Nursing -agenda for change

[looby-loo]

I know this is a very specific question, but wondered if anyone might be able to help. I am a nurse and my colleagues and I have been recently banded under the agenda for change. we don't agree on the band we have been given. Has anyone appealed and actually got anywhere. we have sent a letter to our personnel department and haven't heard anything yet. what should we expect at an appeal? any info would be lovely, thanks

[kazza12345]

we are in the process of appealing now, I cant remeber exactly what we did, but as far as i'm aware, you have to put the appeal in writing, stating your reasons why you think you were banded wrong (we put in about how on some of the things they had not taken into consideration our role as blah )

we also put that when we were doing our job descriptions we has been given misleading information, leading to us underselling ourselves. The appeal has taken a fair few months, because it has had to go to panel and we also had to submit to som additional questions. We hope to hear in the next week .... As an aside our administrators got downgraded, appealed and lost

[kazza12345]

your manager or union should be able to give you some advice, also it muight help if you look around the area you are working in - for example nurses doing the same job as me on the other side of the county got banded higher than me. We also put this in the appeal

[looby-loo]

brilliant. let me know how you get on.

[kazza12345]

hove you been downgraded a lot? I am in a group of h grade nurses, and we have been given band 6 Grrrr!

that means that for some of the more longer serving members of the team, they have nowhere to go, and after the 5 year buffer will be getting less. Hardly an incentive is it? Also, im intersted - ive never yet met someone who voted yes for a4c, did you? (lol im not going to blame you, just interested!)

[looby-loo]

lol ! I voted no. we are all top G's (nurse practitioners) and have been graded a 6. all our newly qualified nurses rae 5's. it feels like a kick in the teeth really, which I know isn't how you should take it...but it's hard not too.

[pigsear]

Within ourv trust we have appealed as a group against the banding. We did not undersell ourselves in the job description, but elaborated the complete range of skills offered by G/H grade sisters. Now the trust has incorporated the expectation that sisters be required to offer all these skills as basic to the role. Thus I am now supervising a post-grad for the year( but not receiving the H grade increment/incentive formerly offered to staff).
I also have 5 other students assigned to the practice at the moment, with no recognition of the need for addditional staffing assistance. The union has been unhelpful, with the area rep. very unavailable.

I have 24/7 responsibility for 17,000 patients in the community with an elderly profile following the amalgamation of two GP practices. I am also expected to cover the health centre treatment room. Does anyone
have a similar number of patients? Or responsibility level?

My union and the trust does not consider that quantity of workload as an issue that can be raised on appeal against banding. What do you think?