Non-pay elements progress - Welsh government NHS Agenda for Change offer 2022/23
Below you can find information on the status of each non-pay element in the latest Welsh government offer and our workstream priorities
Working group set up to review and consider career progression arrangements and opportunities starting with nurse and other health care professional’s progression from graduate entry level band 5 to 6. There is a shared aim of improving ability for individual progression in their professional field/staff group, valuing experience and role development through the development of a framework.
Initial Nurse preceptorship project complete, recommendations supported by Minister & Directors of Nursing and being implemented at organisational level. The aim of this work is for the national roll out of a consistent approach to preceptorship and clinical supervision.
The All Wales Flexible working policy has now been agreed at the Workforce Partnership forum and implementation of the policy has been issued to the service to roll out across Wales. The policy sets the principle that a flexible working request will be accepted unless there are clear reasons to decline.
A partnership group has been established including expertise from NHS Organisations as well as NHS Executive financial and workforce planning specialists. Following discussions, a Welsh Health Circular was issued on 13th December (All-Wales control framework for flexible workforce capacity (WHC/2023/046) | GOV.WALES) which sets out a phased approach of co-ordinated action to reduce expenditure on agency staff within NHS Wales.
A key objective for this work is “transparent, consistent, and equitable application of existing agreed national terms and conditions, ensuring we pay our employed workforce for their contractual and any additional hours worked at the appropriate contractual rate and with clear rates”.
HEIW has published a Nurse Retention Plan (The NRP) following significant engagement and agreement with partners. This has been shared with CEOs, WODs and Retention leads in delivery organisations as part of a new National Retention Programme of work. The 2-year programme provides funding for a retention lead role to be recruited in each organisation, a suite of tools and resources and the establishment of a retention community of practice to share best practice and support delivery, improvement, and evaluation. The NRP is a key deliverable from phase 1 of the Strategic Nursing Workforce Plan currently under development.
Business cases for the introduction of any Recruitment and Retention Payments (RRPs) are routinely presented to the Welsh Partnership Forum Business Committee for approval in line with the protocol. A communication has been issued to all W&OD Directors advising them of when it is appropriate to use RRPs (referencing the need to ensure that job descriptions are up to date and matched appropriately) and reminding them of the approval mechanism.
Significant work in the area of health and wellbeing is being taken forward at both All-Wales and organisational levels. Several elements of the National Workforce Implementation Plan are relevant to delivery of this item of the non-pay agreement as are a number of local initiatives developed under compassionate management and general health and wellbeing plans. The draft health and wellbeing framework – an action from the Workforce Strategy for Health & Care and the National Workforce Improvement Plan - has been developed in partnership and will be shared for agreement at the next WPF meeting. A partnership group is being established to review returns from the Local Partnership Forums which are relevant to health & wellbeing and to liaise with service co-ordinating groups in order to provide assurance / make recommendations on further steps as required.
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a tripartite occupational health group has been set up to develop and establish a control framework for occupational health services that sets:
- the scope of Occupational Health Service delivery and minimum service levels (this would include where it makes sense to collaborate on a regional NHS, regional public sector or national NHS basis)
- core service access and reporting key performance indicators for referrals
- quality assurance standards (informed by the SEQOHS Self-Assessment Framework)
- reporting and publication of performance information
- a method for highlighting where a service may be struggling or not delivering against standards and a support mechanism to enable them to get back on track or to identify that more fundamental action is required
- a plan and timetable to support all organisations to achieve SEQOHS Accreditation (timescale subject to identification of targeted resource to ensure focus on service delivery is not diluted).
Health Education and Improvement Wales is leading on the development of a CPD strategy for NHS Wales and consultation is about to begin with the strategy likely to be published in advance of the August 2024 deadline.
A partnership group has been established to provide assurance that the commitments made in the non-pay element of the agreement with regard to protected time for CPD are being delivered.
A full feasibility study will also be conducted with proposals for implementation to be reported by the end of the year.
Page last updated - 08/11/2024
