RepsDirect No 143 - 4th July 2002

From

Head of Health, Roger Spiller

General Secretary, Roger Lyons

Consultants Contracts
Nursing & Midwifery Council
Health Protection Agency
Allied Health Professionals & Healthcare Scientists Summit
NAPRB Visits

The announcement on the new consultant contract was made on the eve of their annual conference. This agreement has been presented as a "win-win" outcome for consultants and the NHS since it provides for a significant uplift in pay alongside a more explicit and monitored commitment to NHS work from consultants. Since we are only just commencing the negotiations on the final package for Agenda for Change we shall need to take account of the implications of this new deal.

The statement below has recently been issued in the 'NHS HR Bulletin':

The Secretary of State announced on 12 June that the UK Health Departments, the NHS Confederation and the British Medical Association have agreed a framework for a new consultant contract.

The new framework is designed to provide a much more effective system of planning and timetabling consultants' duties and activities within the NHS. Preparation will now begin for introducing the new contract and implementation will begin from 1 April 2003.

The framework achieves the NHS Plan objective to secure a higher quantity of direct clinical care from newly qualified consultants and commitment of their maximum allowable working time to the NHS during their first seven years.

Key elements of the new contract are:

a core working week of ten 4-hour programmed activities for a full-time consultant
replacement of the current system of 'fixed' and 'flexible' sessions with a system in which all NHS work (except unpredictable emergency work) is timetabled and typically carried out on site with no non-NHS work during this time
an increased proportion of time devoted to direct clinical care
a new system of pay progression with a new starting salary of Ł63,000 followed by a stepped scale of thresholds leading to a maximum salary of Ł85,250
all work during the hours of 8am to 10pm Monday to Friday and 9am - 1pm weekends paid at plain time rates and greater scope for employers to programme evening and weekend sessions
recognition for flexible working patterns in unsocial hours [10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday to Friday, 1p.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday]
greater recognition for emergency work done as a result of on-call duties and for the disruption of being available on-call
additional programmed activities paid at normal rates
a new approach to managing the relationship between private practice and NHS commitments:

a new set of contractual rules to ensure that there can be no real or perceived conflicts of interest between NHS and private work

exclusive use of up to 48 hours of a consultant's time in the first seven years of a consultant's career and up to 44 hours thereafter (for consultants who wish to undertake private practice)

In order to promote underlying stability in the transitional period the new contract will be accompanied by a three-year pay deal of 10% over the 3 years from April 2003.

The full text of the framework is available at www.doh.gov.uk/consultantscontract

Enquiries may be directed to HRD NHS Pay by email to:mailto:enquiry-box@doh.gsi.gov.uk or telephone (0113) 254 5710.

2. Nursing and Midwifery Council Chaos

We have the first case of one of our members being suspended because of administrative delays at the NMC. Amicus will be writing directly to the Secretary of State seeking for the Department of Health to intervene and ensure a longer period of automatic extension of registrations until this mess is sorted out. Where this affects one of your members firstly try and ensure that the member remains at work. Any suspension from work should be on full pay as this is not the fault of the member and the Trust should take the matter up with the NMC. Secondly, we are setting up a register of cases of affected members. Could you supply the name, Trust and contact details (e.g. telephone or e-mail) of the affected member. Send these to Colin Adkins Colin.Adkins@amicus-m.org

3. The Health Protection Agency

In 'Getting Ahead of the Curve' published in January this year, the Chief Medical Officer proposed the creation of a new national infection control and health protection agency.

The proposal was that a new body, to be known as The Health Protection Agency, would take over the functions currently undertaken by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), the National Radiological Protection Board

(NRPB) and the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR). The intention is to create this new Agency by 1 April 2003.

In order to deal with the staffing implications and to oversee the establishment of the new Agency a Trade Union Liaison Group (TULG) has been formed representing all Trade Unions and Staff Organisations with members in the existing organisations. Regional Officer, Patrick Canavan, is leading the negotiations on behalf of Amicus-MSF.

What will the new Agency look like?

Very little information on this is available yet. It is known that there will be a Divisional structure and that these Divisions will incorporate the existing functions of PHLS, NRPB and CAMR. For the PHLS only the centralised functions will be transferred to the new Agency. The proposal is for all existing routine microbiology service provided through a network of laboratories to be transferred into the National Health Service and incorporated into individual NHS Trusts. We have yet to receive any information as to precisely which laboratories are to be transferred or the effect on Reference Laboratories, Group or Regional offices.

It has been stated the one HPA Laboratory will be established per Government Region but no further details are available.

The proposal relates to England and discussions are still taking place with the devolved administrations to consider what role the new Agency should pay in their parts of the United Kingdom.

