Click on the relevant question, to find the answers below.
The final Agenda for Change (AfC) agreement did not include a national on-call system and in 2004, when AfC was first introduced, we agreed to review this.
There is an 'interim' on-call system in the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook but it has not been fully tested and required further work.
On-call is now the only part of the pay system which has not been reformed.
Following the introduction of the AfC agreement, we negotiated new arrangements for unsocial hours payments which have been implemented. We needed to do this first, before developing arrangements for on-call, which complement what has already been agreed for unsocial hours. This work completes the tools for reformed NHS pay and conditions of service.
Some current arrangements may be inconsistent with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. It’s important that they are consistent with these principles.
The current on-call arrangements will be in place until new arrangements are implemented on 1 April 2011 (as outlined in paragraph 2.46 of the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook).
As part of the data collection exercise, the sub-group identified a number of technical and logistical problems and, due to the large number of current schemes, it considered whether it was possible to produce one national scheme. Further analysis would have pushed the sub-group’s work significantly beyond the 1 April 2011 deadline.
The NHS Staff Council believed it was paramount to have new arrangements in place for when current protection ends (31 March 2011) and so it agreed to develop national principles to underpin local negotiations – done in partnership - to achieve greater consistency in on-call arrangements, whilst still meeting local needs.
Yes. Once a set of principles has been agreed, it will be for local partnerships to negotiate changes to their on-call arrangements, in line with the nationally agreed principles.
Yes. The review of on-call data collection exercise demonstrates that most organisations have numerous on-call schemes in operation. NHS organisations are advised to start collecting and collating information on current systems and payments as soon as possible, so that they can start negotiations as soon as the final principles are published in September.
The Whitley pay system – which was in place before AfC - provided different systems of on-call payments for particular groups of NHS staff. Over the years local partnerships have modified these to meet changing service needs, as well as introduced new locally designed systems. Although this has worked well so far, we need to make them more consistent, to address equal pay and other equality issues.