The SLT National Advisory
Committee meets 10th to
12th September, and will be
discussing Agenda for
Change. There have been
suggestions that this
committee should sign off 3
job profiles for SLTs (the
Band 5, 6 and 7 profiles).
This would be on the basis
that the union will try to
negotiate 2 new job
profiles at higher grades
to fill identified
gaps.
The London SLT Advisory
Committee met on 3rd
September to discuss the
risks around this. We
agreed that no profiles
should be signed off until
we know where we stand. We
want to see a range of
profiles offering an
adequate career structure
that can be applied to all
SLTs. We also want to see
written guidance from the
Department of Health on how
these profiles will be
used. We believe that if we
sign off some job profiles
now, these are the ones
that will be used by Trusts
- even if they are not
appropriate. We have no
guarantees that
negotiations for new
profiles will be
successful, and if we
accept some profiles at
this stage it will reduce
the pressure on the
Department of Health to
make concessions.
We also want to see a full
postal ballot of all SLTs
and SLT Assistants in the
union before any decision
is taken to agree
profiles.
We voted unanimously to
support 2 motions on Agenda
for Change
Motions to SLT NAC from
London Region Sept 03.
These have been sent to the
SLT NAC for
consideration.
The London delegate has
been mandated not to sign
off job profiles. If you
are in a different region,
you may want to contact
your own delegate to tell
them what you think. If you
do not know who this is,
you could contact the
national officer for SLTs
(Fiona Farmer) and ask her
for the e-mail details of
your delegate to the SLT
NAC. Alternatively, send
your views directly to
Fiona and ask her to pass
your comments to the SLT
NAC. Clearly all
correspondence must be
polite and must not in any
way amount to
harassment!
Fiona can be contacted on
SLTs around the country
have also had real success
in getting letters
published. There have been
excellent letters on Agenda
for Change in Bulletin, the
Times, the Independent, and
Therapy Weekly. If you have
15 minutes to spare, do a
quick letter to someone on
how damaging Agenda for
Change could be to our
profession and to our
clients. If the draft
profiles we have seen are
applied, we are facing 20
to 30% pay cuts for many
senior and specialist SLTs,
with our current Band 4s
looking at pay cuts of up
to 37%. This is
unacceptable! In view of
the lively debate currently
taking place in Bulletin,
it would be particularly
good to get a few more
letters in here.
Another idea discussed by
the London SLT was group
lobbying of MPs. In one
Trust, a group of 14 or 15
SLTs went to see the MP
covering their Trust area
to ask him for support in
the national regrading.
This was felt to have had
much more impact then
individual contacts would
have done. Maybe this is
something we can take up on
Agenda for Change.
Gill George
SLT NAC
London Region