How NHS banding is decided and how to challenge it

Every Agenda for Change job is placed in a band by scoring the job, not the person doing it. If you think your band is wrong, you can ask for a review within three months of being told the outcome of a job match or evaluation. A panel of different people looks at it again. After that there is no further appeal against the banding result.

How a job gets its band

The NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook says staff are assigned to a pay band on the basis of job weight, measured by the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme. The scheme scores a job against sixteen factors, such as communication skills, knowledge, responsibility for patient care and working conditions. The total is the job weight, and each band covers a range of weights in England.

Band	Job weight
2	161 to 215
3	216 to 270
4	271 to 325
5	326 to 395
6	396 to 465
7	466 to 539

Bands 8a and above run from 540 up to 765. Pay values for each band are in the Agenda for Change pay bands guide.

Job matching

Most jobs are not scored from scratch. A set of NHS jobs has been evaluated nationally, and the agreed scores are published as national job profiles. A job that matches a profile gets the profile’s band. A job with no matching profile is evaluated locally in partnership between management and staff representatives.

Matching is done by a panel with management and staff-side members, trained in the scheme and in avoiding bias. They work from the job description, person specification and organisation chart, and compare the job with a profile factor by factor. NHS Employers sets out the rules for a match:

• Factor variations can be no more than one level above or below the profile.
• There can be no variations on the knowledge, training and experience factor or the freedom to act factor.
• Variations can apply to no more than five factors.
• The score must not take the job over a band boundary.

A second panel then checks the outcome for consistency, and the job holder receives a letter explaining the proposed band and what to do if they disagree.

Asking for a review

If you or a group of colleagues disagree with a match or evaluation, you can request a review. The request must be made within three months of being notified of the decision. You have to put in writing where you disagree and give evidence for your case. Evidence means what the job actually involves, set against the profile or factor levels you dispute.

The job evaluation handbook says an informal stage before the panel is useful, and it normally consists of a meeting with an HR adviser and a staff-side representative, both trained in the scheme. It can end in several ways, including you understanding the original result or being clearer about what evidence the panel needs. Nobody should be pressured to withdraw. You can ask for your union representative or line manager to attend.

The formal review is held by a new panel, with most members different from the original one. It can confirm the same outcome, confirm a match to a different profile or a different evaluation, or, for matching reviews only, send the job for local evaluation. It can only consider the facts in front of it, so vague dissatisfaction rarely helps.

No appeal against the national profile

The Terms and Conditions handbook is explicit: appeals cannot be made against the evaluation of a nationally profiled post. You can ask for a review on the ground that your job does not match the national profile, but not on the ground that the national profile itself is wrong.

After the review there is no right of appeal beyond the panel. If you can show the process was misapplied, you can raise a local grievance about the process, but not against the matching or banding decision. A remedy for a successful grievance can be a reference to a new matching panel. The general grievance guide covers how to raise one.

When the job has changed

Banding can be revisited without a dispute. If you and your manager agree that the demands of the post have changed significantly, a re-match or re-evaluation is carried out. You need to give your manager either an amended, agreed job description or agreed evidence of which skills and responsibilities have changed.

The whole job is assessed, not just the factors you want raised. The outcome could be the same band, a higher one or a lower one. If the band changes, the change should be backdated to when you and your manager agreed the job had changed. If you and your manager disagree about whether the job has changed significantly, that goes through the local grievance procedure or a local arbitration process, not the review route.

New jobs are different. A post with no one in it is matched or evaluated so a band can be set for recruitment. After a reasonable period, the job description is reviewed, and if it has changed the outcome is reassessed. Any change is normally backdated to the start date of the new job, and it can go up or down.

What to check

• The date you were told the outcome, because the three months run from notification.
• Your job description against the profile or factor wording you think is wrong.
• Whether your manager agrees the job has changed before you ask for a re-match.
• Your trust’s job evaluation policy, which sets the local details such as who sits on panels.
• Whether doing a higher-band job on a temporary basis is better handled through acting up.

A union representative can help prepare a review request. The NHS career progression guide covers the usual routes to a higher band.