6.21 Retention of Employment applies to support staff in five areas: catering, portering, security, domestics and laundry. The model will be used in all major hospital PFIs in the advanced stages of procurement. Three pilots of Retention of Employment have been initiated, at Stoke Mandeville, Havering and Roehampton hospitals. The contract for the Walsgrave hospital PFI, which includes Retention of Employment, has now been signed.
6.22 Staff covered by Retention of Employment remain employed by the NHS, and benefit from NHS terms and conditions and pension entitlements. Under the scope of the contract, they are then seconded to the private sector joint venture. New joiners also become NHS employees, seconded to the joint venture. Typically, this means that around 80 per cent of a PFI hospital's staff will remain NHS employees. In order to ensure the effective management of PFI hospitals, risk-bearing supervisory staff are not covered by Retention of Employment, and are employed by the private sector.