51ºÚÁÏÍø

If you are considering a re-evaluation of your role, first obtain your current job description and consider this alongside our guidance to identify the areas that need to be updated. A clear and up-to-date job description, agreed by you line manager is essential. Find out more in our information on job evaluation.

If you have agreed a new job description the re-evaluation will be based on the evidence submitted at the time of agreement. It is not anticipated that you will need to make any changes to take account of the newly launched nursing and midwifery profiles, which are intended to bring greater clarity to the job evaluation process. If there is a need to revisit any aspect of your review request your employer will contact you, and if you have any queries or require support and advice, contact the 51ºÚÁÏÍø.

If you have made a final submission or are working towards it, you should continue to follow the 51ºÚÁÏÍø guidance. The new nursing and midwifery profiles have been amended to provide greater clarify and detail on what would be expected across the nursing job family, but are not significantly different from the previous profiles.  

All band 5 nurses will be entitled to have their role reviewed. The review will be conducted using the Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Scheme. Applicants will therefore need to show that they are required to work at a higher technical/professional or managerial level than that identified in the band 5 nurse job evaluation profile.

The review is now open for submissions and your employer will write to you soon with details of how to progress your review application - find out more.

No, it is not necessary to agree a new job description with your manager for the review of band 5 nursing roles - a specific pro forma has been devised to speed up and make the process easier.

The agreement reached with the Scottish government confirms that any band 5 nurse who is regraded will have their pay backdated to 1 April 2023, if they can demonstrate that they were working at a higher level on or before 1 April 2023.

Currently, there is no closing date for applications as the systems are still being set up to deal with large numbers. A date will be agreed at some point to close to new applications at which point any in the system will still be assessed.

You should be able to get a copy of this from your local job evaluation team or through the HR department. There should be no issues obtaining this document, as it provides evidence of how your role is currently assessed at Band 5.

Each answer has a 2000-character limit, which roughly equates to 300-500 words. The 51ºÚÁÏÍø advice is for people to be specific and succinct about what they want to tell the panel, picking the best duties/responsibilities, then supporting with one or two good examples. Each answer doesn’t need to have a full run through of every part of their job, so focusing on the area’s that will make a difference is the best tactic, for example instead of listing everyone you communicate with just outline the types of discussions you have with patients/relatives when explaining complex/multiple clinical conditions or those emotive situations where diagnosis will have a severe impact on someone’s health and potentially poor prognosis of life expectancy.

This is very specific to your circumstances. If the role is very different to others in your area, then an individual application is most appropriate. If there are several people doing the same or very similar roles, then it is likely any differences wouldn’t materially change the outcome, and a grouped application may give a stronger/united voice.

The system is designed around the personnel record and doesn’t have the functionality to identify people who are working together as a group. As part of the process, when sending the draft questionnaire to your manager for review you should inform them of the staff which form part of the group. Once the application is agreed your manager should inform the local job evaluation of the group, and they will then batch them together as they come through the system.

The choice of who needs to review the application is down to local agreement. Some boards have used Senior Charge Nurse roles at Band 7, whilst others have opted for Lead Nurses at Band 8a. The 51ºÚÁÏÍø position is that the reviewer should be sufficiently close to the job to understand what the postholder does on a day-to-day basis, otherwise it would become an extremely difficult task to check for accuracy in the content. It shouldn't be a two-stage sign-off process though.

Once an application is submitted it will go to a matching panel for assessment, then a consistency panel for a quality check, following which outcome is sent. This can take several months and will be impacted by the volume of applications already received. Regardless of the time it takes, if successful, the outcome will be backdated.

Everyone will have the right to request a review of (appeal) the outcome. This must be done within three months of receiving the outcome. We advise contacting the 51ºÚÁÏÍø as soon as possible after receiving the outcome so we can provide appropriate and timely advice.

Whilst there would be no immediate impact on student nurses, it is anticipated that the review will deliver significant numbers of successful outcomes. This will provide post-qualification opportunities in these areas, recognising that the band 5 role still forms part of their development, and enables easier progression to band 6. Longer term, success in large numbers will fuel the discussion of automatic progression for all nursing posts.

The review of band 5 nursing roles was agreed as part the non-pay elements of the 2023/24 pay deal and is in response to the growth in the role over time as well as significant vacancies across nursing. The 51ºÚÁÏÍø has been able to demonstrate that many band 5 nurses are now working well beyond the levels of clinical expertise, judgement and responsibility that is expected of the in the original band 5 nurse job evaluation profile. During the pay talks, we used this information to secure a commitment to a service wide review of band 5 nursing posts. Historically band 5 nurses have been significantly less successful in even starting a banding review than nurses at other bands.

