HOMERTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST Duties TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT FOR BANK STAFF NAME BAND DATE OF ENGAGEMENT Appointment You have been registered on the Bank with Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust ( The Trust ). It is at the Trust s discretion to decide whether and when you will be offered work. Work can not be guaranteed on a regular basis. You will only accept work that has been authorised and confirmed by the Bank. Any offer of work will be on a casual basis to fill a temporary position. You may choose whether to accept or decline the offer of work, however, in instances where an offer of work has been accepted and you are no longer required for that department/ward, on arrival of your shift, the clinical site manager, Lead nurse or staff bank office may allocate you to another area, as bank staff you are required to work anywhere within the Trust that requires temporary staffing/clinical cover. If however there is no other work to offer you, only at this stage will a 2 hour cancellation fee be provided. If you are later unable to work, you should inform your assigned manager at the earliest opportunity. Working for the Homerton Staff Bank does not connote any obligation to provide the staff with work nor does it connote any obligation for the staff to accept any work. Your duties and responsibilities will vary according to the shift/job provided. These will be explained to you in advance of any agreement to accept the work offered. These responsibilities should not be regarded as exclusive or exhaustive and may need to be amended from time to time in the light of clinical/service requirements. Hours of work Your hours of work and number of hours will vary at the discretion of the Trust. If you choose to accept an offer of work, you will present for duty at the agreed location at the agreed time and will be immediately and suitably prepared to commence duties. The Working Time Regulations require that you should not work more than 48 hours per week averaged over a 17 week period. This includes where you are undertaking work in more than one organisation. You should advise the Bank office if you believe you are exceeding the 48 hours limit and if you wish to continue doing so, an optout form will require completion. As per the EHMS policy, all staff should not be allowed to work more than 56 hours a week, this is for your safety and the safety of the services we provide. The Trust will not offer you work where it is felt that your additional hours will prevent you from delivering a safe level of patient care. You are required to tell the Trust of any other employment and/or bank assignments you hold. On request, you must provide the Trust with details of all other work that you undertake. If you fail to do so, the Trust may remove you from the Bank register.
Reliability Inactivity It is your responsibility to undertake work that has been offered and accepted, if for any reason you cannot attend your assignment, you must inform the bank office or your line manager at the earliest convenience. For clinical areas we require a minimum of 24-48 hours notice of cancellation to ensure that we can provide safe staffing levels and prevent any clinical risks. Continuous last minute cancellations will be monitored and may result in removal from the bank. Any Bank worker who hasn t worked for 4 months or more may be removed from the Homerton Staff Bank. Back to Back duties Location You may not undertake duties resulting in back to back working. This is defined as a late shift followed by a night duty or a night duty followed by an early shift or a late shift, and would include either of the shifts being worked in another organisation. Any employee undertaking such duties may be removed from the Bank register or face disciplinary. You must only accept duties that have been authorised and confirmed by the Staff Bank, failure to do so may result in non-payment. Your place of work will vary depending on the work provided. Your place of work may be any of the Trust s locations. No allowance will be granted to you for any expenses or time incurred in travelling to and from the place of work allocated to you. Notice Period Your registration or work placement with the Bank may be terminated at any time by either party to this Agreement upon one week s notice. Remuneration Annual Leave Work shall be paid for on an hourly basis. You will only be paid this hourly rate for hours actually worked. The applicable hourly rate will vary depending upon the duties to be performed and you will be made aware of the rate of remuneration in advance of any agreement to accept the work offered. An amount is incorporated into the hourly rate to cover holiday pay see paragraph 12 below. Bank only staff will be paid for annual leave by an allowance added to your hourly rate. You will not therefore be paid a separate amount during the time when you are actually on annual leave. The allowance is shown separately on your pay slip as WTD. It is your individual responsibility to ensure you take your annual leave entitlements. This entitlement will be based upon the number of hours you work. The staff bank will monitor the hours you work and run a report on a regular basis. You will be informed if you have exceeded your hours and are required to take your annual leave. Pension Scheme You are eligible to join the NHS Pension Scheme ( The Scheme ) and you will be automatically included in the scheme unless you specifically opt out. All Bank staff who contribute to the scheme will be contracted out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) and
