Letter to all consultant clinical academic staff in England
20 October 2003
Dear Colleague,
Consultant contract for clinical academic staff
The ballot on the consultant contract closed today and the result was that an overall majority voted in favour of the contract. In view of this outcome, the BMA has contacted the Department of Health to inform the government that the Association will be accepting this contract for current and future NHS consultants. This is subject to the proviso that current consultants may remain on the old contract indefinitely, if they wish, while retaining the right to transfer to the new contract at any time they choose.
For clinical academic staff, the result of the NHS ballot means that a national agreement can now be reached with the Health Department and university employers on a suitable translation of the NHS contract so that it properly reflects the demands of academic employment. Discussions are largely completed and we hope to be in a position to put the full academic documentation to you very soon.
As you will know, we have gained assurances from the government that funding will be made available to fully support the clinical academic contract. Furthermore I have today written to Professor Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council, to ensure that the backdating arrangements for academic staff are no less favourable than those available to substantive NHS consultants.
Your NHS colleagues have been provided with a standard letter for signalling their intent to sign up to the new contractual arrangements. As the academic documentation and backdating arrangements have yet to be finalised and agreed, the MASC feels it is inappropriate to issue academics with such a letter at the present time. I will of course write to you with further details of how to proceed when the position is clarified.
Should agreement on the academic contract be reached, the key its success or failure will be the job planning process, and because of that, we will be preparing guidance to be sent to you as soon as possible. During the discussions on the Principles document for clinical academic contracts, we alerted the NHS Modernisation Agency to the need to provide support to the university sector to ensure that joint job planning would work effectively. Job planning is likely to be a significant cultural shift for the majority of consultants employed in the higher education sector, but we believe it is a hugely beneficial step forward, and worth getting right. With this in mind, we would encourage you to begin to monitor your current workload in preparation for job planning and I enclose a model diary card for this purpose.
It is regrettable that the clinical academic contract arrangements have been delayed, but we are hopeful that this situation can now be rectified expeditiously and that the full information can be sent to you in the next few weeks.
Yours sincerely
Professor Michael Rees
Chairman
Medical Academic Staff Committee