Need for flexibility in rewarding staff

Health minister John Hutton announced a
ground-breaking performance-related pay scheme this week, which
will see 320 ancillary staff at a Surrey hospital being offered
£800 each if they meet specific targets at work. Meanwhile,
nine out of 10 visitors to Community Care‘s website said
they wanted to see more flexibility to reward individual
performances at work.

The Surrey hospital scheme is part of a
£1.5m drive being carried out at six NHS hospitals to link
performance with rewards and to provide incentives for other
hospitals to improve.

This week’s question asks: “Is it
realistic to expect no more families to be placed in bed and
breakfast accommodation by 2004, except in an
emergency?”

Last week the government launched its strategy
on homelessness, which includes £35m on developing a range of
alternatives to B&B use by councils in accommodating homeless
people. However, statistics revealed that over 12,000 households
were in B&Bs at the end of 2001.

To vote in this week’s survey, go to www.community-care.co.uk