As we’ve discussed before on Practice Index, appraisals are an essential part of your role, and are vital for the development of your team. But what about you? Who appraises the appraiser? Where can Practice Managers turn for help? After all, the NHS constitution requires organisations to provide staff with clear roles and responsibilities, opportunities for

For practice managers, one of the biggest headaches is staffing. Recruiting new staff, retaining existing people, managing salary (and pension) costs and generally ensuring a practice has the right balance of personnel is tough. Then there’s the CQC’s safe staffing agenda to worry about. According to the CQC, Safe, effective staffing is about “having enough

A summary of the HR and H&S updates issued in April 2019. HR Updates Amber alerts Keeping in touch with staff on maternity leave Immigration – Tier 2 threshold reduced to protect NHS Final written warning without investigation Unfair dismissal for misleading an employee during a re-structure Green alerts Leaving the EU and the impact

The forum has been awash recently with threads concerning the management of staff in their probationary period. Why do we have probationary periods? Because with employment you don’t really get to try before you buy! This is the best option you have in that respect. Many people are fantastic at interviews but when they start

In 2011 the compulsory retirement age of 65 was abolished in the UK, following the implementation of the Equality Act 2010. Age is listed as one of the ‘protected characteristics’ and it was deemed to be discriminatory to force a person to retire purely because they’d reached the age of 65. Nowadays employees can continue

Mat Phillips As a practice manager, for many years I’ve longed to compile an all-encompassing Employee Handbook, one that staff can have confidence in and one that backs up the credibility of the practice… and of course me! The reality is that the day job simply gets in the way and the existing handbook, which

A summary of the HR and H&S updates issued in March 2019. HR Updates Red alerts Reminder – payslip changes in April Pensions Auto-enrolment contributions – 6th April 2019 Tax on termination payments – 6th April 2019 Amber alerts Failure to make reasonable adjustments cost a GP practice £45,000 88 year old NHS secretary wins