Paper 54
DRAFT: for discussion from Wessex Health website
Review of on-call
Frequently asked questions
Why is on-call being reviewed?
On-call was not tackled during the final Agenda for Change negotiations. It is now the only part of the pay system which has not been harmonised. We need to develop new, simpler and fairer arrangements.
Why are we doing this now, so long after Agenda for Change started?
The first task, after Agenda for Change was introduced, was to sort out the arrangements for unsocial hours payments. Now we have done that we can develop arrangements for on-call which complement what has already been agreed for unsocial hours.
What is included in the review?
We are gathering information about all the arrangements which staff and managers currently regard as on-call.
When will the review be finished?
We expect to be able to implement a solution in April 2011.
What will be the outcome of the review?
It is too early to say what the solution will be. New arrangements will need to apply to all staff who provide on-call commitment and will need to be in line with the principles of equal pay for work of equal value.
What is happening now?
We have designed a survey to provide us with the information we shall need to understand more fully how on-call systems work. We are contacting a statistically representative sample of NHS employing organisations to ask if these will be able to participate. Depending on the views of these organisations we expect to start our survey in February 2010.
What do you define as on-call?
We are not defining on-call yet. For now we are including all systems staff and managers locally call on-call.
Why not use the on-call system in the Handbook?
The system of on-call payments set out in the Handbook was not tested in the Agenda for Change Early Implementer sites. We could not, therefore, recommend its widespread use in the NHS without further review.
How long will the protection of current on-call payments last?
Until a new system of payments is implemented.
Will the new system make special payments for standing by at home, for time taken to travel to work when called out, for work done over the telephone or by computer remote from the normal place of work etc….?
It is to early to say what the solution will look like. We are arranging a detailed survey to ensure that we understand what all the features of current on-call systems are.
How will data collection work?
We will be asking staff in the organisations which participate to keep daily records of their on-call activity. As well we will ask employers to supply information about each month’s on-call pay. These two sets of information will need to be put together at the end of each month.
How long will data collection last?
Three months
Why is this taking so long?
It is a very big undertaking. On-call arrangements are not defined in national terms and conditions. There are a very large number of different systems in use locally. Our original ideas for collecting detailed information about all of these needed to be altered to make sure our approach was practicable. We have taken extra time to test our plans on some staff and managers and will continue to take the time needed to get things right.
Why not get the data off ESR?
ESR does not hold on-call information in the detail we need.
When will data collection finish?
We expect it to finish at the end of April 2010. This means we will include the on-call done at Easter.
What happens after you have the data you need?
We will review the data and work up some proposals in partnership. These would need to be approved by the Health Departments before we conducted consultations on our proposals.
On-call works well why can’t we leave things as they are?
The arrangements in place are inconsistent with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.
Will my overtime and unsocial hours be affected by this review?
No, this review is about on-call.
What will happen to my pay protection under Agenda for Change?
It is too early to say what the outcome of the review will be for individual staff.
Are sleeping in arrangements part of this review?
Yes
Why wasn’t on-call and unsocial hours tackled together and a common solution worked out for both?
These are two different activities. Unsocial hours payments relate to work done in standard hours. On-call commitment is additional to standard hours.