Agenda For Change
Just a little clarification on the last post…
The last post was not meant as an endorsement of Agenda For Change or as a poke in the eye for the EMTs who did badly out of it. On the whole, Agenda For Change has been a bad thing. Years ago, when it was first brought up, we were told that 90% of NHS workers would get a payrise out of it. This has plainly not been the case. Our road crews in particular were lead to believe they were going to be better off to the tune of several grand per year, but in the end some had small pay increases while others ended up having their pay frozen.
Things aren’t even perfect for us EMDs. We’ve been put on Band 3, which is the same as receptionists and administrators and below secretaries. (No offence to any receptionists, administrators and secretaries out there, I know the work you do is valuable, but I’ve worked in similar roles in the past and they don’t even come close in terms of responsibility, stress and conditions). The only reason we’ve seen a pay increase is because we get a 25% bonus for unsociable hours — nothing to do with the work we do or the lives that are in our hands. EMDs who only work day shifts will be having their pay frozen. And, confusingly, it only seems to be London EMDs who got a rise — EMDs elsewhere have ended up on an even lower banding. How can this be when we all do the same job?
However. I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I am approximately £1.5k a year better off due to AFC, and it’s money I badly need. Feeling guilty about my payrise or turning it down on principle is not going to make a blind bit of difference to the predicaments of those who got screwed over, and quite frankly, it’s about time something nice happened to EMDs. We spend our whole lives rotting away in a dingy underground control room, hated by the public, hated by crews, hated by hospitals, no decent breaks, jumping through hoops just to get a day’s annual leave, and it is really about time something went in our favour for once. We may have a few extra quid in our pockets, but I’m sure none of the road crews would like to come into the control room and take our places.
(If any of them do, please let me know… I’ll gladly take your job!)
Anyway, I shouldn’t get too excited about any of this until the money starts appearing in my bank account. No doubt things will find a way to go wrong at the last minute!
on May 4th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
AfC is a mess. It seems that, even for the people who have got payrises, some are actually stuck at the top of a band so that they’ll never be able to get any payrise other than inflation. The fact that all the different trusts have done their own evaluation of roles and come up with completely different bandings for their staff is kind of ridiculous. But then that’s what you get for restructuring the NHS every few years and splitting things up and joining them together again and what *are* they going to do next…?!
on May 4th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Watch out for shift changes - the rumours are around here that if everyone gets 25%, they’ll move shifts around to minimise it. I think that band 3 is an insult for the crap you have to put up with.
Librarians are on band 5 and there’s a head gardener in Shropshire that is on band 6. Fair?
on May 4th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
If they want to give me every weekend off in exchange for less pay, they’re quite welcome
on May 4th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
good luck to you. and crews only hate you in a nice way. x
on May 4th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Hopefully nothing will go wrong and your account will have that few extra quid on salary day. I have tremendous respect for working under the conditions you have to deal with. I’m sure I would go mad in hours.
on May 5th, 2006 at 6:51 am
As a medical secretary, I’d agree with you. No way should your job be assessed as being the same level as mine. My job is a doddle, it is stress-free and, to be brutally honest, anyone with half a brain could do it. I work regular hours and rarely if ever have to deal with patients who are in the middle of trauma and crisis.
I work for a GP practice and we’ve heard nothing officially about the AfC so far. I’ll wait with interest!
on May 5th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Mark,
Dont feel guilty about your rise, we are ALL intitled to more money! Think yourself lucky you are on a band 3, calltakers in scotland only got a band 2 and we do the EXACT same job, only difference is the location! How can that be fair?????!!!!?!?!?
on May 5th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
I agree as well: turning down the raise wouldn’t change any of the reasons or opinions on how the money is distributed. In the US, EMS providers & dispatchers have fairly low pay with huge responsibility. Personally, I think dispatchers deserve more credit for what they do. The next logical step would be a better living wage for EMTs and Paramedics, so why not raise the wages for all?
I can understand why you do feel guilty, but don’t: you’ve earned it!
on May 9th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Mark. I assume when you say you are an EMD you are a call handler rather than an ambulance dispatcher. Call Handlers at Westcountry were originally placed in Band 2 with Dispatchers (who are responsible for dispatching, all radio, phone and text communications and managing the Status Plan) placed in Band 4. We all put in appeals, and now call handlers are in Band 3 with Dispatchers in Band 5 - a big improvement. Individual Dispatchers are regularly responsible for controlling up to 60 resources - ambulances, rapid response vehicles, ECPs, motorbikes, a helicopter and officers - covering an area roughly 100 miles in length, with hundreds of miles of coastline and a couple of million people in the hight of summer.That’s a hell of a responsibility for one person. Although I’m much happier with my pay as a Dispatcher now, it makes me sick to see a gardener earning more than me (see previous reply). What’s the world coming to?
on May 9th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Big Al - at the LAS we don’t have separate call handlers and dispatchers. Some nights we’re on call taking and some nights we’re dispatching. As a grade 2, I’m call taking half the time and dispatching the rest of the time. There are three people on each dispatch desk at any time - one on the telephone, one on the radio and one allocating who is in charge of the desk and all the ambulances. As a grade 2 EMD I can be put on the radio or telephone but not allocating. The allocator is usually a sector controller, who is a grade 6. EMD 3s and 4s (both band 4) spend most of their time on the radio and sometimes allocate, and EMD 1s (band 3) spend most of their time call taking and occasionally as telephone dispatchers. Hope you followed all that!
On the whole I think it would be simpler if we just had separate dispatchers and call takers like you, but I don’t know if I could handle call taking every single night.
