Thread by @Vish_Sharm

1/ @BMA_Consultants reject proposals for a new clinical excellence award scheme. Find out why here 👇

bma.org.uk/bma-media-cent…

2/ @BMA_Consultants were determined to address the current inequity in the scheme - something that has been shown to contribute to the #GenderPayGap and the #EthnicityPayGap.

3/ @BMA_Consultants secured some improvements:

✅LTFT consultants can get a full award
✅Choose from 3/15 areas of excellence not forced to complete 5/5 that may not fit your scope of practice
✅All consultants engage with the scheme and can achieve a Level 1 award each year

4/ Unfortunately @NHSEngland insisted that the way awards were funded locally had to change. Although the amount spent nationally stayed the same, this resulted in a "postcode lottery" whereby 35 trusts had no funding for new awards and some had large amounts available.

5/ The trusts that had little or no funding for new awards were those with lots of existing CEA holders (more likely to be older, white males). This disadvantaged younger consultants, a greater proportion of whom are women. Bad for #GenderPayGap

6/ There was no national agreement about the assessment and appeal process with @NHSEmployers wanting to leave this to local negotiation. @theBMA believed this needed national agreement to ensure that female and @BMA_BAMEForum consultants were not disadvantaged.

7/ Without this national agreement, @BMA_Consultants were concerned that management locally could grant awards to the "select few" and that this would simply reinforce the inequity in the current scheme.

8/ @NHSEngland refused to allow multi-year awards. With only one off annual awards available, this meant consultants would have to apply every year. This is administratively burdensome for @BMA_Consultants, @NHSEmployers and @NHSProviders especially with the huge NHS backlog

9/ @NHSEmployers instead on @BMA_Consultants to jump through lots of hoops just to be eligible to apply for an award and then refused to guarantee that all the funding would be paid to consultants each year - instead wanting to be able to use "left over funds" for other things

10/ For these reasons (and quite a few more) @BMA_Consultants Committee unanimously felt the proposal was not fit for purpose and rejected the deal with our concerns fed back to @DHSC and @NHSEmployers

11/ Unfortunately the other side were unwilling to address these concerns and further negotiation stalled. @BMA_Consultants remain willing to talk with @DHSC, @NHSEngland and @NHSEmployers but they have indicated that they will instead impose this new award scheme locally

12/ The 2018 agreement on CEAs secured following legal action taken by the @theBMA means that the funding for the scheme is contractually secured and MUST be spent on consultants each year. (@DHSC had threatened to remove this funding in its entirety prior to this legal action).

13/ @theBMA will continue to update its members and support Local Negotiating committees to ensure unfair arrangements are not adopted in local trusts. However, we believe that the best solution remains a national agreement and remain willing to talk to @DHSC and @NHSEmployers