When will we get more news?

The announcement of the appointment of a Chair for the new Agency is likely to be made in the next week or so. A Chief Executive is likely to be appointed in September. A number of key decisions are clearly being held off until those appointments have been made.

The Mechanics

The necessary legislative changes to create the new Agency are to be achieved through means of a Regulatory Reform Order. This means that no primary legislation is required, but there will still be Parliamentary scrutiny of the proposal. The use of the Regulatory Reform Order process has in itself to be the subject of public consultation. To this end, a consultation document was issued by the Department of Health and the Wales Office last month. Responses to this are requested with a closing date of 16 September 2002. Amicus-MSF will be responding to this.

Discussions within the TULG have indicated the intention of transferring staff into the new Agency through the TUPE Regulations. This will mean that staff will transfer with their existing Terms and Conditions of service.

A decision has still to be taken as to the Terms and Conditions for new staff appointed to the Health Protection Agency. If it is agreed that NHS conditions will apply, then proposals being developed through 'Agenda for Change' on a new pay and grading structure will apply.

The PHLS Laboratories

As stated earlier, we do not yet have details of those laboratories which are intended to be transferred to the NHS. A separate consultation document was issued by the Department of Health on this on 24 June, and responses are required by 5 August 2002.

This document confirms that the management of all laboratories providing general clinical diagnostic microbiology services will transfer to the NHS by 31 March 2003. This document also goes further and could potentially affect existing NHS staff.

Amicus-MSF will be responding to this document so if you have any views, please send them to Regional Officer, Patrick Canavan on PATRICK.CANAVAN@amicus-m.org

HPA Bulletin

A news bulletin is being issued by the HPA to keep staff up-to-date with developments and if you do not have access to this please let me know.

Next Steps

Discussions are taking place at the TULG on a Management of Change document to guide the process of transfer. As soon as a draft document is available this will be circulated for comments.

4. ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS' & HEALTHCARE SCIENTISTS' SUMMIT - 24th JUNE 2002

I attended the above event on behalf of Amicus. The only other trade union directly invited was the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Most others were invited in their professional capacity. Although many of the participants were well known to people for their role in bodies such as the Federation of Healthcare Science. There was refreshing input from colleagues who either had returned to practice or were students planning to enter the NHS. There were a number of Amicus colleagues who were attending in a different capacity.

There was a pre-meeting where a number of people representing a range of interests sought to agree a common agenda to put to the Minister. However, it was clear this was the final stage of a process that had been going on prior to the Summit and did not involve us.

It became clear that the meeting had two objectives firstly, to bring home to those present how valued they were and the contribution that we could make in modernising the NHS and secondly, to generate ideas at a 'micro' level to improve the standing of AHPs and HCSs and recruitment and retention. This was not to be an arena for grand schemes, rather practical proposals.

The Secretary of State was at his most engaging and his provocative best. He took a number of questions before departing. I made a point about the relationship between new roles and the Knowledge and Skills framework under Agenda for Change. This being that in order to achieve these new roles there has to be sufficient investment in pay modernisation.

We had three presentations from a dietician on returning to practice, a Haematology Manager at James Cook university Hospital on flexible working and a Operations Director at Bradford South and West PCT on career progression and retention. They were excellent and in many cases illustrated the need for these types of approaches to be based around an agenda for family friendly working.

Sarah Mullalley who is responsible for recruitment and retention amongst AHPs and HCSs led the rest of the day. This caused some raised eyebrows because she is also chief nurse but she was thoroughly convincing in my mind in her responses to whether she was the suitable person to carry out this role.

We agreed to produce some work on the following areas:

·       Representation and leadership roles;
·       Consultant post;
·       CPD;
·       Clinical placements, student support;
·       Return to practice;
·       Flexibility.

Please send your ideas or any exemplar models in these areas to Colin.Adkins@amicus-m.org

5. NAPRB Visits

Here is the latest on venues for this year's remaining NAPRB visits. So far, staff body representative turnout has been good so thanks for any moves you have made to get people along.

·       8 July, Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust, Alder Hey
·       10 July, St. Mary's NHS Trust, sessions will take place at 20 Eastbourne Terrace.
·       15 July, Fife PCT, Cameron Hospital, Windygates, Leven
·       19 July, Bath and NE Somerset PCT, St Martins Hospital, Bath.
·       23 July, Yorkshire Cost and Wolds PCT, Beverley Arms Hotel, Beverley

Staff body representatives should already have been contacted by the Director's office arranging the visit (usually Director of Nursing). If not, they should contact the Directors' offices for information.

Please note that the visit to North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust scheduled for 15 July has been postponed until next year.