay to be protected in most areas.
'This is a significant move forward and the profiles show the skills and competencies needed by the finance function,' he said.
He added that some salaries would have to be protected, particularly in the southeast of England, but the new system meant finance staff now had a clear career progression structure.
The department also confirmed this week that Agenda for Change will be implemented on December 1, with pay backdated to October 1.
The move was welcomed by Unison, the biggest health union, although it will not confirm its support for the scheme until it ballots its 450,000 NHS members in October or November.
'We are looking at the most radical changes to the pay and conditions of NHS staff since the beginning of the NHS. After all the years of planning and negotiations, Unison has always said that getting Agenda for Change right is much more important than getting it rolled out quickly,' said Karen Jennings, Unison's head of health.
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