New staff standards have been developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, working closely with employers and trade unions, including the PDA Union, through the Social Partnership Forum. They are intended to be implemented locally through partnership working at NHS Employers.
The standards are for NHS staff, employers and leaders, and should be used alongside existing workforce policies and initiatives to support implementation. They will apply to secondary care, which includes acute, mental health, ambulance services and community healthcare.
NHS England’s 10 Year Health Plan committed to developing a new set of staff standards which will outline minimum standards for employment across a range of areas, aimed at improving staff experience. The standards set out the actions employers must take to deliver them and what staff can expect at work as a result.
The staff standards focus on some key areas that staff have said matter most at work, including:
- line management
- health and wellbeing
- violence prevention and reduction
- sexual safety
- tackling racism
- flexible working.
The standards are an outcome from the continuous work of NHS unions, including the PDA Union, through the Social Partnership Forum and Staff Council. Unions working with governments and NHS employers in tripartite discussions to improve working conditions for NHS employees, including pharmacists.
Learn more
- An overview explaining why the staff standards have been introduced, how they will be used and what each standard means in practice NHS staff standards: overview and summaries
- The full staff standards, setting out the detailed requirements for employers NHS staff standards: detailed requirements for employers
- Other PDA articles relating to NHS employed pharmacists
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