[ARCHIVED CONTENT] NHS Employers: Timeline for consultation guidance

This page is provided to support you in managing the employee communication and consultation that will be required to effect the proposed change process resulting from Transforming NHS Ambulance Services (TNHSAS)

In June 2005, Peter Bradley CBE, national ambulance advisor and chief executive of London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, published a review of ambulance services in England, Taking Healthcare to the Patient: Transforming NHS Ambulance Services.

This proposed that ambulance services should improve their strategic and operational capacity to deliver an increasing range of mobile healthcare for patients who need urgent care. One of the 70 recommendations set out in the review proposed that there should be significantly fewer, larger ambulance trusts, so that ambulance trusts would have the infrastructure, capacity and capability necessary to deliver and sustain the changes needed. The review's recommendations were accepted by the Department of Health (DH), subject to consultation on some issues, including configuration.

In December 2005, the DH signalled the onset of local consultations on the plans for the reconfigurations of ambulance trusts. These local consultations, which will run for 14 weeks, are currently taking place and will end on 22 March 2006.

NHS Employers is providing this guidance to support the management of the employee communication and consultation that will be required to effect the proposed change process resulting from Taking Healthcare to the Patient. The change processes are all subject to the outcome of the local consultations currently taking place and final ministerial decisions. However, ambulance trusts need to prepare for the potential impact on staff, should the proposed changes be approved and this guidance will help with the development of plans.

The recommendations in this document give general information intended as a helpful guide that should not be regarded as a complete or authoritative statement of the law. Organisations may want to take independent legal advice as required.

The guidance reflects minimum levels of practice and gives an overview of the timescales for the implementation of staff transfer consultation, and if required, statutory redundancy consultation and notification provisions. The formal process for consultation on staff transfer can begin on 23 March 2006, the day after the local consultations are completed. In managing the staff consultation on transfers, ambulance trusts will need to provide detailed information on each of the potential outcome options for the proposed reconfigurations where this is relevant.

If necessary, employers will also need to be aware of redundancy clauses in individual contracts, as the timetable in this document allows for a maximum of 12-weeks' notice of redundancy. Appropriate arrangements will need to be made for those individuals with contractual redundancy notice entitlements of longer than 12 weeks.

Further guidance and support on employee communication and consultation, in the form of template letters, has been provided to support you further. Comments and questions about this guidance should be emailed to nhsas@nhsemployers.org.

Timetable for ambulance trust employee consultations

2005	December	14 December - local consultation on configuration began.
2006	March	22 March - local consultation on configuration ends. From 23 March and no later than 30 March - The employer must inform headquarters of recognised trade unions/staff representatives: that the consultation is subject to the final decision by Ministers that the transfer is going to/may take place, approximately when, and why the legal, economic and social implications of the transfer for the affected employees whether the employer envisages taking any action in connection with the transfer which will affect employees, and if so, what action is envisaged whether the prospective new employer envisages carrying out any action which will affect the employees, and if so what and within what timescales. No later than 31 March - 90-day formal consultation with staff on transfers starts (based on TUPE). The employer will need to account for the quality of the consultation.
2006	June	No later than 29 June - 90-day consultation with staff on transfer expires.
2006	July	Setup of new Ambulance Trust and staff transfer into new Ambulance Trust
2006	September	No later than 14 September - the employer must inform headquarters of recognised trade unions/staff representatives of the: beginning of a 90-day collective redundancy consultation process where more than 99 potential redundancies are planned reasons for the proposals number and descriptions of the staff affected total number of people employed by the organisation arrangements for managing the redundancy processes the projected redundancies must also be notified to the Department of Trade and Industry. No later than 15 September - 90-day collective redundancy consultation begins for Ambulance Trust staff.
2006	November	No later than 13 November - the employer must inform headquarters of recognised trade unions/staff representatives of the: beginning of a 30 day collective redundancy consultation process where up to 99 potential redundancies are planned reasons for the proposals number and descriptions of the staff affected total number of people employed by the organisation arrangements for managing the redundancy processes The projected redundancies must also be notified to the Department of Trade and Industry. No later than 14 November - 30-day collective redundancy consultation begins for Ambulance Trust staff.
2006	December	No later than 14 December - 30-day and 90-day collective redundancy consultations expire for Ambulance Trust staff.
2007	January	No later than 5 January - 12-weeks' redundancy notice must have been issued to each individual Ambulance Trust staff member affected. Note: redundancy notice periods must be at least one week's notice if employed for between one month and two years, one-week's notice for each year if employed for between two and 12 years, and 12 weeks' notice if employed for 12 years or more. organisations will need to consider the appropriate arrangements and timescales required for individuals with longer redundancy notice terms within their contracts.
2007	March	No later than 31 March - employment guarantee expires for Ambulance Trust staff.

Timeline for consultation guidance

Timetable for ambulance trust employee consultations

Contacts

See also