HRPOL37 Rostering Policy GROUP WIDE by Provide Community

Rostering Policy

Version: V4

Ratified by: People and Culture Steering Group

Date ratified: 20/07/2022

Job Title of author: Technology Systems Projects Manager / HR Business Partner

Reviewed by Committee or Expert Group People & Culture Steering Group

Equality Impact Assessed by: HR Business Partner

1. Introduction

Provide will achieve the effective management of the Workforce by ensuring safe and appropriate staffing levels for all departments by implementing a rostering policy. This includes protocols and guidelines for consideration when formulating a roster.

An electronic rostering system has been implemented within some services within the Provide Group, and where possible this will be made available, or rolled out, to other Services where appropriate.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

Group

Chief Executive and Provide Board

The Group Chief Executive, within the resources available, carries ultimate responsibility for the implementation of this policy. They will also discharge Provides’ overall duty as an employer, so far as is reasonably practicable, on behalf of the Provide Board.

The Provide Board has a responsibility for the workforce’s wellbeing and ensuring safe staffing levels across the Provide Community. It is responsible for providing leadership, ensuring their decisions reflect the intentions laid down in this policy and monitoring its implementation.

Group Chief Officers have a responsibility with regards to implementing this policy in their directorate.

Directors and Assistant Directors

Responsible to the Group Chief Officers to ensuring organisation wide compliance with this policy. The Assistant Director / Head of Service are accountable for agreeing those individuals who are responsible for producing a department roster and roster administrator(s) within the constraints of the guidelines of this policy, and then approving the roster before final sign-off.

Line Managers

Responsible to the Directors / Assistant Directors for implementing the policy at local level and for ensuring compliance.

All Colleagues

All colleagues are responsible for complying with this policy

3. Protocol

3.1

Roster Responsibility

• The Service Manager is accountable for agreeing those individuals responsible for producing a department roster - roster administrator(s) within the constraints of the guidelines of this policy, and then approving the roster before final sign-off.

• Managers have a responsibility to provide staff access to the authorised roster by ensuring that roster administrators or another designated responsible person adhere to timely roster creation and sign off. Rosters should be published approximately 6 weeks in advance. Where the ERostering system is not in place, the roster administrator(s) must make arrangements for all staff to have access to their working pattern 6 weeks in advance.

• Where the electronic rostering system is implemented, the Manager or another designated responsible person is responsible for ensuring its proper use, and arranging the relevant user training for staff.

• Manager(s) or another designated responsible person should check published rosters monthly to check for equality and effectiveness of roster creation as well as ensuring monthly shift verification for payroll is being completed. This means recording all shifts changes that took place from the original planned roster and verifying those shifts in order for them to be processed electronically for payroll.

• Any changes to a completed roster must be authorised by the manager or another designated responsible person.

• Changes to an agreed roster may be made in order to cover service needs, with the agreement of the staff involved.

• Changes to rosters must be communicated as soon as possible. Provide considers a minimum of one week’s notice to be a reasonable time period to advise of changes to shifts, but Roster administrators should endeavour to seek agreement to any changes, and provide as much notice as possible.

3.2 Staffing Levels

• Clinical services need an agreed level of staffing to ensure safe and effective service delivery. This is achieved by roster administrator(s) for each service undertaking regular reviews of staffing levels in line with the needs of the service, in addition to an annual review.

• Rosters must be designed to provide at least the minimum number of staff needed (of each Band, where clinical services are being delivered) in order

3.3

to provide safe and effective management of patient care or service delivery during each shift.

• Where the minimum number is not achieved (within clinical services), a risk assessment should be undertaken by the Roster administrator and actions taken to resolve the issue, including: -

• Contacting colleagues in similar service areas and identifying if cross cover can be achieved by moving staff with the appropriate skills between service areas.

• Identify if any staff are available to undertake extra hours to support the service and take time back in lieu or be paid for the additional time. It will be the responsibility of the Roster administrator to ensure that staff are not working excessive hours that could render their practice unsafe or induce sickness absence.

• Sourcing Workforce Solutions or Agency staff with the appropriate skills following the guidelines set out in Workforce Solutions Staffing Bank Policy (HRPOL27) and the Engagement of Agency & Contractors Policy (CCPOL01)

Shift Pattern and Duration

• All rosters should be completed in line with the Psychological Wellbeing of Staff Policy and Procedure (HRPOL26).

• To conform with the European Working Time Directives, every shift exceeding six hours must include at least 20 minutes break. This is unpaid but is essential.

Within all areas, standard shift durations should be identified. Standard early and late shifts are typically identified as 7.5 hours duration each (excluding break times), start and finish times can be individualised to each service, recognising the needs of the service.

