Band7 NHS - had enough, want to change to Band3 admin role

[CalmaLlamaDown]

I’m 55 and been working in the same NHS dept for 34 years.

Workload unsustainable and new management toxic. I’m being ‘managed out’ despite having no performance or HR issues ever.

Currently signed off sick for 4 weeks. No way I can go back, I am devastated my NHS career could end like this. I don’t want to retire this early, I like working!

Been looking at NHS admin jobs, but would anyone employ a 55 year old woman who had only ever done one job?

I have lots of admin skills in my current role but no typing or admin qualifications.

Please could someone recommend a course I could do, eg NVQ3 in admin, and a reliable provider?

I have a colleague who did this. She's so happy now. You don't actually need to evidence the typing qualification if you have a degree (she found this) just tick the box to say you have it and then explain you have admin experience when you get offered the job to recruitment. They won't turn you down if you've got the job.

Just put all your transferable skills in the personal skills bit and make sure you really look at the person specification and match up the skills you have to what they want.

Good luck x

I'm a band 4 admin and don't have any nvqs. I have lots of admin experience, so that's what I have. You will have admin experience from your roles. There is still stress at lower levels. Don't think we sit and don't have management breathing down our necks, stressed patients and high work loads.

Thank you DrivingHome and MumofOne

That’s really helpful to know my skills would be transferable and I wouldn’t necessarily need to take NVQs etc before applying for a different job,

I’m not expecting an easy ride as a band 3 admin - will have to make sure my supporting statement makes that clear..

I want to be busy and useful but I can no longer stand the toxic one-upmanship of my new line management structure!

Urgh I’m so upset, I really thought I would work in my current team until I retired.

Look at local government jobs as well, often a better culture and reasonable pay.

Yes I would agree with this.

Are there no other band 7 roles you can apply for instead? If you have over 30 years service in the nhs, you will have a good number of years in the final salary pension scheme. Will going down to a band 3 for your remaining years of work not impact that quite significantly?

I left a civil service management role at 52 and took an NHS Band 3 admin job.
My experience and skills were recognised without actually having NVQs.
It was interesting to have no staff and no responsibility and to observe the quality of NHS management!
All I would say is you need to be prepared to be treated as an idiot and never to make suggestions of how to improve anything. Colleagues can be toxic at any level. I worked with two women in a small office who hated each other, fortunately I mediated and kept the peace but it wasn't a nice atmosphere.. Line managers were terrified of them and hopelessly unable to manage staff.

You will definitely have transferrable administration and management skills, so it may not be that you have to drop bands so significantly just to work non clinically or in a different team.

I would double check what @Spacecowboys says about final salary pension being affected. You might find it quite refreshing to find another job in education or government.

Thanks all!

Re pension - very good point.

I think I can only pay into the NHS Pension at a lower band for another two years, in order to protect this last 12 months, which will almost certainly be my highest earning year (£50k, top of band 7).

I could then take (or defer?)my NHS pension at 57, but hopefully still continue to work.

Is it the pressure of the band 7 role or your team, or your manager?

Could you see a way a band 7 role would still work for you or have you decided no way?

Without being too specific I understand your situation and sadly sometimes you do have to leave for your own sanity. It just sounds like you have done well for so long so its such a shame.

Are you clinical? Can you give more specifics about your role? E.g if you are a physio would finding a b6 role in a new trust be better?

Doing a band 3 role would still have challenges but equally you may find it frustrating as you have worked at a higher level for so long!

Thank you Bookish.

I’ve tried to look at improving the current situation but so much had gone on, I honestly think no-one would believe me if I wrote it all down. I’m a people-pleaser (doormat) and rarely stick up for myself, so it’s karma really.

Last year I applied for a 12 month secondment to a different department, but my manager only authorised me to be released half-time.

It was impossible to keep up and I did not do well with the new role and I am now miles behind with my substantive job. With hindsight, it’s obvious it wouldn’t work, but I was desperate for a change, and it felt relatively risk-free at the time.

Health Visitor?

A different stressful job?!

I loved being a health visitor assistant.

Lots of pros too.

That’s a good point but isn’t it a career average pension now as opposed to final salary? It is in most local government jobs I believe. I only mention that as the benefits are similar and there is quite a lot of movement between the two.

It’s a career average from 2015, and the McCloud ruling means that the years 2015-2022 can actually be moved back into the 1995 scheme as well if members so choose. The 1995 scheme is finally salary. So the op may have close to 30 years in a final salary pension. The retirement age for the 1995 scheme is also 60, with no reduction. So I would advise anyone planning to drop from a band 7 to a band 3 in those circumstances to seek pension advice and check the implications before dropping bands.

