How to negotiate a salary (at the top end of banding) in a new NHS job.

[Joyfulincolour]

Are there any HR staff or managers out there who know about this, please?

I've previously worked in the NHS as a band 7 nurse. In total, I've worked in the NHS for 22 years. For the last 8 years I've worked outside of the NHS but in a related role. I'm now returning to the NHS on a band 6 role.

I was verbally offered the job and in the documents from HR, the pay is just listed as the B6 range £35 K - £42K.

How should I word the email asking to be put on £42K, please? (In my current non NHS role, i earn about £3K more than this, so it will be a pay drop). I was told post interview that I was chosen for my knowledge, skills and experience.

Also, will I be entitled to the 10+ years annual leave allowance with me being out of the NHS for a while? (Does this require continuous service)?

Thank you.

Before you think about asking to be put on £42,000, don't you need to clarify the process for how the NHS intends to make a specific offer within the band? I am not an NHS employee but read your post and hope this suggestion is useful.

On your first question, I would prepare a set of bullet points specifying the knowledge, skills and experience you have relevant to the role, mapping these against the job description to show you meet and ideally exceed them. You can use them in a discussion or email as needed. Wording would be along these lines: 'As the bullet points below illustrate, my knowledge, skills and experience meet/exceed all the criteria specified in the job description. I therefore propose that we agree my acceptance of your offer of employment at an annual salary of £42,000.'

The £3,000 salary drop is probably something to keep up your sleeve in case there is resistance to you being paid £42,000.

Sorry I can't help with the continuous service question.

have you accepted? Say you accept but as you have previously been a B7 you want to be paid at the top of B6 and only accept the job based on meeting these conditions.

I had a friend who did something similar and it worked.

@IdaGlossop
doesn’t need to prove anything as was previously employed at a band higher?

Your prevois NHS service does count towards your service.

You just provide evidence of your current salary being higher and state the previous service. They’ll fill in a form that goes to HR who approve it (or not).

@LittleMsSunny presumably then the NHS considers previous employment in a higher band when setting the salary for a lower band job.

Your previous service will count towards A/L entitlement regardless of break. This is written in the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service handbook, which you can find online. You may have to provide evidence of your service if they can't obtain through internal channels.

Pay on appointment is a matter for individual Trusts (I think...I cant remember as don't know the handbook off by heart!) but personally I'd expect it to be taken into account. They will have some sort of local process to consider it...just ask them.

Only if they are directly linked.

A clinical band 7 wouldn’t automatically go to then top of band 6 in project management.

I moved from a 5 to the top of a 4 after a year away. It can be done, I didn't need to ask. The 10 years holiday allowance stays with you for life, it's total service not continuous service (I know because I kept mine).

There is a process for awarding a higher salary. You’ll need to provide evidence and your new HoD will need to sign it off. You’ll get the top of the band as a max though. They won’t be able to exceed that.

I work in NHS Recruitment.

Contact the hiring manager, explain your reasons for wanting to be put straight to the top of the band.

If they approve, they need to inform their Recruitment team / HR so when you're added to the payroll it's done correctly.

If they don't approve you can always ask to be put to the middle grade step so it takes less time for you to reach the top of the band (assuming this would be acceptable to you).

https://www.nhsemployers.org/publications/tchandbook

Holiday is definitely okay - see part 3, Section 12, paragraph 12.4

On the other, technically you should start bottom of the band but you can make accepting conditional on being top of the band and let them put it through the exceptional decision making process their side.

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your responses. Great info as always 😁 I will contact the manager to ask.
Thanks also for the reassurance regarding annual leave. That's one less thing to have to discuss.