NHS - Acting up

[MaryQuant]

Currently work as a band 7 in nhs - several colleagues with similar experience and skills .A band 8 position has come up which several of us would be suitably qualified for however some one has been given the post in an 'acting up' capacity- purely it would appear because she works in the area where the vacancy has arisen and is 'friendly' with one of the seniors.
Post is now advertised but it looks as though the acting up candidate will get the job as effectively she has been doing the job for the last 4 months.
Does anyone know about the legality of 'acting up' ?
To be honest it's not something I would have thought was possible nowadays with agenda for change.

It seems from your description that issue isn't so much the "legality" of acting up (having increased responsibility to current grade and pay) but rather than someone took on the role in an acting up capacity and has now done sufficient over the past 4 months to prove themselves, so is in a more advantageous position to be given the role permanently.

All you can do is apply for the job and see if the interview is fairly conducted.

Do you feel the person was favoured in the first place and got their foot in the door unfairly? Maybe they were just in the right place at the right time and got the department out of a resourcing gap.

The person acting up will have to go through an interview just like anyone else who is offered one. Just because they have been 'acting up' doesn't mean they will get the job either. It could go either way! I have seen it happen where a completely new candidate got the job and the person acting up didn't and returned to their own role.