Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the sixteen criteria each position of employment in the central health service is judged upon.

We have interpreted the hon. Member’s question to refer to pay and employment criteria in the Hospital and Community Health services sector of the National Health Service, for non-medical staff employed on the national collectively agreed Agenda for Change contract.

The Agenda for Change pay bands are underpinned by a Job Evaluation Scheme (JES), developed through collaboration between NHS leaders, trade unions and independent job evaluation experts. The JES is a structured method of comparing job demands and seeks to ensure staff receive equal pay for work of equal value.

The sixteen criteria underpinning the JES are as follows:

- communications and relationship skills;

- knowledge, training and experience;

- analytical and judgemental skills;

- planning and organisational skills;

- physical skills;

- responsibilities for patient/client care;

- responsibilities for human resources;

- responsibilities for information resources;

- responsibilities for research and development;

- freedom to act;

- physical effort;

- mental effort;

- emotional effort; and

- working conditions.