Agenda for change

Mental Health Nursing,  Jan 2005  

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A majority of Amicus' 80,000 health service members have voted to accept government proposals for pay modernisation and job standardisation in the NHS under Agenda for Change.

Gail Cartmail, Amicus' National Officer for Health, said: This vote endorses the broad principles of Agenda for Change, but the relatively narrow result indicates there are still problems that need to be resolved.

'Under the present proposals there will still be winners and losers so we regard this very much as the start rather than the end of the process. We will carry on working closely with our members and with government to ensure that everyone will benefit from the changes.'

Amicus' ballot did not make a voting recommendation. Instead the union chose to provide as much information as possible to their members for them to decide.

Amicus rep and MHNA executive member Andy Lauder, has been heavily involved in the Agenda for Change Early lmplementer scheme at Avon and Wiltshire Partnership Mental Health Trust.

He said that establishing the criteria for out-of-hours payments has been the biggest headache in their scheme but now that OOH payments have been dropped from AfC the process of assimilation should be much easier.

Andy said that the key to successful and advantageous integration was through the agreeing of job descriptions that reflect personal responsibilities. He advises anyone going through the process to be fully aware of the importance of job descriptions in the grading process and for people to ensure that individual roles are fully recognised and specific to them.

Andy also suggested that through a few individuals agreeing their job descriptions, employers may use this as a basis to group 'like jobs together. So he advises that people fully familiarise themselves with the process and that colleagues work together with their reps to ensure the best possible outcome.

Despite some of the difficulties and the length of the process, Andy estimates that more than 90% of the mental health nurses working in his own trust have benefited financially from Agenda for Change and overall he says it has been a positive experience as well.

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association Jan 2005
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