The review is starting to address baseline pay across nursing which will have a knock-on impact for all other posts. This could result in further collective banding reviews for common posts, where the increase in the baseline has the potential to change bandings. Outside of this, anyone can make an application where their post has undergone significant changes since it was last assessed, including gradual changes over time. The 51ºÚÁÏÍø is working on a program of activity and associated materials to support this work.

You can find helpful guidance and advice here which will help you understand the job evaluation process and gather relevant evidence. 

Staff who were in a Band 5 post as at 1 April 2023, including those who may have subsequently been promoted, may apply for a re-evaluation of their Band 5 role.

The protected learning agreement will come into effect from 1 April 2024, the Scottish government will provide instruction to NHS employers, which will explain how the agreement should work in practice within health boards.   

The implementation will be monitored locally though existing partnership arrangements and nationally by the Scottish Workforce and Governance committee (SWAG).

Despite the delay in receiving approval from Scottish government, the first reduction in the working week began to be implemented from from 1 April 2024. The original implementation plan set out two further 30-minute reductions from 1 April 2025 and 1 April 2026, however, the Scottish government announced in February 2025 a delay to implementation - the working week will now be reduced by one hour from 1 April 2026.  

Annual leave is accrued in days. If your working pattern requires you to take your leave in hours, the number of days is converted to hours by multiplying your annual leave entitlement by the number of hours you work in one day.

For example, for annual leave of 27 days and a 7.5-hour working day, the number of annual leave hours would be 27 x 7.5 = 202.5 hours.

From 1 April 2024, the working day will be 7.4 hours, therefore, any leave calculations will be based this – 27 x 7.4 = 199.8. 

So, although it appears hours are being deducted from the annual leave allocation, but you will be at work for a shorter period of time. This will not impact you financially as your pay will remain the same.

The aim is to reduce the working week to 36 hours by 2026 and so annual leave will be adjusted accordingly.

No, there will be no reduction to your annual salary level it will remain the same despite working less per week, there will be a slight increase in the rate of pay per hour as a result.

All staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions will benefit from the reduced working week. For part-time staff, your working week will be reduced on a pro rata basis.

Part-time staff will be treated consistently in line with those on full-time contracts so will experience a proportionate reduction in hours. If you wish to retain your current number of hours, you should discuss this with your manager.

It is not your manager’s decision – the final decision will be taken at health board level and involve trade unions.

In the limited number of circumstances where services would be adversely affected, staff will be paid for additional hours worked at appropriate excess hours or overtime rates. The use of these short-term payments is only intended to help services put the necessary plans in place to reduce the working week and will be monitored nationally.

Throughout this negotiation, we have taken the view that staff are the experts on rosters and working patterns. Your manager should work with you and your team to identify the best solution. For some staff that might be an early finish on a Friday (or another day of the week). For others it will mean starting a few minutes later or finishing a few minutes earlier every shift. And for others it could mean that they save up the minutes and finish two hours earlier one day in the payroll month. However, the reduction should not be achieved by extending unpaid breaks.

As part of the pay deal from 2023/24 contract hours are to reduce from 37.5 to 36 hour per week by April 2026.

The reduction will be done in steps and at a set point, for example on 1 April 2024 the working week reduced from 37.5 hours to 37 for full time staff. Part time staff experienced a proportionate reduction and in all cases rates of pay per hour increase to ensure no detriment.

Where a staff member choses to request a reduction in working hours on an individual basis the hourly rate of pay will be maintained and when the next agreed planned reduction in full time hours is implemented a proportionate reduction will then be applied to all part time staff.

Yes. This is the first step in reducing the standard working week for staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions across the NHS to 36 hours over three years. Trade unions are working with Scottish government and employers to ensure that this happens by 2026.

This is not appropriate. The reduction in the working week is a health and well-being measure. Extending the working day does not achieve this objective.

Bank shifts are determined by the needs of the service and normally align to the prevailing shift pattern in the clinical area.

The reduction of the normal working week across the NHS means that overtime rates will apply for hours worked beyond 37 per week. So, if you work more than 37 hours in bank shifts in any one week, the additional time will be paid at overtime rates.