Others have covered this. About 10 years ago I moved from a 40k a year job I’d been in for 10 years to band 3 in nhs in a completely different sector. I loved the actual job- was nice to be able to defer to qualified staff and have definite limits to my service. But there are always dheads that will treat you as a ‘band 3’ and make it all a bit crp. And I was beng paid half which was a bit rubbish.

good luck whatever you choose x x. D

You can still find toxic/ineffective nhs management in a band 3 role and be directly affected by this.
Speaking from experience……

it may not make a difference... the Nhs is notorious for toxic management.

What is your profession? I’ve worked in lots of different trusts,community and acute and ended up in the charitable sector (hospice) where u get the benefits of a can do culture as well as still getting nhs pension….really worth doing some networking to see what else is around in your area,wouldn’t a band 6 be worth changing to ? I know it’s going to be dependent on your specific role but honestly when people have stayed put in 1 area for so long they sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees. So I have every sympathy as was once threatened with being managed out on basis of sickness by one of those toxic managers you come across. Being a band 3 doesn’t mean you are avoiding the same cultural issues you just do it on less pay!!!

I second the pension issues - you’ve worked long and hard to earn it, don’t let your current situation screw it all up. I’d also be cautious thinking a band 3 admin role would be less stressful - all the roles in my last team were overstretched and poorly managed, you can be just as overwhelmed with tasks in an unworkable timeframe at band 3 . Our band 3 admins were also the first to pick up calls , the clinicians didn’t have direct lines, so they got all the flack from people angry at inadequate services, frustrated at waiting times etc, whilst we were all out . Have you thought about secondment? Some of our senior clinicians went to NHS England, it would be a total change .

Another one urging caution on the pension front. Do you have scs?, if you do you could take pension at 55 without deductions now and then continue to pay into 2015 pension. Definetly get pension advice

Health visiting assistants do mainly admin but also run weighing clinics alongside hv's at some trusts. If you're currently an RN or RM, clinic is quite a nice way of still using some of those skills. May be a nice job for you.

Just here to give sympathy. I’ve been there. Band 7 can be really tricky. I’ve been surrounded by toxicity in the last year but come through it (mostly because I side stepped and stopped fighting so the bullying band 6 got her promotion and I kept the peace). I have a lovely team now but spent 10 months feeling ill. How did my wonderful job I loved change so quickly? Shit senior management who allowed it and were often part of it. I spoke to hr and I spoke to the director and both suggested I should leave “for my well being”! Er, okay being homeless and not paying my mortgage isn’t ideal either and I was denied a secondment opportunity because they were total arses. Urgh, it makes me so angry and until last year I’d been treated with total respect and received continual praise.
Two things kept me going:

1. it wasn’t about me it would have happened to anyone in that role.
2. dh pointed out - there’s no hr process so they have nothing on my work that’s an issue. I didn’t become rubbish at my job all of a sudden to coincide with new manager.

I’m still in place and thicker skinned. My nice new team know me now and are furious at the previous behaviour. They now have my back and shut down others. I start at 9 am and go home at 5pm. No more long hours for me!

Do you have special class status? You can go now without penalty and take your lump sum. They will go by the best of your last 3 years.
I'm going at 55 in three years and already on countdown to go and do something away from nursing.

@tokesqueen
If OP hasn't got SCS then she might be better taking her pension now at 55 calculated on her Band 7 salary and losing the 25% of her pension that that would entail (going 5 years early).
I'm assuming the vast majority of your 34 years is in the 1995 scheme with NPA 60 that's based on your best of 3 years salary leading up to retirement. You'd be mad to swap to band 3 now without looking at retire and return or similar.

I am 64 and worked almost 40 years in the same civil service department. Had enough of the new digital systems which were being brought in despite not being fit for purpose. Final nail in the coffin was when my office was told we would taking on the work of 5 other offices with no additional staff. I was snapping at work colleagues and family and knew something had to change. I saw an admin job advertised in a small family firm, I thought I would try for it. Applied and got it, no more bureaucracy 😃. I didn't think they would want someone my age, but it was definitely the right decision, I took a slight pay cut but it was worth it. I never thought I would leave the civil service and everyone was shocked when I did. You have transferable skills, everyone uses computers these days. Its not the old typing qualifications etc which are required. What have you to loose.