• Shift time variations used in specified specialist areas must be appropriate to cover service needs. Long day shifts must be no longer than 11.5 hours duration (excluding break times).

• The provision around long day shifts may be reviewed and adjusted subject to individual circumstances

• Long day shifts should not be rostered to staff unless by prior agreement between the employee and the Manager.

• Night shifts (on the wards) should be a maximum of 10 hours in duration (excluding break times), and a maximum of four night shifts per week may be rostered.

• Any hours owing to Provide from regular shift patterns must be accumulated to provide cover for an extra shift. Within electronic roster management this practice is referred to as managing staff Time Balances

For example, on a standard 37.5 week; 1 long day (11.5 hours) and 3 standard shifts (7.5 hours each) = 34 hours per week. Every third week an extra standard shift can be worked to cover service need.

• Time owed in lieu (TOIL), may be recorded for any additional time accrued in excess of 30 minutes of the shift duration. Where the electronic system is available time in lieu owed / taken should be recorded on the system.

• All time owed should be taken when possible within a reasonable time period agreed with the manager. For guidelines on time owed in lieu refer to the Provide Time off in Lieu – Guidance for Staff and Managers.

• All staff must be made aware that they may at times be required to move location temporarily within the organisation to cover unfilled shifts or sickness absence, where their skills are identified as appropriate. This also applies to any staff booked as Temporary Staffing to cover service needs.

3.4 Leave Management

• Annual leave should be managed in accordance with Provide’s Annual Leave Policy (HRPOL24).

• Managers must ensure that all staff using the electronic rostering system have an E-Roster account to enter requests for annual leave and days off.

• The annual leave allowances should be agreed and calculated with consideration to allow flexibility as well as ensuring provision of a continued level of cover which meets the service need. These allowances will be decided by the Clinical Lead.

• Regular reviews of outstanding annual leave for each member of staff should be made by managers to avoid accumulation of untaken leave and also aim to encourage staff to spread their leave across the year, particularly during less busy periods for annual leave.

• Annual leave hours booked must equal the hours of shifts which would have been worked during the annual leave period:

For example, in nursing areas those who work full time night duty in a 4/4/4/3 pattern must take 40 hours annual leave on a four night week and 30 hours annual leave on a three night week.

• Special leave (emergency leave, maternity leave etc.) should be allocated in accordance with Provide’s Special Leave Policy (HRPOL17).

3.5

• Attendance management procedures must be maintained by all members of the workforce in accordance with Attendance Management Policy (HRPOL31).

• For guidance on employees with bank or agency contracts, refer to Second Jobs Working Time and Conflict of Interest: Information and Guidance for Staff and Managers.

• Managers must ensure that all staff are allocated two mandatory study days and any other study days as appropriate. For further guidance refer to CPPD Policy (LDPOL1).

Flexible Working

• Provide recognises that there may be occasions when staff wish to request to work an alternative shift pattern to the regular shift pattern in their department. Managers should refer to Provide’s Flexible Working Policy (HRPOL16) for further guidance.

3.6 Temporary Staffing

• Temporary staff should only be booked in adherence to Provide’s Workforce Solutions Staffing Bank Policy (HRPOL27) and the Engagement of Agency & Contractors Policy (CCPOL01).

4. Policy Implementation Plan

The policy will be placed on the community platform for information.

All staff in each area are to be informed by the Roster administrator of the policy and any changes to be made to the rostering process in line with the policy and guidelines.

5. Monitoring and Review

The manager should review the rosters for each area within their service area regularly to ensure the policy and guidelines are being adhered to; that sickness and absence is effectively monitored, and to ensure that the roster is meeting the service needs as effectively as possible.

This policy will be reviewed at least every 3 years in line with the Policy for the Management of Procedural Documents, or more frequently in line with any requirements relating from legislative changes.

Review will be undertaken by the appropriate service lead in conjunction with a CIPD qualified member of HR, and monitoring will be conducted in respect of policy outcomes by each Assistant Director. The need for improvement or clarification may be identified as lessons learnt, through using the process and where appropriate amendments will be made.

Appendix 1: Guidelines to Effective Rostering

To meet the expectations of the workforce of a fair and equal roster that covers service needs, then these guidelines should be used. Where access to the electronic system is not available, this must be used for roster production and management, not only to meet the above expectations, but also to provide accurate records for staff management and payroll.

A1 Requests

• Provide has a service to deliver and in order to meet this requirement and provide a consistent workforce level, in those areas where a request system is used, requests cannot be guaranteed. In those areas granting of requests will remain at the discretion of the Roster administrator.

