FAQs
Here you will find a list of the most frequently asked questions. Each question is given a heading, with a full explanation below.
Who is covered by Agenda for Change?
The new pay system applies to all directly employed NHS staff, except those covered by the Doctors' and Dentists' Pay Review Body and very senior managers (vSMP). The system covers all nursing staff in NHS trusts, including Foundation Hospitals.
Nursing staff in private sector hospitals, homes, clinics and GP practices are not covered by AfC, as they are not employees of the NHS. However, the current NHS pay arrangements exert a powerful influence over employers and the terms and conditions that they offer to their staff. Agenda for Change terms are offered to many non-NHS nursing staff in the private and independent sectors.
How is it decided which pay band I am placed in?
The 16 factors in the Job Evaluation (JE) scheme measure the skills and responsibilities undertaken in your post and it is these that are the key to identifying which pay band your post goes on to. The JE factors provide a job score, which is then used to place your post on the AfC band.
Is there incremental progression through the pay spines under AfC?
Each pay band or pay range has a number of points. Each year, staff below the maximum point of their pay band or pay range can expect progression to the next highest point.
There are also two points on each pay band, known as gateways when there is an assessment of the knowledge and skills that staff are applying in their jobs.
Pay progression at the two gateways is linked to the demonstration of applied knowledge and skills.
The values of these points increase in steps of around three per cent.
The first gateway in each pay band is after one year in post. The second gateway will vary between pay bands as follows:
- pay band 1 before final point
- pay bands 2-4 before first of last two points
- pay bands 5-7 before first of last three points
- pay band 8 ranges A-D before final point.
Is there any scope to recruit staff at a point higher than the minimum of the pay band?
The agreement is silent on this. When a nurse applies for a post and is successful there will be the normal discussion about at what salary point she will start on. This is usual in all offers of employment. The nurse and her prospective employer will negotiate a starting rate of pay.
Are job profiles of physiotherapists, occupational therapists or other groups on the same pay spine as nurses, available to look at?
Yes, they can be downloaded from here.
Have job profiles been produced for every speciality?
There are now 335 profiles for posts in the NHS.
What does the term specialist nurse mean?
Regardless of speciality, a specialist nurse undertakes specialist nursing procedures, provides clinical supervision to students, may undertake research/clinical audit and has an appropriate post-basic qualification. However you should be aware that it does not follow that working in a ‘specialist area’ makes you a specialist. The key issue will be about the exact nature of your role and responsibilities.
What is meant by the term highly specialist nurse?
In addition to the criteria identified for a specialist nurse, a highly specialist nurse will plan specialist nursing provision, develop specialist protocols, provide specialist education and training, and undertake appropriate research.
Where do nurse managers slot in?
Due to the enormous variety of roles, it is difficult to provide accurate profiles for senior managers. However, the majority slot into one of the band 8 or band 9 scales subject to job evaluation.
What are the working hours under Agenda for Change?
For all newly appointed full-time staff, the standard working week is 37.5 hours.
Pro rata arrangements apply to part-time staff.
Part-time working for everyone is worked out on the basis of a 37.5 hours week.(e.g. for someone working 18.75 hours, this will count as 0.5 whole time equivalent, whatever their work).
What are the payments for working overtime?
All staff in pay bands 1-7 are eligible for overtime payments. There is single harmonised rate of time and a half for all overtime, with the exception of the work on Bank Holidays, which will be paid at double time.
AfC indicates that overtime payments will be eligible for full time staff working extra hours. How does it work for part time nurses working extra hours? At present no one gets paid until they have worked more than 37.5 hours (and then only in extreme circumstances).
Part time staff are paid overtime at plain time rates until they exceed 37.5 hours.
The single overtime rate will apply whenever excess hours are worked over full-time hours, unless time off in lieu is taken, provided the employee’s line manager or team leader has agreed with the employee to this work being performed outside the standard hours.
How does AfC help people living in high cost areas?
There is an allowance staff working in London and the London 'fringe' areas which is expressed as a percentage of basic pay and is pensionable (including the value of any long-term recruitment and retention premium), but subject to a minimum and maximum level of extra pay.
