Workshop 2

Agenda for Change: a laboratory perspective

Mr Geoff Lester

The assimilation of current staff into the 'Agenda for Change' career and pay structure will be a major piece of work that we will all be involved in during 2004 and early 2005. The pay-back, we are told, is the opportunity to design new roles, freed from the constraints of Whitley definitions. They will be appropriately graded and paid for the role they fulfil using the generic NHS Job Evaluation Scheme and staff will be developed under a generic Knowledge and Skills Framework.

This workshop will explore:

• The immediate implications for the healthcare science careers of current staff
• The opportunities for developing new roles within a Clinical Biochemistry service
• The opportunities for attracting new staff into the laboratory and better developing current staff
• What barriers and difficulties the new system may leave us to resolve.

In preparation delegates are asked to be aware of the 16 factors in the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme (download pdf 460Kb) and the relevant dimensions of the Knowledge and Skills Framework available (download pdf 84Kb). Detailed working guidance on the KSF is available (download pdf 450Kb).

Delegates are asked to:

• List the three main barriers to progress in their department. (We can explore whether and how AfC might help.)
• Think about a new role, or different type of staff who could fulfil aspects of a current role, that would benefit their department.

Please e-mail geoff.lester@rbbh-tr.nhs.uk with these thoughts in advance.