RECKONABLE SERVICE FOR ANNUAL LEAVE AND STARTING SALARY POLICY APPROVED BY: South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group Quality and Governance Committee DATE Feb 2015 Date of Issue: 25 February 2015 Version No. 1 Date of Review: February 2017 Author: North Bristol Trust/Head of Governance and Risk, CCG
Document status: Current Version Date Comments Draft 0.1 November 2014 For review by Policy Review Group in January 2015 0.2 February 2015 Minor amendments by Policy Review Group 1.0 25 February 2015 Final approved at Quality and Governance Committee 2
CONTENTS Section Summary of Section Page Cont Contents 3 1 Reckonable NHS Service for Annual Leave Calculations 4 2 Policy Statement 4 3 Procedure 4 4 Reckonable NHS Service for Determination of Starting Salary 5 5 Policy Statement 6 6 Procedure 6 7 Equal Opportunities/Equality Impact Assessment 7 8 Review 7 3
1. RECKONABLE NHS SERVICE FOR ANNUAL LEAVE CALCULATIONS 1.1. National Requirements - The Agenda for Change (AfC) Final Agreement and NHS Terms & Conditions Handbook set out the basis for what NHS Service should be recognised for determining annual leave entitlement. Paragraph 12.1 An employee s continuous previous service with any NHS employer counts as reckonable service in respect of NHS agreements on redundancy, maternity, sick pay and annual leave. Paragraph 12.2 states, Employers have discretion to take into account any period or periods of employment with employers outside the NHS where these are judged to be relevant to NHS employment Paragraph 12.3 sets out the updated position regarding NHS services that have been contracted out to non NHS employers: When employees who have been transferred out of NHS employment to a non-nhs provider return to NHS employment, their continuous service with a new non-nhs employer providing NHS funded services, will be counted as reckonable in respect of NHS agreements on sick pay, annual leave and incremental credit. 2 POLICY STATEMENT 2.1 The CCG believes that it should set out clear, fair and practical guidance on what service is recognised and how it is actioned in order that it meets its requirements on equity for all staff and in relation to paragraphs 5.30 of the AfC Final Agreement. 2.2 The CCG has agreed that the following will be recognised as NHS Service: Aggregated years of service worked for the NHS or under NHS conditions of employment, including service after a break in continuous service. Other Public Sector services may be recognised subject to relevance or difficulty in recruiting to post. Human Resources must be consulted prior to any agreement being made with applicants to ensure consistency across the organisation. On no occasion will there be allowance for annual leave matching where the employee has not demonstrated the relevant service required. No annual leave entitlements will be allowed greater than that provided for by the new Terms and Conditions handbook. 2.3 All service must be verified. There will be no cut-off date beyond which service will not be recognised provided that all service is verified, however additional leave will not be backdated beyond the existing leave year. Methods of verifying service are set out in the procedure below. 2.4 It is the responsibility of the member of staff and not the CCG to get evidence of their service so that their service can be recognised. 3 PROCEDURE 3.1 How NHS Service should be verified: 4
3.1.1 All NHS Service needs to be verified if it is to be counted by the CCG as reckonable service for annual leave. Unverified service will not be counted. 3.1.2 The onus is on the member of staff to get evidence of their service. 3.1.3 The Trust will accept the following methods as verification/validation of previous NHS service: Staff Transfer Form or validated Electronic Staff Record printout Employment contracts and payslips Pension/superannuation records P60s P45 if combined with payslips etc. References from appropriate staff with an appropriate level of accountability f or the post-holder. 3.1.4 New Joiners who have previous NHS service will have verification of previous service automatically requested through the Electronic Staff Record Inter Authority Transfer process. If there has been a significant break in service this information may not be available electronically. New joiners should discuss this with the Recruitment Team who can advise on the process for gaining evidence of service. The verified NHS Service will then be taken into account when calculating the annual leave entitlement of the new joiner 3.1.5 Where the new joiner is unable to obtain a evidence confirming their previous service due to the records of the previous Trust not going back far enough or being incomplete then they should present the Recruitment Officer with appropriate documents / evidence as set out above in paragraph 3.3. If acceptable this documentation will be copied and placed on their personal file and the Employee Database revised. The calculated NHS Service will then be used to calculate the annual leave entitlement of the new joiner. 3.1.6 For existing Trust staff there will be a regular validation exercise, carried out in line with the Data Protection Act (1999) which will check all the information held on the Employee Database for all Trust staff. This will include cumulative 3.1.7 NHS Service and provide the opportunity for staff to correct this information if it is not accurate. Staff correcting their details should provide evidence set in paragraph 3.3 above to confirm their previous service. 4 RECKONABLE NHS SERVICE FOR DETERMINATION OF STARTING SALARY 4.1 National Requirements - The Agenda for Change (AfC) Final Agreement and NHS Terms & Conditions Handbook set out the basis for what NHS Service should be recognised for determining starting salary. In paragraph 12.2 of the NHS Terms & Conditions Handbook, the CCG is given discretion to decide exactly what service should be recognised outside of the NHS and how this service should be validated and verified. This Policy confirms this local agreement. 4.2 This supersedes all previous policies, procedures and local arrangements in relation to what service is recognised for starting salary determination. 5
