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Equality impact assessment

Name of policy:

Amendments to the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook for England - Guidance on workforce re-profiling.

Owners of the policy:

NHS Staff Council

Annexes:

General NHS workforce data has been included (see annex).

1. Given the organisational changes that the NHS in England face, the new Guidance on workforce re-profiling is intended to support NHS organisations in England and highlight how the NHS Staff Council agreement can support organisational, service and workforce changes.

2. The guidance provides advice on how the principles and processes of the NHS Job Evaluation scheme, as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation handbook, can assist organisations in developing and implementing new ways of working and revised job structures. It also provides advice on the consistent application of these principles locally.

3. To make robust arrangements which meet the needs of employers and their staff, covered by NHS Staff Council terms and conditions of service ensuring that they reflect current equality and discrimination legislation

4. The agreement will amend the current version of the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook with effect from 31 March 2013. It covers all eligible staff in England who are covered by the Agenda for Change pay system.

5. The key stakeholders include:

• NHS employing organisations in England,

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• the NHS Staff Council and its Executive, a partnership of the NHS Employers organisation and NHS Trade Unions, (led by NHS Employers), including

• Managers In Partnership and

• any other relevant staff representative bodies;

• UK Health Departments.

• ESR

• Patients

6. The NHS Staff Council and its Executive have responsibility for the collective agreement and implementation of the proposed amendments.

7. The NHS Staff Council and its Executive will be responsible for implementing the amendments within the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook and any subsequent national monitoring of the equality impacts.

8. Individual employers will assume responsibility for the implementation of the amendments to the sick pay arrangements locally as part of the national terms and conditions of the staff they employ and for monitoring the equality impact locally of workforce re-profiling exercises to comply with equality legislation.

9. The NHS Staff Council will maintain oversight of the new amendments through existing governance arrangements.

10. The Handbook sets out a general equality and diversity statement (Section 30) which places a requirement on NHS employers and local staff representatives to review and monitor their local policy arrangements.

11. Monitoring of the effects of workforce re-profiling at a local level will be encouraged ,for employers in England, and may be facilitated by use of the Electronic Staff Record, Equality Delivery System and the Equal Pay Audit toolkit.

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12. In trying to assess the impact of the proposed amendments to workforce re-profiling, the NHS Staff Council Executive sought data and information from the Electronic Staff Record.

13. Gaps in the relevant data include:

• There is no Job Matching data available nationally, the data is held locally at an individual employer level where the legal responsibility for equal pay currently lies.

14. No further data required at this stage to support the introduction of the workforce re-profiling guidance. However, as noted above, employers locally will need to capture appropriate monitoring data via the Electronic Staff Record and Equality Delivery Systems (EDS) (where these systems are used). Employers that do not use these particular systems should put in place adequate systems/procedures to capture the relevant data.

Analysis of the function or policy

15. Impact analysis detailed in the table below.

Does or could the policy or function have any influence on any of the equality strands in relation to: • promoting equality • eliminating discrimination • achieving equality

Yes No

Race

Yes

Religion or belief

Yes

Disability Yes

Gender Yes

Sexual orientation Yes

Age Yes

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Gender reassignment Yes

Maternity and pregnancy Yes

Marriage and civil partnership Yes

Assess the likely impact on equality

16. Impact assessment detailed in the table below

Could the function/strategy/project/policy in the way it is planned/delivered have a negative impact on any of the equality target groups (i.e. it could disadvantage them) or could it have a positive impact on any of the groups, contribute to promoting equality, equal opportunities or improve relations Group affected Positive

impact Negative impact

Reason

Ethnic groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Faith groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme

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and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Disability groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Gender groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising

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any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Sexual orientation groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Age groups

Yes

The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is

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positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Gender reassignment Yes The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Maternity and pregnancy Yes The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations

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undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

Marriage and civil partnership Yes The guidance supports the workforce re-profiling process with new roles being assessed objectively, by trained panels in partnership, against the role requirements as set out in the NHS Job Evaluation scheme and Job Evaluation handbook. This is directed at minimising any risks locally of inequity in process and therefore is positive from an equality perspective. Locally, organisations undertaking workforce re-profiling should monitor the impact of re-matching and re-evaluation exercises against gender and other protected characteristics where the data allows.

If you have indicated there is a negative impact on any group, is that impact:

Yes No

Lawful? i.e. it is not discriminatory under anti-discriminatory legislation

n/a n/a

Intended? n/a n/a

17. Any future negative impact should be identified through local equality monitoring procedures as well as through grievance procedures and action planned accordingly. Strategic issues will be dealt with under the NHS Staff Council governance arrangements.

