The government has announced that an extra £30m is to be given to the NHS to help the implementation of Agenda for Change.
UK Health minister, John Hutton said the funding will go towards compensating NHS organisations for the time staff spend negotiating or implementing Agenda for Change, a national pay structure.
For example, he said, it will allow them to employ locums for the time staff are involved in sitting on job evaluation boards or negotiating local implementation deals.
“Because Agenda for Change is not just about pay but also a new partnership between staff and employees, I can confirm today that additional resources of around £30m will be made available to support implementation,” Hutton said.
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“The costs incurred by NHS organisations in releasing key trade union representatives to participate in the implementation of the new pay system will be the first priority for the extra resource.”
The head of HR in the NHS recently admitted that the health service will miss its September target for having all staff covered by the Agenda for Change.
Speaking exclusively to Personnel Today, Andrew Foster said that if most of work is done by the end of September he would be happy.
