Clinical managers AfC banding
 Radiography managers are increasingly concerned that they may be matched and placed in Band 7, when they should be in Band 8, in common with many other clinical managers in the allied health professions.
The issue arises because some AHP groups have a Band 8 profile, commonly called a Principal Profile. This does not currently apply to radiography and there is a danger that a manager will be matched and banded to the Team Manager profile in Band 7.
If a job has been matched to an incorrect profile, this must be raised with your local rep because it may be grounds for a grievance. It is not a requirement (nor was it an expectation) of the matching process that every job must match to a national profile. However, some members have questioned whether their job was matched to a profile incorrectly.
When considering which profiles to use, the Job Evaluation Handbook provides the following instructions to matching panels. If you have evidence that this process has not been followed, you may have cause to lodge a grievance.
Read the job description person specification and any other job information and the selected national profiles. Identify what appears to be the nearest profile to match first. This must be from the same occupational grouping as the job to be matched.
Compare the profile job statements with the job description, person specification and any other available information, including that provided orally by job group advisers/representatives, for the job to be matched. The available information about the job duties must be consistent with the profile job statement and from the same occupational grouping. If this is not the case, the match should be aborted, another profile sought from the same occupational group or, if no suitable profile is available, the job sent for local evaluation. If the job duties do broadly match, complete the job statement box on the (computerised or paper-based) matching form.
Inconsistencies
There have been examples of obvious ‘sore thumb’ inconsistencies after matching results have been released that have not been picked up during consistency checking. This is particularly obvious where an advanced practitioner/manager has been matched and banded into Band 7, along with the staff that they manage. It is important to check how these matches have been obtained.
‘Non-managing’ Advanced Practitioners will probably have been matched to the national profile Radiographer Advanced. This is an appropriate profile for these staff. If a manager who is also an Advanced Practitioner has been matched to a Band 7 profile it will usually be to either the Team Manager profile, or the Radiographer Advanced profile.
If you have been matched to the Radiographer Advanced profile, it may be possible to argue that you have been matched to an incorrect profile (see above). Depending on individual circumstances, a case could be put forward that the available information for the job is not consistent with the job statement on the profile as the job statement does not make any reference to managerial duties. A grievance could be submitted on the basis that the wrong profile has been used by the matching panel (in breach of the process).
If you have been matched to the Team Manager profile and you clearly undertake the same clinical duties as the Advanced Practitioners that you manage, a clear ‘sore thumb’ inconsistency should have been picked up during consistency checking. The Factor 2 (Skills, Knowledge and Experience) on the Radiographer Advanced profile scores a level 7. On the Team Manager profile, the factor 2 score is level 6. An inconsistency exists because one panel has decided that the level of skills, knowledge, and experience to undertake the same clinical duties does not warrant the same score in factor 2.
This does not apply to ultrasound because there is no difference in the Factor 2 level scores.
What do I do if I think I have grounds for an appeal?
If you have been matched to the Band 7 Team Manager profile, a significant part of your appeal should be concentrated on providing additional information to ‘unmatch’ from this profile. It is a requirement of any match that there are no variances in Factors 2 and 12. If, during an appeal, it can be shown you should score level 7 in Factor 2 you immediately are unable to match to the Team Manager profile.
The Job Evaluation Handbook provides guidance to panels when considering the additional skills, knowledge, and experience required to score level 7 in Factor 2.
The additional specialist knowledge required could consist in part of managerial knowledge, where this is genuinely needed for the job, and there is a requirement to attend management courses or have equivalent managerial experience.
Any appeal should ensure that sufficient weight and consideration is given to managerial responsibilities. Unfortunately, many job descriptions did not outline these responsibilities fully.
Outline what additional knowledge is required to manage your department. Many job descriptions only outlined the recruitment level of knowledge, skills, and experience for a managerial post but this ignores that fact that there will have to be a significant increase in knowledge, skills, and experience in order to undertake the range of duties associated with the job.
The Job Evaluation Handbook states:
The knowledge to be measured is the minimum needed to carry out the full duties of the job to the required standards.
A healthcare professional job, for which the person specification sets out the requirement for the relevant professional qualification, plus knowledge and/or experience in a specified specialist area.
In other cases, however, the person specification may understate the knowledge actually needed to carry out the job because it is set at a recruitment level on the expectation that the rest of the required knowledge will be acquired in-house through on the job training and experience, for example:
Managerial posts for which the recruitment level of knowledge is a number of GCSEs plus a specified period of health service experience, when the actual knowledge required includes the range of administrative procedures used by the team managed plus supervisory/ managerial knowledge or experience.
It may not be appropriate for a person specification for a managerial post to only specify the recruitment level of a post if additional knowledge is required to undertake the full duties of the job.
Preparing an appeal
When preparing an appeal, it is useful to have at hand Job Profiles, the Job Evaluation Handbook and SoR guidance – all of which are available on www.sor-afc.org – and the matching form that details the matching outcome.
Using the resources outlined above, go through each of the 16 factors and come up with any comments that ‘could’ increase your score. It will become obvious as you are doing this that there will be some factors for which there are no reasonable arguments. These can be discarded from your appeal. You will be left with maybe three or four strong and coherent arguments that will form the basis of your appeal submission. It is useful to be aware of any template that is required for your appeal as these can differ from employer to employer.
Outcomes that you are looking for include:
- Changing the scores of Factor 2 – this creates a no-match to the profile as you must have an exact match in this factor.
- Changing the scores of Factor 12 – this may create a no-match as above but if not may accrue sufficient points to take you over the points range for Band 7 and create a ‘no-match’ situation.
- Accumulating sufficient additional points to take you over the points range for Band 7 and creating a ‘no-match’ situation.
If your appeal is successful and there is no longer a match to the original profile, panels can either attempt to match to a different profile or send the post for local job evaluation.
What’s the difference between an appeal and a grievance?
- A grievance is submitted where it is felt that the process has been misapplied. One outcome of a grievance could be that the process is restarted correcting any errors in the previous process.
- An appeal is where you believe that the original matching panel have not given sufficient weight or consideration to particular elements of your job and you believe that you should have scored higher in one or more of the factors.
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