Benefits realisation

The emphasis on choice, and the consequent changes in how and where services are provided require a highly flexible workforce based increasingly in competency based, multi agency teams with transferable skills.

Agenda for Change was designed to support this major cultural change and agreed with a view to delivering a variety of benefits for staff and patients with the explicit expectation that it would act as a catalyst and enabler of service improvement in the NHS.

Agenda for Change provides three 'core tools' that can be used to support change and improvement:

• harmonised terms and conditions
• NHS Job Evaluation Scheme
• NHS KSF.

These workforce tools have dramatically simplified the process of designing new ways of working, establishing extended roles and facilitating better team working.

We can already see a wide variety of developments that demonstrate the potential for the new system to contribute to deliver these benefits. They include:

• new roles - for example, assistant practitioners in radiography
• changing roles
• introduction of the maternity support worker
• extending roles - for example emergency care practitioners
• improved team working through harmonisation of terms and conditions - for example, in operating theatres

The report From pay reform to system improvement - making the most of Agenda for Change captures how some organisations are using the new system to support creative and radical workforce development. The report can be accessed on the right hand side of this page.

Case studies on how the NHS is delivering benefits can be viewed on our Knowledge Base.