4.3 This policy applies on first appointment to the CCG only, any subsequent changes of grade will be in accordance with the relevant terms and conditions i.e. AFC/VSM 5 POLICY STATEMENT 5.1 The CCG believes that it should set out clear, fair and practical guidance on what service is recognised and how it is actioned in order that it meets it requirements on equity for all staff and in relation to paragraph 12.2 of the NHS Terms & Conditions Handbook). 5.2 The CCG has agreed that the following will be recognised as NHS Service: Cumulative years of service worked for the NHS or under NHS conditions of employment, including service after a break in continuous service. Any other experience relevant to the job, for example paid work in the voluntary sector, in the private sector or the public sector may be recognised subject to relevance or difficulty in recruiting to post. Human Resources must be consulted prior to any agreement being made with applicants to ensure consistency across the organisation. Evidence of the relevance of this experience to the new post will be placed on the personal file. However such non NHS Service that is being considered must be directly relevant to the role to which the member of staff is being appointed. This can also be tested against the employees ability to meet the requirements of the First KSF Gateway at the end of one year in service and their ability to meet the full outline in the remaining period of time until the Second Gateway is reached. i.e. the Line Manager in agreement with the relevant HR support must be assured that they will meet these requirements. Note: It may result that a new employee is given greater benefit for service with regard to salary than with regard to annual leave allocation. On no occasion will there be allowance for salary matching where the employee has not demonstrated their ability to perform at the level required. On no occasion will a salary be agreed in recognition of service/ experience outside the NHS in excess of the level that would have been achieved had the service in question been under NHS Terms and Conditions of Employment. 5.3 All service must be verified. 5.4 It is the responsibility of the member of staff and not the Trust to get evidence of their service so that their service can be recognised. 6 PROCEDURE 6.1 How NHS Service should be verified: 6.1.1 All NHS Service needs to be verified if it is to be counted by the Trust as reckonable service for starting salary. Unverified service will not be counted. 6.1.2 The onus is on the member of staff to get evidence of their service. 6
6.1.3 The Trust will accept the following methods as verification/validation of previous NHS service: Staff Transfer Form or validated Electronic Staff Record printout Employment contracts and payslips Pension/superannuation records P60s P45 if combined with payslips etc. References from appropriate staff with an appropriate level of accountability for the post-holder. 6.1.4 New Joiners who have previous NHS service will have verification of previous service automatically requested through the Electronic Staff Record Inter Authority Transfer process. If there has been a significant break in service this information may not be available electronically. New joiners should discuss this with the Recruitment Team who can advise on the process for gaining evidence of service. The verified NHS Service will then be used to calculate the salary entitlement of the new joiner. It is the responsibility of the Recruitment Team to ensure service is verified prior to confirming any higher salary agreement. 6.1.5 Where the new joiner is unable obtain evidence confirming their previous service due to the records of the previous Trust not going back far enough or being incomplete then they should present their Recruitment Officer with appropriate documents/evidence as set out above in paragraph 3.3. If acceptable this documentation will be copied and placed on their personal file and the Employee Database revised. The verified NHS Service will then be used to calculate the starting salary entitlement of the new joiner. 6.1.6 For existing Trust staff there will be a regular validation exercise, carried out in line with the Data Protection Act (1999) which will check all the information held on the Employee Database for all staff. This will include continuous NHS Service and provide the opportunity for staff to correct this information if it is not accurate. Staff correcting their details should provide evidence set in paragraph 3.3 above to confirm their previous service. 7. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES/EQUALITIES IMPACT ASSESSMENT 7.1 An Equality Impact Assessment has been completed for this policy and procedure and it does not marginalise or discriminate minority groups. 8. REVIEW DATE 8.1 This policy and procedure will be reviewed after 2 years, or earlier at the request of either staff or management 7