If you were in my shoes....

PoGee

The good old nhs pay new staff higher wages if they do a 'management' role. This could be something as simple as filling in the staff annual leave calender, which they are given half a day to fulfill. They rest if the week will be filled with clinical duties that are exactly the same as the pay band lower.
How would you handle this - I've been asked to train the above described fairly newly qualified employee, who is on a higher band. This new employee does have an extra qualification that is not necessarily required for the role but looks good on paper.

goater78

Not sure what the question is here? You’ve been asked to do something so assume your options are (1) do as asked (2) refuse to do it and face the potential consequences (3) leave/retire. 

If you’re close to retirement age this can’t be the first time someone new has come in on a higher grade. Would assumed that would happen quite frequently. 

PoGee

The question is, would you tell them to xiss off?

goater78

PoGee said:

The question is, would you tell them to xiss off?

Only if you were happy to leave. 

Personally I would see it as being quite flattering to be asked to train a new senior member of staff. Shows you’re well respected. 

PoGee

The nhs works backside forward. This is why experienced staff leg it out as soon as they hit retirement age, which is still 60 for most.
'Senior staff' = someone who knows how to use an online diary (nhs HR definition).

BrassicWoman

So learn to use an online diary.

PoGee

BrassicWoman said:

So learn to use an online diary.

You don't understand - they 'make up' these duties to show HR that someone deserves a higher band. Could even be something as simple as counting items in the cupboard. It's a way of getting feet through the door. They may be experts at working an online diary but have naff clinical skills.

Marcon

PoGee said:

The good old nhs pay new staff higher wages if they do a 'management' role. This could be something as simple as filling in the staff annual leave calender, which they are given half a day to fulfill. They rest if the week will be filled with clinical duties that are exactly the same as the pay band lower.
How would you handle this - I've been asked to train the above described fairly newly qualified employee, who is on a higher band. This new employee does have an extra qualification that is not necessarily required for the role but looks good on paper.

Professionally.

whitehartal

It is what it is. Management love "spiel", and if your new colleague has less experience than you but has come in at a higher grade, then I guess you'll just need to accept it and train them as requested, or look for something else and leave.

This behaviour seems to be fairly common across a range of industries. I've seen a primary school teacher increasing their salary by £40k just by taking a 1 day course and selling themselves to a retail bank as a technical expert.

Similarly, I've seen a 21 year-old whose only work experience had been serving sandwiches in Subway join the same bank on a higher salary than someone who'd been doing their role for 30+ years.

MalMonroe

I worked in the NHS for many years and I never heard of senior staff employed on high grades being 'trained' by staff on lower grades or pay scales. I don't even think that's safe practice either. Who is monitoring the training/teaching to ensure it's adequate?

If any staff required training, it was arranged by HR and was not expected to be carried out by employees on lower grades on an informal basis. All training I received was carried out in the special training rooms within the NHS building, including IT training.

If your job description contains details of your obligation to teach or train staff at any level, then that is what you will be expected to do.

If your job description does not contain those details, then you should contact either HR or your union rep or both in order to discuss this matter.  

But you say you have been 'asked' and not 'told', so maybe you could answer with a no?

If all else fails you could try contacting acas, see what they have to say.   https://www.acas.org.uk/contact

I certainly would not (in contrast to goater78, above) feel flattered at all if I were asked to train any new member of staff who was on a higher grade than me, especially if no extra benefits were being offered or my job description did not demand it. But having worked in the NHS I am aware that all staff are on graded scales and I can't really see that you would be asked to train someone on a higher grade than yourself. 

If I were in your shoes, I'd be visiting HR to ask what's going on. Then I'd be contacting my union rep to see what could be done.

All my own thoughts, opinions and experiences of course but I do think that if you've been asked to do that, the NHS is in a far worse state than we thought. And we thought it was bad enough anyway. 

PoGee

Thanks MalMonroe - you've hit the nail on the head. There are some who deserve the higher band as (I'll compare to nursing staff) they are 'nurse practitioners', taking on duties that doctors would normally do. However, the ones who come in and as the above examples show - can work an online diary or can count items within a cupboard, they certainly do not, in my humble opinion. Our team has approximately 45 members of staff over a number of sites. We have a head, 4 deputy heads, around 25 band 7s. The head hardly attends to patients, which is understandable as it's a hefty management role. Why do we need 4 deputy heads? These 4 and the band 7s are all given a minimum of half a day each week to fulfil 'admin duties'. That's 109 hours per week, not attending to patients. My contract says I am required to train junior staff.