How are the high cost of living areas defined?
The zones for high cost area payments are defined as inner London, outer London, and fringe areas. These zones are based on the current Primary Care Trust geographical boundaries and are set out in Annex H of the Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook.
What about leads, allowances and bonus schemes?
Most leads and allowances are taken account of by the Job Evaluation Scheme factors and are consolidated into higher basic pay.
In view of recent increases in fuel costs, are there any plans to increase the nationally agreed rates of mileage allowances?
The general principle is that staff using their own cars for NHS business should not be disadvantaged as a result of increases in motoring costs. The national provisions on mileage allowances set out in Section 17 of the NHS Terms and Conditions Handbook contains flexibilities which allow staff and employer representatives to agree arrangements which provide benefits to staff beyond those provided by the national provisions or are agreed as operationally preferable. We are aware that some employers have agreed in partnership variations to the national rates to address particular problems.
Is the Knowledge and Skills Framework a performance related pay scheme in disguise?
No, it supports Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and good practice. It is consistent with the RCN's education objectives and for the first time, it places an obligation on the employers to facilitate CPD.
What are the rules for consistency checking KSF post outlines in an organisation?
There are no ‘rules’ to govern consistency checking but there are a number of principles that organisations need to think about when developing KSF post outlines across the organisation. The first principle is ‘equity and fairness’. As the KSF forms the basis of career and pay progression in the NHS and KSF post outlines are developed locally, organisations will need to have the confidence that what they are asking of individuals within the organisation is fair in relation to what they are being paid.
This leads to the second principle, which underlies the whole of Agenda for Change, that of partnership. The development of KSF post outlines and their use in the development review process must be done in partnership. This will help to ensure that the decisions that are made are fair and that employees are being treated equitably.
One way in which organisations are seeking to ensure fairness and equity is through having partnership consistency panels to look across the KSF post outlines that are being developed in different parts of the organisation. The purpose of this should be to make sure there are no glaring inconsistencies across different posts of a broadly similar nature.
However it is for local organisations to decide in partnership how the KSF will support the delivery of better services for patients and the public, which is why there are no national KSF post outlines as this would undermine this local flexibility.
Why is there no national consistency checking of KSF post outlines?
The NHS KSF is a UK-wide framework that has been designed for local use. It defines and describes the knowledge and skills that individuals need to apply in their work in order to deliver quality services. The purpose of the KSF is to facilitate the development of services so that they better meet the needs of users and the public through investing in the development of all staff. National KSF post outlines and national consistency checking is likely to stifle the development of services locally rather than facilitate it. As the name of the KSF indicates it is a framework for local use, not a national prescription for how things have to be done across the UK.
We want to use the KSF in recruitment by developing recruitment outlines. Can we do this?
The KSF Handbook states “The NHS KSF post outline, and the subset of the post outline that will be used at the foundation gateway, must be clearly stated in recruitment literature and/or at the outset of the job. The NHS KSF post outlines will help to focus recruitment and selection by identifying the knowledge and skills that need to be applied in a particular post – and hence the knowledge and skills individuals appointed to that post will need to possess and apply” (Page 18, Para 1.14).
Beyond this requirement it is up to individual organisations to determine how they use the KSF in recruitment and selection. It would be good practice for organisations to link the knowledge and skills that it is specified in the person specification to the NHS KSF so that individuals can see how the KSF clearly links to the job description.
When individuals are seconded to a different post in their organisation, what will happen at gateways?
This is an impossible question to give a definitive answer to centrally as there is such a wide diversity of secondments across the service (e.g. healthcare assistants seconded to undertake nurse training, people acting up into different posts, trade union activist roles) and for such differing periods of time.
As for other posts in the NHS under Agenda for Change, if the post is on the same pay band then the person will not have to go through a foundation gateway as foundation gateways apply when people move pay bands and not posts. Decisions on KSF post outlines for seconded posts will need to be made in partnership at local level consistent with the principles in the Agenda for Change Agreement.
