Appeals procedures

1 The Department has agreed procedures with staff representatives for dealing with differences over the application of the new agreement to their individual pay and terms and conditions of service, including:

• the use of local recruitment and retention premia
• the use of the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and Development Reviews
• the provision of support for training/development
• the progression of staff through pay band gateways Still to be agreed is the application of the unsocial hours system

2 The procedures provide for an employee who wishes to appeal they must first attempt to resolve the issues of concern informally before recourse to these procedures. Therefore, as a first step, the problem should be discussed between the employee and management and, if requested by the employee, a union representative.

3 If during the informal stage it is agreed, after having considered the issues, the matter can be resolved without recourse to the appeal procedure this should be confirmed in writing. This agreement may include a recommendation that the case should be linked with a number of similar cases and dealt with by local review rather than by individual appeal.

4 The informal review should establish in particular whether:

• the issue of concern is not based on incorrect information
• the issue of concern is not based solely on opposition to the clear terms of the agreement
• reasonable attempts have been made to first resolve the issue without recourse to an appeal

5 Appeals may not be lodged more than 6 months after the employee was notified or could otherwise have reasonably been expected to be aware of the decision giving rise to the appeal.

6 Where an appeal proceeds it should commence with a statement in writing from the appellant. The appeal should then be heard using the locally agreed grievance procedure.

7 The decision of the appeal procedure is final and there will be no further levels of appeal.

8 The decision of the appeals procedure does not establish any precedents beyond the Department.

Job Evaluation

9 There are protocols for resolving any disagreements that arise from the procedure for matching jobs against national job evaluation profiles, or from local job evaluations.

10 These protocols include provision for referring the matching decision or local evaluation to a second panel. There is no right of further appeal beyond the second panel.

11 These protocols are set out in the following sections of the Job Evaluation Handbook:

• Job matching procedure against national job evaluation profiles
• National protocol for local job evaluations

12 Decisions in relation to assimilation will be backdated to the effective date of assimilation.

13 Any requests for review of Job Evaluation decisions must be made within 3 months following the date of results being issued.