When will I reach the top of my pay band, NHS?

frenchbaguette

Hi, I hope someone can help me understand this, I know it may sound very simple but I'm getting a bit confused by it.
I'm NHS band 7 and started as a band 7 in March 2020. Agenda for Change says that there are 3 steps for band 7. The start is under a year's experience, the middle is 2-5 years and the top is 5+ years. So that means that I should go to the top of band 7 in March 2024? Is that right or would it be March 2025 because it means after 5 years. 
I know this sounds ridiculous a question but I do get so confused with this kind of wording when something says + years. 
You'll be pleased to know that my job does not involve using maths. 

frenchbaguette

Sorry, March 2019 I started, not March 2020

Manxman_in_exile

I'm confused.  You've reached Band 7 in the NHS and you don't know how much experience you have?

This has changed since I worked in the NHS, but I would suggest that 5+ years means what it says - ie more than 5 years.  So only 5 years is not 5+ years, it falls within the 2 - 5 years bracket.  Does that help?

Failing that, ask your union rep, or your manager or your HR "consultant" (or whatever they call themselves these days).

If you've been in the job since March 2020, surely you only need to check your payslip to see what point of band 7 you are on, then you can work out when you will hit the top of the scale?

(If you do that and think you are on the wrong point of Band 7, complain.  Union rep, manager, HR "consultant").

EDIT:  If you started in 2019 and not 2020, then you have an extra 12 months worth of payslips to check against.  Should be simple to check... ?

TELLIT01

The simple answer is "Probably never!".  Pay rises have been minimal for a long time.

getmore4less

I though to climb the bands  in the new system there  were performance and training criteria to hit  no longer auto increments.



AIUI they are outlined part 2 and in annex 23 these days

https://www.nhsemployers.org/publications/tchandbook

Somewhere will be the criteria for your role.

josephine82

It’s 5+ years so if you started March 2019 then in March 2025 you will move to the top of the band. 

😀

MalMonroe

TELLIT01 said:

The simple answer is "Probably never!".  Pay rises have been minimal for a long time.

It depends what role in the NHS is being performed, sadly. Nurses don't seem to be on the same grading bands.

MalMonroe

It will be after March 2024. March 2019 to March 2024 = 5 years, so anything after March 2024 is plus 5 years. (You don't need to contact your union rep/HR consultant to confirm that.)

But as the link that getmore4less has supplied explains, you have to be able to demonstrate continued consistent competency in your job during those 5 years. Just because you will have been there 5+ years doesn't mean you will automatically be at the top of the scale after March 2024. You will have to have proved yourself worthy of each raise along the way.

The problem isn't with your maths, though, is it - I'm afraid to say that it's with your comprehension . . .  which could be a tad worrying depending on the job you have. Seems to me that you will have to keep jumping through hoops all the way until you get to that 5+ year goal, so there will be no opportunity to rest on your laurels. 

TELLIT01

Even in the good old days, pre banking crash never mind pre-covid.  I was in a job where they said I should reach the top of the band in x years.  X years later I was nowhere near the top and asked my boss about it.  His response was that I was now at what would have been well beyond the top of the band when I started.  The band upper and lower limits were increased every year so unless somebody performed out of their skin every year to get massive performance increases, the reality was that the top of the band was virtually unattainable.

Andy_L

TELLIT01 said:

The simple answer is "Probably never!".  Pay rises have been minimal for a long time.

Inflation rises have been minimal. Spine point increases have been happening as normal/per contract

Andy_L

MalMonroe said:

TELLIT01 said:

The simple answer is "Probably never!".  Pay rises have been minimal for a long time.

It depends what role in the NHS is being performed, sadly. Nurses don't seem to be on the same grading bands.

Nurses are on the same Agenda for Change T&Cs as everybody else except for Drs/Dentists