Following the consultation period on the draft principles for harmonised terms and conditions for on call, the NHS Staff Council have now signed off the final principles and these will be published imminently along with guidelines for local implementation of the principles. Click here to view the draft principles and the GHP response.
The draft principles have only undergone minor changes following the consultation period, but the 2 points that were subject to the Unite ballot, covering the definition of on call and the transitional arrangements, have been incorporated into the final principles.
Once the principles and guidance have been published, local partnerships (staff side and management side) should work together to develop harmonised terms and conditions for on call for all staff in their organisation. These new terms and conditions will need to be in place by 1st April 2011, when the current protection period for on call arrangements expires.
For pharmacists, this will signal the end of the emergency duty commitment payment that is currently paid for providing on call services, along with any local arrangements that have previously been protected. In its place will be whatever is agreed locally.
One of the difficulties at the moment is determining what is local. In the Devolved Administrations, this may be country wide, but in England this could be Trustwide, a group of Trusts, part of a strategic health authority (SHA) or a whole SHA. Again, the decision as to what constitutes local should be made in partnership. The process that follows should involve trade union representatives and management side representatives (HR, Directors etc) getting together to negotiate new terms and conditions for on call that follow the principles agreed by the NHS Staff Council.
For pharmacists' requirements to be heard and taken into consideration, it will be vital for those who are accredited union representatives to inform the full time officials who are involved in the negotiation process. For this to happen, there will need to be accredited representatives in the workplace in the first place.
"Our advice to our members would be to ensure you have an accredited representative in your department and start talking to the Trust's lead Unite officer and Trust staff side lead (if this is not the same person). Unite are still able to train agenda for change accredited representatives that are only reps for a defined group of staff. I would urge all pharmacists to join the Guild and make sure they have an accredited rep within their department," said Dave Thornton, Chair of the Terms and Conditions Committee, GHP.
One of the issues that GHP have been made aware of is that in some SHAs, the management side appear to be taking the view that from the 1st April the interim arrangements currently within Section 2, part 2 of the Agenda for Change handbook will come into place and there will be no pay protection arrangements. This could result in a large loss of earnings for pharmacists delivering on call. Based on a 1 in 12 rota, a band 6 pharmacist would be paid as little as £17 per night (£510 per year) to be on call and provide advice over the telephone. Whilst this can be imposed upon staff with the appropriate period of notification, it is not in line with the principles that will be published by the NHS Staff Council. Any members that are issued with such notification should contact their union representatives as soon as possible (this would include local Unite rep, Trust staff side lead and regional officer) to allow this position, which is not in the spirit of the Agenda for Change principles, to be challenged.
The Unite On Call Subgroup (which has GHP members) are working to develop model agreements that will be used to help local Unite officials in their negotiations. GHP are planning to run local presentations for accredited pharmacist reps to inform them of the principles and the key points to think about so they can get involved with the process locally.
More information will follow.