How does the NHS KSF relate to trainees (i.e. those covered by Annex U in the Terms and Conditions Handbook)?
The NHS KSF relates to all employees covered by the Agenda for Change agreement, whether they are in some form of recognised training programme or not. As the KSF is about individuals developing and applying their knowledge and skills at work, it is as, if not more, important to trainees than any other member of staff.
We understand that some regulated healthcare professionals jump up two pay points during the preceptorship year and only get to the Foundation Gateway at the second incremental point. Which regulated healthcare professions does this apply to?
This provision has been widely been regarded as meaning that all new entrant staff to Band 5 have the right to move up two pay points in the first twelve months – otherwise it could not be defended on equal pay grounds. These provisions only affect new entrants onto Band 5. So there is no list of professional groups affected.
How do Transitional Points work in relation to the gateways and related KSF post outlines?
It is best to visualise transitional points as a form of slightly extended pay band (which has a short time-span). Individuals appointed to a transitional point will have a foundation gateway after one year in that pay band (unless this not appropriate due to the rules which apply during the assimilation period) consistent with the Agenda for Change Agreement. The second gateway will occur at the point at which it has been fixed for that pay band.
Why do we need to monitor the implementation of the NHS KSF in our organisation?
There are a number of reasons why monitoring the KSF in your organisation. These include: fairness and equity for all staff (i.e. ensuring that all staff are being encouraged and supported to develop and apply their knowledge and skills to deliver quality services) and the links to clinical governance and patient safety (i.e. have an audit trail of the organisation reviewing how individuals are applying their knowledge and skills in practice and supporting them in their development if there are concerns.
What about practice nurses?
Within the new General Medical Service (GMS) contract, AfC is described as part of a best practice framework and is linked to financial rewards for those GPs who implement it. The RCN continues to lobby GPs to implement AfC.
Profiles for practice nurses have been produced and the high specialist nurse profile will apply to some nurse practitioners.
What about nurse lecturers employed in higher education?
Agenda for Change does not apply in Universities. The RCN would expect to use the new salaries as a lever to change and to improve pay and conditions for nurse lecturers. The RCN continues to work with other relevant unions to raise the profile of recruitment and retention, lobbying for solutions at UK-wide and university level. It will also continue to work with members in higher education, lobbying university employers to produce joint guidance on AfC and the higher education pay framework.
What about nurses employed in the prison service?
The prison service agreed to implement AfC for any staff on NHS terms and conditions in 2006.
What is the NHS Staff Council?
A body established in 2003 to oversee the operation of the Agenda for Change pay system and to have responsibility for NHS-wide terms and conditions of service. This body replacee the relevant functions of the General Whitley Council and the separate functional Whitley Councils.
Are Foundation Hospitals included in the national framework?
Yes. Foundation Hospitals, which are an English initiative, are included in AfC.
They have some additional 'freedoms' with regard to employing staff. The additional freedoms are outlined in the Agenda for Change Final Agreement, section 8.
Nevertheless, Agenda for Change forms the baseline for the employment of staff.
Can Wales and Scotland adopt different pay and conditions for staff?
AfC is a UK-wide initiative.
How is acting up managed under AfC?
Under Agenda for Change individuals may be moved into a higher pay band where it is necessary to fill a post on a temporary basis when a vacancy is unfilled (but being advertised) or the post is being held open for someone who is due to return (e.g. from maternity leave or long term sick leave).
Pay should be set either at the minimum of the new pay band or, if this would result in no pay increase, at the first pay point in the band which would deliver an increase in pay. In circumstances where the individual is not required to carry out the full responsibilities of the post, pay will be determined by job evaluation.
Temporary movement into a new pay band should not normally last more than six months or less than one month except on the instances of maternity leave or long term sick leave.
How are nursing jobs advertised under AfC?
Jobs under the new AfC arrangements are advertised by job title and band. Examples are qualified nurse - band 5, district nurse band - 6, specialist nurse - band 6 etc.
I have a contract with my Trust but also a bank contract. I work bank within by own unit. How are these hours treated?
Your bank hours would be treated as if they are a separate contract.