• Colleagues will enter requests via E-Roster where the electronic roster system is used and in accordance with the guidance for use. In services that do not currently use E-Roster, local agreements around requests must be agreed in consultation with employees and applied consistently.

• Colleagues should ensure that requests are entered before the cut-off date for roster creation. Roster administrators should ensure that colleagues are aware of the roster period dates – these should be displayed in all employee areas.

• In all departments a fair and recognised number of ‘strong’ requests should be used. This has been agreed and referred to as a maximum of 4 ‘musthaves’ within any 4-week roster period.

• All colleagues in departments using the electronic system must make roster, annual leave and study leave requests through the E-Roster system.

• R-Roster accounts for employees to request Annual Leave in the eRoster system must be requested by the Roster administrator or Service Manager.

• All colleagues must accept responsibility for their own requests and liaise with colleagues if a request swap is desired.

• Requests may be considered by prior consultation with the line manager under special circumstances.

• Any issues relating to requests for childcare or other Improving Working Lives issues, must be dealt with using Provide’s Flexible Working Policy (HRPOL16).

A2 Leave Entitlement

• Fair and equal allocation of annual leave requests should be available to all employees for highly sought after periods such as school holidays and summer months, and public holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Annual leave requests should be considered in line with Provide’s Annual Leave Policy (HRPOL 24).

• Fair and equal allocation of study leave should be available to all employees and requested in accordance with Provide’s CPPD Policy (LDPOL1).

• All employees should be made aware of the procedure for reporting nonattendance for a shift and the implications if this procedure is not followed. For further guidance refer to Provide’s Attendance Management Policy (HRPOL31)

Shift Allocation

• All employees are expected to cover a locally agreed number of early and late, night and weekend shifts, where relevant, during a set period, unless flexible working has been agreed.

• Employees may be expected, under some circumstances, to cover night duty at short notice (less than two weeks) due to the service requirement; this would be through mutual agreement of the line manager and the individual concerned.

• Roster administrators need to have a locally agreed procedure with their employees in the event of changes needing to be made to a roster once it has been available to view. This avoids problems with changes in skill mix and continuity of service provision.

• Employees can change a shift from a completed roster with another colleague only with authorisation from their line manager, the roster administrator or other nominated authorised person. Where applicable within the electronic system this authorisation may be predetermined.

A4 Skill Mix

• The roster should be created using the agreed minimum number for each Band (where relevant) for each shift to ensure adequate skill mix is maintained, as referred to in point 3.2 Staffing Levels above.

• All employees, where appropriate, should have a documented competency for the ability to coordinate or take charge of the department.

Senior Staff / Band 7 Nurses should not be rostered for Bank Holidays, weekend or night shifts unless as a requirement in a specific specialist area or where all other options have been exhausted to ensure safe staffing levels

Appendix 2: Equality Impact Assessment Templates

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE: Stage One; Screening

Name of project/policy/strategy (hereafter referred to as “initiative”):

Rostering Policy

Provide a brief summary (bullet points) of the aims of the initiative and main activities:

• Effective workforce planning to ensure safe and appropriate staffing levels

• Fair and equitable shift allocation

• Standardisation of shift patterns

• Reduce Agency costs where possible through effective workforce planning

Project/Policy Manager: HR Business Partner Date: July 2022

This stage establishes whether a proposed initiative will have an impact from an equality perspective on any particular group of people or community – i.e. on the grounds of race (incl. religion/faith), gender (incl. sexual orientation), age, disability, or whether it is “equality neutral” (i.e. have no effect either positive or negative). In the case of gender, consider whether men and women are affected differently.

Q1. Who will benefit from this initiative? Is there likely to be a positive impact on specific groups/communities (whether or not they are the intended beneficiaries), and if so, how? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”? I.e. will have no particular effect on any group.

Neutral

Q2. Is there likely to be an adverse impact on one or more minority/underrepresented or community groups as a result of this initiative? If so, who may be affected and why?

Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”?

Neutral, HR data is not highlighting that colleagues from minority/underrepresented groups are being disadvantaged in the way they are being rostered than their white colleagues.

However, we will continue to monitor.

Q3. Is the impact of the initiative – whether positive or negative - significant enough to warrant a more detailed assessment (Stage 2 – see guidance)? If not, will there be monitoring and review to assess the impact over a period time? Briefly (bullet points) give reasons for your answer and any steps you are taking to address particular issues, including any consultation with staff or external groups/agencies.

Impact is positive, no further detailed assessment required.

The policy/procedure sets out a consistent approach to be taken with all colleagues.

Review Date: November 2025

Further information:

Useful Websites www.equalityhumanrights.com Website for new Equality agency www.employers-forum.co.uk – Employers forum on disability www.efa.org.uk – Employers forum on age