Band 5 podiatrist query

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I am just looking for some info. I know this is late in the game, but can you tell me what patientd are band 5 podiatrists able to treat in their scope of practice.
A group of us were senior 2s and rebranded a 5, and appealed and still a 5. Combination of reasons this happened, mainly poor advice from managers.
At the minute we are trying to find out what we are 'allowed' to see and why the band 6s are a 6.
We still see patients at high and increased risk, carry out nail surgery etc. Just really seeing if there is an actual written guideline as to what band 5s are allowed to do, We work as lone practitioners in health centres and have an average working experience of 12 years.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

Hi Katherine,

You need to have a look at the Knowledge and Skills Framework. It outlines the knowlege and skills required for each band.

Have a look at this link:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4090843

The link below is another good one. Pages 7 - 15 should tell you what you need to know.

http://www.aop.org.uk/uploads/uploaded_files/frameworkksfaug04.pdf

Hope this is helpful

 

Thanks very much, I will get a good read at this. Its just one of those things, do you make a stand and see only low risk that basic grades should see, or do we carry on being under paid and seeing medium and high risk patients?
We all have the skill and the ability, it was in our training, and our 12+years of experience both NHS and privately. Its just all so demoralising.

 

Dear Katherine.

A few points.

1. Your skill and ability are profoundly irrelevant. Your JD and banding reflects the job the organisation expects you to do, not what you are capable of doing. If you don't like the job, get a different job. If the director of BP has a job as a cleaner he gets paid as a cleaner. If a highly trained podiatrist has a job at band 5, they get paid at band 5.

2. There are two levels of question here. A:, has the JD be appropriately banded and B:, is the work you are being asked to do within your JD. If the answer to either of those questions is no then you need to go down very different roads.

Read your Job description. It should have a description of the level you should be working at. If you are being asked to do things beyond that level you are within your rights to request a meeting with your manager and tell them that you feel you are being asked to do things beyond your JD. Your JD should also contain the KSF dimensions which are fairly unequivocal. If you find that your JD says (for eg) that you should only be following care plans designed by more senior staff, but you are being asked to formulate care plans then you have a good case to say "actually, I'm not doing this any more".

If on the other hand Your JD allows for a higher level of clinical responsibility, then the issue is that it has been incorrectly banded by HR, in which case you (or more likely your ASSR unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of KSF job banding) need to appeal the banding of the JD. That should have been done at the time, I don't know if it can be done retroactively.

Really and truly you're a bit late on this. The time to do this was when it was rebanded. If your ASSR felt it was rebanded wrong then they could and should have appealed at the time. If they NOW reband it it would be tantamount to admitting that they got it wrong first time and you'd have a case to demand back pay. Never happen.

But read your JD. If you're being paid to do a lower level of work then do the lower level of work. You have an obligation to meet your JD, no more and no less.

Really, your ASSR should be telling you all this.

 

Yeah, thanks Robert. We know it is all very late in doing this. We did appeal at the time with very little support and guidance and it came back the same. I unfortunately wasnt in the country at the time as I was in Sunny Aus for a few years (doing a great job!!!).
Our JD are so generic and vague. Although it says things like participate in NS, and biomech (not carry out or perform).
We have been waiting job re evaluation now officially for the past 3 years. We cant stop treating the patients out of our remit until this process is finished because then we wont have a leg to stand on as we would just be seeing low risk patients.
The problem is our ASSR are all paid at a high banding, and theirs would be looked at so they are therefore highly unhelpful toward us.

Thankfully I am starting doing more private work, with the hope that I can reduce hours (an ultimately) get out of the poorly paid post!!!

Thanks for the advice though.