The page seems to have vanished from the DOH site. Here it is:
 

Under the Articles and Bye-laws of the British Medical Association the
Central Consultants and Specialists Committee (CCSC), as a Standing
Committee, has full delegated authority to act in relation to all
matters within its terms of reference i.e. "matters affecting those
engaged in consultant and hospital practice". The CCSC therefore has the
exclusive right on behalf of the BMA to negotiate a new contract for
consultants. The UK Health Departments, the BMA and the NHS
Confederation have agreed the following framework for a new NHS
consultants' contract.

The new contract is designed to provide a much more effective system of
planning and timetabling consultants' duties and activities for the NHS.
For NHS employers, this will mean the ability to manage consultants'
time in ways that best meet local service needs and priorities. For
consultants, it will mean greater transparency about the commitments
expected of them by the NHS and greater clarity over the support that
they need from employers to make the maximum effective contribution to
improving patient services. The new system of job planning is described
in Part 1 of this document.

In line with the same principles, the parties to the talks have agreed
that a more effective approach to planning consultants' time can be
achieved by moving towards a new system of programming activities in
units of typically four hours each, with a full-time consultant's
working week made up of ten such programmed activities. This framework
will typically allow around seven of a consultant's programmed
activities to be devoted to direct clinical care and around three to
supporting professional activities. This new structure for the
consultants' working week is set out in Part 2.

The parties to the talks have agreed that there should be an increase in
average career earnings for consultants, linked to a new system to
ensure that pay progression is based on consistently meeting job plan
requirements, making best endeavours to achieve agreed individual
objectives and demonstrating commitment to the NHS. The new system of
pay progression described in Part 3 will introduce a new starting salary
of £63,000 for consultants, followed by a stepped scale of 'pay
thresholds' leading to a maximum salary of £85,250.

The current system does not consistently recognise the emergency work
that consultants undertake for the NHS as a result of on-call duties.
Nor does it recognise the different levels of disruption associated with
different frequencies of on-call rota. Part 4 of this document describes
new, more consistent systems for recognising on-call duties.

In line with the Government aim of facilitating extended service
provision in evenings and at weekends, the new contract will recognise
on an equal basis work undertaken during daytime and evenings (on
weekdays) and on weekend mornings. There will be special arrangements,
described in Part 5, for recognising flexible working patterns that
include out-of-hours work outside these times.

The new contract is specifically designed to enable NHS employers to
arrange extra consultant activity on a planned basis and at normal
sessional rates, in preference to the ad hoc arrangements and premium
payments made for some current initiatives. To support the aim of
securing extra programmed activities in this way, the new contract will
embody the principle that consultants should be expected to work at all
times towards the most efficient and effective use of NHS resources and
that they should be prepared to make available to the NHS (in preference
to any other
organisations) the first portion of any spare capacity that they have.
Part 6 sets out a new system to give effect to these principles.

Part 7 of this document sets out a new approach to managing the
relationship between private practice and NHS commitments, based on the
principle that an NHS consultant's commitment to the NHS must take
priority over any work undertaken for other organisations. This approach
will be embodied in a new set of binding contractual provisions,
designed to ensure that there can be no real or perceived conflicts of
interest between private and NHS work. In addition, consultants in the
first seven years of their career will be asked to make available to the
NHS (in preference to other organisations) the first two sessions' worth
on average per week of any spare professional capacity that they have,
so that the NHS can have exclusive access to up to 48 hours per week of
a consultant's time where this capacity exists. 

Part 8 describes in outline agreed plans for implementation of the new
contract. In order to ensure a smooth transition to the new contract, to
manage the build-up of investment costs, and to ensure that there is no
unexpected impact on service capacity and continuity, there will be a
phased approach to introducing some elements of the new contract.
Guidance will be drawn up to support implementation, and this guidance
will be able to address the different conditions which exist across the
UK, particularly in the devolved administrations. These transitional
arrangements, including the provisions for assimilation of existing
consultants onto the new pay thresholds, are described in Part 9. In
order to promote underlying stability in pay during this transitional
period, the parties to the talks have also agreed to make joint
recommendations to the Doctors' and Dentists' Pay Review Body on the
general pay awards that should be made to consultants in the three years
from April 2003.

The new consultant contract described in this document is designed to
complement the new clinical excellence award scheme (see Part 10) that
will replace discretionary points and distinction awards in England and
Wales and a new system for disciplinary arrangements in England (see
Part 11). Good progress has been made in discussions on these parallel
reforms. The BMA and the Health Departments have agreed that these talks
should be concluded as soon as possible, with a view to having
arrangements agreed before the new contract is implemented. 

The CCSC will now consult on the framework as set out in this document.
In parallel, discussions will continue on the clinical excellence award
scheme and disciplinary arrangements and on the detailed provisions,
terms and conditions of service and guidance needed for implementation,
all of which will need to be completed before implementation begins. The
new contract will be implemented on 1 April 2003.

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Download the Framework in PDF format. 

 Consultant Contract: Framework
(File size: 140kb)

 Consultant Contract: Framework Annexes
(File size: 157kb)

September 2002
 Joint DH/BMA Letter 24 Sept 2002 

 Explanatory Note to the Consultant Contract Framework document agreed
between the Department of Health and the BMA 

Ready Reckoner for consultant salaries under the proposed new contract
Download in Excel Format

August 2002
Consultant contract letter

June 2002
Consultant contract letter



  

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Rowland Cottingham 
Consultant in Emergency Medicine
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust