Attention all Patient Care Assistants, Emergency Care Assistants and Ambulance Support Crews!

I am pleased to announce the launch of UNISON’s ‘Put Our Banding Right’ campaign.

Following months of planning, gathering evidence and preparation we are pleased to be informing you first about the launch of this important campaign.

NEPTS Patient Care Assistants are under-paid, under-valued and taken for granted. They have been pushed down to band 2 and often work outside of their current role profile. In addition to this staff shortages have directly impacted upon this group. Whilst the job has changed over time the role has not been reviewed for years. UNISON believe this should be re-assessed and banded correctly.

Nationally the Job Evaluation Group has reviewed information as part of the emergency services review and produced three new dispatch profiles (which cover bands 3-5) this is to accommodate the ever-evolving needs of the ambulance service. UNISON believe that EMAS ASC’s and ECA’s fall into the Emergency Services- Ambulance Practitioner band 4 profile and should have their role reassessed.

The aims of our campaign are simple: –

• The NEPTS PCA role has significantly changed over time, a full evaluation must be undertaken locally to determine pay banding.
• The ASC and ECA roles cannot be matched to a national JEG profile, a full evaluation must be undertaken locally to determine pay banding.
• Negotiate any potential claim for backpay.

I am writing to all members who fall into the cohorts involved in this campaign to ask that they complete a short survey as part of our evidence gathering. We intend raising this matter collectively on behalf of our members with the employers. The more surveys we have the more powerful our argument, so please use the following link (research.unison.org.uk/s3/EMAS-Put-Our-Banding-Right) or the below QR code to complete the survey. I also encourage you to speak to other UNISON members and non-members to join our collective action. Finally, I would like to thank you for your continued support, I will be writing to update you again as the campaign progresses.

Kind regards

Stuart Hallowes

EMAS UNISON Branch Secretary