Common use of Working Week Clause in Contracts

Working Week. (a) The new system for organising a consultant’s working week is described in Annex B. (b) The working week for a full-time consultant will comprise ten programmed activities with a timetabled value of four hours each. The employer may programme these as blocks of four hours or in half-units of two hours each. Employers will schedule programmed activities after discussion with the consultant. (c) There will be flexibility for the precise length of individual programmed activities to vary. Regular and significant differences between timetabled hours and hours worked should be addressed through the mechanism of the job plan review, either at annual review or interim reviews. (d) Programmed activities will be separated into: • ‘direct clinical care’ • ‘supporting professional activities’ • ‘additional NHS responsibilities’ that may be substituted for other work or remunerated separately • ‘other duties’ – external work that can be included in the working week with the employer’s agreement (e) For newly appointed consultants in the first phase of their careers there will typically be a minimum of eight programmed activities for direct clinical care and a minimum of two for supporting professional activities. Beyond this, for full-time consultants, and for all existing consultants, there will typically be a minimum of seven programmed activities for direct clinical care and a minimum of three for supporting professional activities. There will be scope for local variation to take account of individual circumstances and service needs, for example management, research and development, and teaching duties. (f) With the employer’s and consultant’s agreement, specified additional NHS responsibilities, for instance additional work undertaken by clinical governance leads, Caldicott Guardians or Clinical Audit leads, may be included in the working week. The employer and the consultant will work together to manage such additional NHS responsibilities. These responsibilities will be substituted for other activities or remunerated sepa rately by agreement between the consultant and the employer. (g) Certain other external duties, for example inspections for CHI or trade union duties, may also be included in the working week by explicit agreement between consultant and employer. The employer and the consultant will work together to manage such external duties. Where carrying out other duties might affect the performance of direct clinical care duties, a revised programme of activities should be agreed as far in advance as possible. (h) Fee-paying work for other organisations may be undertaken during NHS programmed activities only with the agreement of the employer and (except in certain circumstances agreed by the employer) with any fee remitted to the Trust. There should be no separate fees given for NHS work (e.g. domiciliary visits) undertaken during NHS programmed activities. (i) Consultants will generally be expected to be on site for all programmed activities, but with flexibility for employers to agree off-site working where appropriate. (j) Travelling time between a consultant's main place of work and home or private practice premises will not be regarded as part of programmed activities. Travelling from main base to other NHS sites, travel to and from work for NHS emergencies, and ‘excess travel’ will count as working time. ‘Excess travel’ is defined as time spent travelling between home and a working site other than the consultant’s main place of work, after deducting the time normally spent travelling between home and main place of work. Employers and consultants may need to agree arrangements for dealing with more complex working days. (k) The contract will allow for additional programmed activities to be contracted separately up to the maximum permitted under the Working Time Regulations (or over the maximum 48 hour weekly limit where a consultant has, by written agreement, disapplied the weekly working hours limits), where agreed between employer and consultant.

Working Week. (a) The new system for organising a consultant’s working week is described in Annex B. (b) The working week for a full-time consultant will comprise ten programmed activities with a timetabled value of four hours each. The employer may programme these as blocks of four hours or in half-units of two hours each. Employers will schedule programmed activities after discussion with the consultant. (c) There will be flexibility for the precise length of individual programmed activities to vary. Regular and significant differences between timetabled hours and hours worked should be addressed through the mechanism of the job plan review, either at annual review or interim reviews. (d) Programmed activities will be separated into: • ‘direct clinical care’ • ‘supporting professional activities’ • ‘additional NHS responsibilities’ that may be substituted for other work or remunerated separately • ‘other duties’ – external work that can be included in the working week with the employer’s agreement (e) For newly appointed consultants in the first phase of their careers there will typically be a minimum of eight programmed activities for direct clinical care and a minimum of two for supporting professional activities. Beyond this, for full-time consultants, and for all existing consultants, there will typically be a minimum of seven programmed activities for direct clinical care and a minimum of three for supporting professional activities. There will be scope for local variation to take account of individual circumstances and service needs, for example management, research and development, and teaching duties. (f) With the employer’s and consultant’s agreement, specified additional NHS responsibilities, for instance additional work undertaken by clinical governance leads, Caldicott Guardians or Clinical Audit leads, may be included in the working week. The employer and the consultant will work together to manage such additional NHS responsibilities. These responsibilities will be substituted for other activities or remunerated sepa rately separately by agreement between the consultant and the employer. (g) Certain other external duties, for example inspections for CHI or trade union duties, may also be included in the working week by explicit agreement between consultant and employer. The employer and the consultant will work together to manage such external duties. Where carrying out other duties might affect the performance of direct clinical care duties, a revised programme of activities should be agreed as far in advance as possible. (h) Fee-paying work for other organisations may be undertaken during NHS programmed activities only with the agreement of the employer and (except in certain circumstances agreed by the employer) with any fee remitted to the Trust. There should be no separate fees given for NHS work (e.g. domiciliary visits) undertaken during NHS programmed activities. (i) Consultants will generally be expected to be on site for all programmed activities, but with flexibility for employers to agree off-site working where appropriate. (j) Travelling time between a consultant's main place of work and home or private practice premises will not be regarded as part of programmed activities. Travelling from main base to other NHS sites, travel to and from work for NHS emergencies, and ‘excess travel’ will count as working time. ‘Excess travel’ is defined as time spent travelling between home and a working site other than the consultant’s main place of work, after deducting the time normally spent travelling between home and main place of work. Employers and consultants may need to agree arrangements for dealing with more complex working days. (k) The contract will allow for additional programmed activities to be contracted separately up to the maximum permitted under the Working Time Regulations (or over the maximum 48 hour weekly limit where a consultant has, by written agreement, disapplied the weekly working hours limits), where agreed between employer and consultant.