And in any case, we all deserve to be paid more than gardeners!!
on May 11th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
actually makes a hell of a difference being on car and having a good dispatcher, always love coming back into service n hearing a nice voice on the radio…
sure sometimes you go into a call and the infos not the same, but thats due to patients being fucking muppets…. if it was’nt for the patients it would be a great job
take care
paul
on May 12th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Grade 1’s are on 75% off the top of band 3 though - earning over £1000 less than their current contract and have consequently had to have our pay protected!! We have been put down as trainees which is very frustrating!!
Most of the Grade 1’s on my watch are opting out of AfC and sticking with their original contracts so that we can still get double time overtime!
on May 13th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
I’m a midwife, and as a newly qualified anywhere but London I would have started on a band 5 (but the job I got was band 6, yay). So apparently in skill and responsibility I am the same as a head gardener?
I hope the mums and babies that I look after feel like that. After all, when I’m in community and I’m dealing with emergencies it sure feels like the same responsibility…
on May 14th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Claire, you obviously haven’t thought of the consequences of those pesky dandelions in the lawn. Or what about putting the manure on the roses? That is equally important as delivering babies, dealing with catastrophic PPH, assisted ventilations of new borns, examining placenta…
on May 14th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Remember that this whole thing has come about because of the European working time directive..its not just something that the Ambulance service thought up.its something they have to enforce…it affects everyone in every trade so maybe those that are angry should vent that on European paliament..
on May 14th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Dude have you gone and done a Magwitch?! Its been a long time, wheres the interesting anecdotes?!
on May 14th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Ken - he’s around. We’re planning a “joint” post - he took a call today that I ran on. Thought it might make interesting reading seeing how what the call-taker is told on the phone ends up being for the crew/FRU that end up going to the call.
Watch this space!
on May 14th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Ken — I’ve been in the pub for the last ten days spending my Agenda For Change windfall. I’ve now sobered up and posted. Sorry for any inconvenience caused
on May 15th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Hiya Mark, know how you feel, I dispatch for a northern control room, 1 that will soon merge and be totally swollowed up by our bigger cousins!! (Even thought we are constantly told “Nothing has been finalised”!)Our EMDs are on a band 3 and dispatchers on a 4, none off us got a pay rise, some staff actually had money taken off them, because in our whitley contact we ACTED up when required to higher positions, and were payed for this privaledge!!, The money was taken back off us plus our double time even though we opted out. Because it says in our contracts, we have to “cover for the managers” for no extra pennies as there is no such thing as acting up under afc, Morale is thro the floor needles to say and nobody wants to know, Anybody no where there is a gardening job available??
on May 26th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Just discovered your Blog via the Guardian’s website. My comment is - don’t feel bad about being on a higher band than the folks who do the same kind of jobs in outside London. Your trust receives more money for providing the same services than other many other trusts simply by the virtue of being in London. It’s call the Market Forces Factor. And the folks up in Scotland are again under a different regime run the NHSScotland so I can totally understand why calltakers in Scotland are on a lower band than you.
on July 4th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Hiya - AfC is bag of crap. The problem in the north west is that all none of the grades reflect each other in terms of responsibility. Our EMD’s are 3 and dispatchers (radio, tel, allocate, sp) band 4. Both are at the top of their bands. However Control Room Trainers are also on a 4 (Trainers teach both emds and dispatchers how to do their job!) But because there is no operational need for trainers to work 12 hour shifts their shift allowance is lower - Fair enough but amount paid should reflect responsibility. Now supervisors and managers are in the same boat because their bandings are up the creek too.
But dont worry because we have all merged together. yep great. Now their are people in the same service as me who actually do less but share my job title, and get paid at two bands more than me??!
LAS are lucky - stay away from mergers. in fact anyone reading - stay away from the NHS. The only way it will ever do you a favour is if your a patient.
on August 2nd, 2006 at 10:22 pm
The whole things a mess !!
We in NI havent got sorted yet and wont be until Oct 2007 at the earliest, because the NI Ambulance Service need more time.
What I dont understand is that whatever job you do in any ambulance service will be almost identical to your counterpart whether in Wales, Scotland or London - so why does each trust need to do their own dealing ?
another costly excercise - and at the end of it the result is the same - we’ll get shafted.
on August 6th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
NeeNaw.
I’d like to say what a wonderfull blog this is. It’s just a pity that more staff don’t utilise it. EMDC staff are a very important but somewhat insulated part of the Services - Like Technicians - the treatment od control staff (especially dispatchers) is appauling - as is most of AFC!
Kevin.
Could you contact me via my email: mrmagoosas1@yahoo.co.uk.
If you can spare the time, it would be nice to further discuss NIAS.
In Confidence
Magoo
on August 27th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Congrats on your pay raise. I have just suffered a “mistake in my contract” meaning that I LOSE £3.5k a year, despite being recruited for a defined wage on qualification. Legal advice says that yes, they can do that! First job I have ever had where I haven’t told them to BLEEP off…
Great blog by the way. We don’t hate all the control staff here in East Mids, and always try to be polite and cheery in our dealings with you. Strange, we seem to get breaks on time, and away on time at the end of shift….. happy coincidence?
The Nice Crew… in the outbacks…. East Mids
on September 22nd, 2006 at 1:51 am
hiya, i work in ambulance control in south west wales, we havent even been banded yet. everyone is getting a bit sick of the rubbish about pay outs, when nothing seems to get done!!! we’re all skint, and they cant even band us, its beyond a joke now, especially when everyone else seems to be getting their payouts!