Expenses members pay the lower contracted out rate of National Insurance (NI). Community Staff travelling between locations during working hours will be entitled to a mileage allowance, this rate varies depending on use of own vehicle or public transport, for further information please read the trust Expenses Policy accessible via the Homerton Intranet. Sickness Absence You are required to notify the Bank immediately if you are unable to undertake assignments due to ill health. As you are not an employee of the Trust under this Agreement, you are not entitled to either statutory or contractual sick pay for any period of absence due to illness. If you require Sick pay for absence longer than 7 days, you will need to produce a Medical Certificate detailing the reasons for your absence to your local Job Centre to claim any monies owed. Sickness & Attendance Trust Employees with Permanent Contracts are not allowed to work bank shifts during sickness absence or for 7 Calendar days following their return. This one week rule may be superseded by local policy extending the time up to four weeks following return. For bank only staff, your sickness may be monitored and reviewed, if there are concerns regarding you meeting service demands whilst in an assignment, you may be called in for a meeting to discuss any issues or concerns, continuous sickness may result in as assignment being cancelled. Maternity Pay As you are not an employee of the Trust for the purposes of this agreement, you are not eligible for Statutory Maternity / Paternity Pay. An SMP1 form can be completed by the staff bank and you will need to present this to your local job center to claim statutory payment. For New and expectant mothers, it is your responsibility to inform the staff bank of this information and for risk assessments to be completed at your 2 nd and 3 rd trimester and also when returning to work. If there are any changes to your medical condition due to pregnancy, you may be refereed to Employee Health and temporary adjustments made. Policies and Procedures All Bank members are expected to adhere to all Trust Policies and Procedures and meet the same standards as expected from substantive staff. A member s handbook is given on registration that details expected standards and all members are expected to adhere to this. All complaints and performance issues will be investigated following the principles of Trust procedure. Depending on the nature of the complaint/concern raised, Bank staff may be refused work until there is an outcome to the investigation. Confidentiality Whilst registered with the bank you will have access to confidential information relating to Trust business. You are required to exercise due consideration in the way you use such information and should not act in any way which might be prejudicial to the Trust s interests. Information which may be included in the category which requires extra consideration covers both access to
general business of the Trust and information regarding individuals. If you are in doubt regarding the use of information in the pursuit of your duties, you should seek advice from the Associate Director of Workforce before communicating such information to any third party. Professional Registration Clinical staff If you undertake an assignment which requires membership of a professional body in order to practice, it is a condition precedent of this contract of engagement for you to maintain membership of such professional body. You are required to notify the Bank and your line manager if your professional body in any way limits or changes the terms of your registration. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you maintain your professional registration. Failure to do so may result in no work being offered to you until proof is produced. All nursing staff must follow the Vital Signs policy when recording patient observations and ensure that the appropriate escalation to the Nurse in Charge/Doctor is completed and documented. The frequency of patient observations are changed in accordance with the Vital Signs policy and discussed with the Nurse in charge/doctor. Infection Control All staff have a responsibility to prevent and control infection within Homerton Hospital. This includes ensuring personal and team compliance with the Hygiene Code (Health & Social Care Act 2008) and all relevant policies including Hand Hygiene, Homerton Dress Code and MRSA Screening. DBS The NHS Employment Check Standards apply to the appointment of all staff and workers within the NHS regardless of their position or term of engagement. It should be noted that all roles via the bank require a DBS check. DBS checks are an important tool in aiding safer recruitment practices and patient safety. As part of the trust mandatory requirement, DBS checks and Trust declarations will be carried out every 3 years. Failure to complete this will result in your bank assignment being made inactive until the check is completed. If any NEW spent or unspent conviction, caution, reprimand or final warning on a criminal record are issued since your last clearance and the trust is not informed at the time of the offence, this may lead to you bank assignment being terminated from the Homerton Staff Bank. For further information please read the Disclosure and Barring Service Policy which you can find on the Trust intranet. Mandatory Training There is a personal responsibility on all employees and Bank workers to undertake training that is deemed mandatory for their role as identified by the Trust Training Needs Analysis. Staff must ensure they are up to date with the yearly & 3 yearly mandatory training and alert the Staff Bank when this is due to expire. Staff not up to date with their mandatory training may be stopped from working until this is completed. All training information is accessible via the Homerton intranet. For new starters to the trust, you will be entitled to be paid for your bank mandatory training. However after the first initial mandatory training,
staff must work a minimum of 24 bank shifts in a year in order to be paid for any further training. Leaving the trust All substantive staff registered with the staff bank & leaving their substantive position will automatically be terminated from their bank assignment in order to issue the P45. If wishing to remain on the staff bank register, then a reference from your line manager is required along with a new DBS check. This process will need to be cleared before re-registering to the bank and may take 2-4 weeks. If you are leaving the Trust and wish to return as an agency worker, there must be a break in employment with the trust for a minimum of 1 year before allowing this. Signed (Trust Signature) Signed (Staff Signature). Date Date