Amicus
Factsheet
Job Profiles - Speech
& Language Therapy
Currently there are
three draft profiles at
bands 5,6 and 7 for Speech
and Language Therapist,
Specialist Speech and
Language Therapist and
Highly Specialist Speech
and Language Therapist. See
attached. Four profiles
have been agreed for
generic Clinical and
Professional Managers at
bands 8A to 8D.
Colin Adkins advice is
that if correctly managed,
profiles at band 5,6,7
could be signed off with
the appropriate joint
guidance from Amicus /
RCSLT. Guidance will be
produced to manage the
application of these
profiles, which would only
be applied to postholders
practising at current Band
two level and below. If
applied in keeping with
Amicus guidance postholders
matched to these profiles
should not lose out on pay.
Work is in progress to
ensure that SLTs with
management responsibility
can be successfully matched
with the Professional
manager profiles Band 8A to
8D.
Commitments have been
given that a Consultant
level SLT profile is being
progressed.
The one gap exists at
principal SLT level and a
meeting has been arranged
with Amicus, RCSLT and DoH
to develop a profile which
will go to the JEWP by 30th
Sept.
The National Advisory
Committee has determined
that consultation will take
place throughout the
regions. Regional
Occupational Advisory
Committees are therefore
required to consult on the
profiles and to report back
to the next NAC on 16th
October in London.
OACs are reminded that the
purpose of signing off
profiles at this stage
would be to have them
adequately tested in the EI
sites and to continue
dialogue with the DoH on
further profiles. Amicus
members will then have the
opportunity to vote to
support Agenda for Change
or not following a thorough
assessment of how profiles
were matched on EI sites.
Until and unless this work
is done it will be
impossible to see the real
effects of AfC.
Amicus is committed to
negotiating nationally
agreed profiles to ensure
that local evaluations are
kept to a minimum. Local
evaluation could lead to
local variations as
occurred in the previous
regradings.
Colenzo Jarret Thorpe is
working with SLT Assistants
to progress Job Profiles
for that particular
group.
The National Advisory
Committee supports the
joint working with the
RCSLT and Amicus to create
a robust range of profiles
which provides a
satisfactory pay and career
structure for SLTs.
This information and up to
the minute reports on
Agenda for Change are
available on the Amicus
Health website
www.amicushealth.org
Kath Frazer
Chairperson, Speech and
Language Therapy NAC
Fiona Farmer
Amicus Lead Officer Speech
and Language Therapists
September 2003
SLT NAC Sept
03 - Unofficial Report
Summary - see full text
here:
SLT NAC Unofficial
Report
I attended the SLT-NAC
as Health Sector NAC
delegate from Thursday, for
the Agenda for Change
discussion. However,
delegates were told on
Wednesday that that was
‘the NAC
meeting’ and the
other days were study days.
The NAC decided that
profiles could not be
signed off until there was
a full set of profiles for
the career structure
On Thursday, Colin Adkins
(the union’s lead
negotiator on job profiles)
and Gail Cartmail (the
union’s Head of
Health) arrived and tried
to restart the NAC meeting,
arguing that the existing
job profiles should be
signed off. Colin argued
that many SLTs might get
pay increases under Agenda
for Change, although the
union admits that there
will be pay cuts.
SLTs will get pay
increases only if they are
slotted into pay bands
equivalent to their current
salaries, so that they are
assimilated to a spine
point higher than their
existing salaries. This
hypothetical pay increase
becomes a pay cut for many
SLTs when we look at real
jobs.
The union is effectively
saying that SLTs salaries
will be much higher than
other AHPs, eg. that an OT
Team Leader will get
£28,387 max while an
SLT Team Leader will get
£38,709 max. Will
Trusts really agree to
this?
The union argues that
RCSLT and Amicus will issue
guidance on slotting in so
we can control the matching
process. Unfortunately, the
evidence from Early
Implementer sites is that
this process is extremely
difficult to control.
The union approach also
assumes two new Band 8
profiles – for a
Consultant SLT and a
Principal SLT. We might get
the Consultant profile, but
Sue Hastings – now
working for the DOH –
has said it will apply to
just a handful of people.
The Principal profile is
purely hypothetical.
The joint RCSLT-union
meeting in July agreed AFC
would probably mean pay
cuts for many SLTs, and we
were promised a union
campaign for recruitment
and retention premia. At
the SLT-NAC we were told
that any suggestion of pay
cuts was speculative
scaremongering, that
campaigning was premature
and we would look silly if
it proved unnecessary.
We were told that the way
forward was to sign off
profiles and then test them
out in Early Implementer
sites. If we didn’t
like the outcome, then we
could campaign.
Unfortunately, this will
almost certainly be too
late. There will almost
certainly be no opportunity
for fundamental revision of
job profiles at that
stage.
There was considerable
pressure on the NAC to
agree to sign off the
profiles at their next
meeting. (There will be
consultation in regions
followed by an NAC meeting
in October.) The NAC also
agreed standing orders that
visitors could attend NAC
meetings. However, on 11th
September we were told that
visitors would not be
allowed at the next NAC
meeting.
Friday was less fraught,
with discussion of a
welcome pack for SLT
reps.
We are in a difficult
situation. Some assertions
at the SLT-NAC were
misleading and inaccurate.
The union has always
admitted that AFC is
under-funded by 15 - 20%.
The way forward is to work
with the other groups in
our union facing pay cuts,
to seek alliances with
other unions and
professional bodies, and to
go back to the Government
for more money. If AFC is
not in the interests of our
members, the union should
oppose it.
Gill George
Secretary, London SLT
Advisory Committee
September 16th 2003
NEXT SLT
NAC
The next SLT NAC has now
been postponed until 10th
November. Every Region should
be organising consultation with
members on the final job
descriptions before this
meeting.
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Organising for Agenda for
Change
An email list can help
you to organise.
SLT Union Rep's and
Managers in the North East
and Cumbria have set up a
Yahoo! email discussion
list at
SLT-RAMP.
We use this to share
information and organise
meetings.
Discuss Agenda for
Change
* With SLTs on the
RCSLT
Noticeboard
* With Amicus-MSF members
from across the NHS at
MSFHealthSectorMembers
* Arrange to meet for an
online discussion at
the
RCSLT
Public Chat Room
or the
SLT-North Group
Chat Room.
You need to join the
SLT-North group to use the
Group Chat Room - see the
"Join this Group" link at
the top right hand corner
of the SLT-North Chat Room
page. There are Chat
Room Tips on the
SLTnorth website.
Share Information
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or the
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website?
If you have, please email:
Please forward this
Newsletter to other SLTs
who might be interested in
receiving or sharing
information about Agenda
for Change.
SLT Agenda for Changes
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