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18. Yes. The amendments to the collective agreement are enshrined in national and local employment contracts and as such, changes can be made at national or local level following consultation with and agreement from staff and or their representatives. The NHS Staff Council will conduct any national level negotiations and agree to make any subsequent changes that may be necessary.

19. This is good practice guidance and therefore implementation is down to local discretion.

20. There are no anticipated adverse impacts arising from the guidance and if there are these can be addressed nationally. How employers choose to implement the guidance is open to local discretion and it would be for individual employers to monitor their local workforce re-profiling polices accordingly to minimise and eliminate any adverse impacts.

What previous or planned consultation (both locally and nationally) on this function/topic/ policy/area/project has taken place/will take place with groups/individuals from equality target groups? If there has already been consultation, what does it indicate about negative impact and how people view this function, strategy, project or policy? Equality target groups Summary of consultation carried out or planned

There has been no explicit consultation of the target groups at a national level. Negotiations have involved trade unions whose members are representative of all the affected target groups. Collectively and individually the NHS trade unions have undertaken two consultations with their members regarding the initial proposals and the final proposals for consideration and feedback as part of the trade union decision making process for accepting the proposals. Locally employers consult with their trade unions on their policy developments.

Race: black & minority ethnic communities

There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give consideration to how to engage this group.

Faith groups There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give consideration to how to engage this group.

Disability There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give consideration to how to engage this group.

Gender There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give

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consideration to how to engage this group.

Sexual orientation There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give consideration to how to engage this group.

Age There has been no explicit consultation of this target group. When employers develop local policies they will need to give consideration to how to engage this group.

21. The NHS trade unions sought expert advice on the likely equality impacts of the proposals and this feedback has been incorporated into the equality analysis.

22. Yes – key stakeholders have been engaged as part of the wider negotiations process and have provided a range of expert views to support the development of the new arrangements and its supporting equality impact assessment.

23. In addition, the new draft section of the NHS Staff terms and conditions of service handbook will be reviewed by colleagues that will operate the new arrangements locally, but who have not been involved in the national negotiations. This additional assurance should help ensure that the implementation is monitored locally for any adverse impacts and addressed locally or brought to the attention of the Staff Council where appropriate in order to address nationally.

Make a decision on the policy

24. Policy decision risks detailed in the table below.

What is the potential risk on the effect of equality (indicate one)

Highly likely to have an adverse effect on equality High risk

May possibly have an adverse effect Moderate risk

Probably will not have adverse effect Low risk

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Highly likely to promote equality of opportunity and good relations High potential

May have the potential to promote equality and good relations Moderate potential

Probably will not promote equality or good relations Low potential

If the potential for risk and benefit occurred, how substantial would these be in terms of the number of people effected and the severity of the problem Lots of people from different groups may be affected to some extent

A few people may be adversely affected to some extent

A few people may be affected but the effect on them will be highly adverse A lot of people may be severely affected

25. The guidance on workforce re-profiling will support employers to undertake re-organisation and the job evaluation and re-matching processes fairly and consistently, minimising any negative equality impacts locally.

26. Monitoring against the protected characteristics will ensure that employers fulfil their equality duties, in particular monitoring by gender in order to minimise any potential for equal pay risks.

27. No adverse or negative impacts have been identified.

28. The impact assessment will be published as a paper supporting the final agreement of the review partners.

29. Monitoring will be undertaken as part of the NHS Staff Council governance arrangements.

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NHS Staff Council March 2013

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Annexes Note to annexes Analysis of the existing data cannot definitively identify staff who will, or not be positively or negatively affected by the proposals. This is because precisely how staff are affected is dependent upon future factors which are as yet unknown. In addition, it is not known at this stage which staff groups will have their posts re-profiled, and therefore the impact on each protected characteristic group cannot be measured. Note: there is likely to be variation at a local level regarding the proportions of staff in each Agenda for Change band, characteristic value and category, depending on organisation type, skill mix, recruitment and increment dates and other factors.

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Annex 1 - National Workforce distribution by protected characteristics

1.1. National Workforce Age Profile

Age Band % of Headcount

Under 25 5% 25 to 29 10% 30 to 34 11% 35 to 39 12% 40 to 44 14% 45 to 49 16% 50 to 54 15% 55 to 59 11% Over 60 6% Total 100%

1.2. National Workforce Ethnicity Profile

Ethnicity % of Headcount

White 81% Black or Black British 5% Asian or Asian British 5% Mixed 1% Chinese 0% Any Other Ethnic Group 2%

Not Stated or Unknown 6% Total 100%

Annex 1 1.3. National Workforce Gender Profile

Gender % of Headcount

Female 81% Male 19% Total 100%