NHS launches toolkit to link pay and improved performance
5 June 2014
An online toolkit was launched today (5 June) to help NHS organisations ensure staff pay progression is linked to performance as clearly and objectively as possible.
Thu, 5 Jun 2014
An online toolkit was launched today (5 June) to help NHS organisations ensure staff pay progression is linked to performance as clearly and objectively as possible.
The toolkit, called ‘Linking Pay With Performance’, applies to the Agenda for Change (AfC) framework which covers over one million NHS staff, including nurses, scientists, therapist support staff, administrators and line managers.
It follows a significant adjustment to AfC in April 2013 that saw a greater emphasis on linking pay and performance, which was agreed between unions and NHS Employers.
NHS employers said the toolkit encourages local tailoring using the inherent flexibility within AfC. The toolkit’s guidance on this covers many areas including:
• Making sure that the changes are part of the overall workforce strategy improving services to patients and not implemented in isolation.
• Engaging early and work in partnership with trade union colleagues.
• Reassuring staff that the changes are about pushing forward effective performance management and accountability within the organisation.
• Listening to staff, seeking their feedback and input, keeping the channels of communications open and acting on that feedback.
Dean Royles, chief executive of the NHS Employers organisation, said that employers throughout the NHS want to “deliver the best possible care to patients”.
“We all know high quality appraisals are essential in a safe and modern NHS and this toolkit will help show how to better link pay increments to that process – something that historically has been an issue.”
The full toolkit with be available at www.nhsemployers.org/afctoolkit from 9am today (5 June).
An online toolkit was launched today (5 June) to help NHS organisations ensure staff pay progression is linked to performance as clearly and objectively as possible.
The toolkit, called ‘Linking Pay With Performance’, applies to the Agenda for Change (AfC) framework which covers over one million NHS staff, including nurses, scientists, therapist support staff, administrators and line managers.
It follows a significant adjustment to AfC in April 2013 that saw a greater emphasis on linking pay and performance, which was agreed between unions and NHS Employers.
NHS employers said the toolkit encourages local tailoring using the inherent flexibility within AfC. The toolkit’s guidance on this covers many areas including:
• Making sure that the changes are part of the overall workforce strategy improving services to patients and not implemented in isolation.
• Engaging early and work in partnership with trade union colleagues.
• Reassuring staff that the changes are about pushing forward effective performance management and accountability within the organisation.
• Listening to staff, seeking their feedback and input, keeping the channels of communications open and acting on that feedback.
Dean Royles, chief executive of the NHS Employers organisation, said that employers throughout the NHS want to “deliver the best possible care to patients”.
“We all know high quality appraisals are essential in a safe and modern NHS and this toolkit will help show how to better link pay increments to that process – something that historically has been an issue.”
The full toolkit with be available at www.nhsemployers.org/afctoolkit from 9am today (5 June).
