Catalogue description Ministry of Health and Successors: Whitley Councils for the Health Services (Great Britain): Minutes and Papers

The General Council was set up in 1948 to deal with the rates of pay and conditions of service of staff employed in the newly formed National Health Service. The General Council's main function was to determine conditions of service other than remuneration, which are of general application to all staff in the health service in Great Britain. Responsibility for determining conditions of service and in some instances, rates of pay affecting only staff within a particular field or specialism rested with functional Whitley Councils, of which there were about ten at any one time.

The General Council, Functional Councils and Scottish Council had a specified number of members from the Management Side (representatives of the authorities responsible for the administration of the Health Services), and the Staff Side (representatives of the employees of Authorities and persons in contractual arrangement with Executive Councils).

A new body called the NHS Staff Council was established in 2003 to oversee the operation of the new pay system and to have responsibility for NHS-wide terms and conditions of service. This body replaced the relevant functions of the General Whitley Council and the separate functional Whitley Councils. On 23 November 2004, the NHS Staff Council finally voted through the final version of Agenda for Change, resulting in the publication, in January 2005, of 'An Agenda for Change: NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook', which superseded the Whitley pay system.