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Mark Parry from Think Associates on "Why your organisation needs a KSF Team!"

As the NHS undergoes re-organisation, we understand that it can be difficult to keep the KSF high on people’s agendas at all levels of your organisation. We spend time making the case in organisations for having dedicated KSF and e-KSF resources and we find that the following arguments work when convincing budget-holders both at local and SHA level! You may like to share these points with whoever makes decisions about resources in your organisation…

Making the case for KSF resources

A dedicated, well-resourced KSF team gives NHS organisations:

Consistency – a central point of expertise and direction regarding KSF process, tasks and quality procedures ensures a consistency of message and approach across the whole organisation. As well as ensuring equality of opportunity and consistent application of the KSF to all staff groups, central resources help you minimise the need for re-working of, for example the creation of Post Outlines and their Areas of Application.

Leadership and Direction –It’s hard for organisations to maintain the motivation to deliver KSF across all staff groups, with everyone having development reviews, creating personal development plans (PDPs) and setting objectives without a single point of direction from dedicated, informed KSF leads. Organisations will benefit from a dedicated KSF champion  highlighting the benefits of  how KSF fits with management processes, and supporting those parts of the organisation that may not see the value of the process. For example, Anne-Louise Ottewell, KSF Lead for South Leicestershire PCT, supports this view that without direction - “many staff don't see the benefit of how KSF fits in with their role and performance”.

Support and Expertise – The KSF leads within an organisation provide the support and consistent messages to encourage staff that the personal development outcomes are worthy of the change from which they are being led. The KSF provides a new language for all staff as to how the new way of appraising and developing staff is different to the old. KSF teams in organisations also have a great wealth of organisational knowledge and expertise, built up over the past 2-4 years of Agenda for Change, which would be hard to recreate if they moved on to new roles. We find that staff members get the confidence and assurance about the processes and why they’re doing it.

Monitoring Data – All organisations within the service have been challenged by the demands, both local and national, for key performance measures to be reported across a wide range of criteria. One of the major contributions of the KSF team can be to set up and manage monitoring processes – not just for Staff Council KSF returns, but also to make the link between KSF data and monitoring of things like Investors in People, IWL Practice Plus, and CNST. It may not be original, , but it’s still true that “what gets measured, gets done”!

Partnership – The Knowledge and Skills Framework, like the rest of the Agenda for Change agreement, is designed to be implemented in partnership with staff-side organisations and groups. A central point of contact and discussion between management-side and staff-side groups can really help the implementation of the KSF, by ensuring that all parties are part of the process, and providing a way to work through issues before they become a problem.

Characteristics of a strong KSF team and project

We find that organisations who are most successful in implementing, and realising the benefits of KSF and e-KSF have strong project managers who are able to see the future benefits that KSF will bring, and can communicate these across the organisation.

Equally, the vision and support from a management board with consensus on the benefits and longevity of the KSF should not be underestimated in providing the KSF Lead role with the necessary mandate to ‘make things happen’.

KSF teams who are able to make links between the KSF and long term HR strategies tend to have most success in securing the support that they need. We are starting to see the KSF moving from “something we have to do as part of Agenda for Change” to “something that underpins, and helps us to measure, all aspects of our people management strategy” – this has to be good for organisations and staff alike, right across the NHS!

In Summary…

During this period of change the importance of dedicated resources with responsibility for the KSF and e-KSF should not be underestimated – both for the initial implementation of KSF, and the ongoing development, effectiveness and efficiency of an organisation’s people management strategy.

Do you have any stories about how you’ve made the case for the KSF in your organisation?
If so, please let us know so that we can share the good news!