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IWL accreditation

  • Last modified date:
    9 February 2007

The NHS Plan introduced the Standard which makes it clear that every member of staff in the NHS is entitled to work in an organisation which can demonstrate its commitment to more flexible working conditions which gives staff more control over their own time. The Standard also requires NHS employers to prove that they are investing in improving diversity and tackling discrimination and harassment. Improving Working Lives aims to support organisational cultural change to embed good HR practices at the heart of service delivery, and is an integral part of Pillar 1 of the HR in the NHS Plan.

Targets

The NHS Plan stated that all NHS employers would be assessed against performance targets including the Improving Working Lives Standard, and that by April 2003 NHS organisations would be expected to be accredited for putting the Standard into practice.

There are 3 stages to achieving the Standard:

  • Pledge, which requires organisations to put in place the policies, procedures and plans to achieve accreditation.
  • Practice stage requires organisations to provide a portfolio of evidence over a wide range of policies and procedures that show they are improving the working lives of staff. This stage does allow some leeway, and organisations can be accredited even if they do not have these policies and procedures in place for all staff, as long as they have action plans to continue to make improvements in all aspects of HR practices.
  • Practice Plus means achievement in all staff groups across the whole organisation and is awarded once all the gaps have been remedied.

All organisations will be required by reach Practice Plus status by 31st March 2006.

Assessment and Accreditation

A kite-marking system was developed in 2001 to accredit NHS organisations against the Standard. Organisations have to demonstrate that the Standard is being achieved and how it is making a difference to staff. Trained assessors drawn from the service and the Department and including staff representatives visit organisations, take feedback from staff and assess the evidence provided across a range of common criteria.

The IWL National Audit Instrument (NAI), which is a toolkit designed to help both the people assessing organisations against the IWL Standard, and the organisation itself to self assess and identify any development areas, defines a corporate mechanism for the assessment and accreditation process. Internal assessors have been trained against a national training programme to ensure the mutual understanding of the indicators used. This NAI provides organisations with a practical list of HR indicators, which help NHS organisations focus on good HR practice, enables them to their benchmark their HR practices, and gives them a direction for further HR development. 

A revised version of the NAI - the IWL Practice Plus National Audit Instrument has been produced following the evaluation of the Practice Plus pilots. This audit instrument (published June 2004) is designed to support a system of organisational self-assessment and peer review for the achievement of Improving Working Lives Practice Plus accreditation. Also included in the audit instrument is a CD-ROM including hints and tips, good practice guides and national templates to support both NHS Organisations undertaking internal self-assessment as they work towards Practice Plus accreditation, and the Practice Plus Validation Teams involved in the moderation and accreditation process.

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