- Conference
- 2011 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 29 November 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Conference recognises the misleading publicity by the Government around their commitment to protect front line services in the NHS. We know the NHS is not safe in their hands and cuts to jobs and services, along with increased privatisation will all be a consequence of their policies.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), who along with other Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) are at the forefront of the attack on the NHS.
The NHSBSA was established on 1st October 2005 and became operational on 1st April 2006. Its creation came from a review of ALBs and this review was driven by the goal of freeing up resources for the frontline NHS. Its role was to procure and commission service provision from the independent and private sector in order to achieve economy, operational flexibility and best value for money. At the 2006 Healthcare Conference a motion was raised and carried (as amended) to fight the ‘back door’ privatisation and prevent the Government’s attempt to privatise the whole NHS. UNISON’s support allowed us to win that battle and at the time the Government backed down from privatisation of the NHSBSA.
Already the NHSBSA has seen cuts in 2010/2011 of approx 9%. Current assumptions are of further cuts in the current budget of £116m, reduced by £25m by 2015. To cut further without thought will degrade services.
The NHSBSA touches every part of the NHS. If you access health services or work in the NHS, then the NHSBSA is underpinning that provision by:
•Management of the NHS Pension Scheme in England and Wales which has over 2 million members and receives contributions of over £7 billion per annum.
•Administration of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme (in the UK) processing over 3.5 million EHIC cards this year.
•Provision of NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management services (in England and Wales), which over the last 10 years has successfully detected and investigated circa £70 million of fraud against the NHS.
•Payments to pharmacists (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (circa 800 million for prescription items with payments over £8 billion pa).
•Payments to dentists for work undertaken on NHS contracts (40 million dental forms with payments totalling over £2.5 billion) in England and Wales.
•Provision of management information to over 25,000 registered NHS and DH users on costs and trends in prescribing and dental care in England and Wales and the provision of information to answer Parliamentary Questions.
•Administering a range of help with health costs benefit schemes across the UK, including a low income scheme, medical and maternity exemption schemes, tax credit NHS exemption cards (in the UK) and prescription pre-payment certificates (in England). In total we process over 6 million claims per annum.
•Management of schemes for NHS Student Bursaries and NHS Social Work Bursaries (in England) making payments of over £530 million in respect of over 80,000 registered healthcare and social work professionals.
•Management of the NHS Injury Benefit Scheme (in England and Wales) processing over 24,000 applications since the inception of the Scheme.
•Provision of a range of hosted employment, human resources and financial services, employing around 2,000 staff and administering payments of over £100 million on behalf of various DH teams and programmes.
•Taking on ad hoc duties, such as our award winning Contact Centre being trained and prepared to receive calls to the swine flu line in 2010.
All this for around £2 per head of population per year.
“Over the five year period from 2005-06 to 2009-10, we have realised total revenue savings in excess of £95m.”
The NHSBSA was established to deliver excellence and improved value for money for the taxpayer. When properly examined, time and time again the NHSBSA are found to be operating cost effective services. We match market benchmarks for costs and have even been found to be competitive against off shored outsourced provision. Yet so often the quality, cost effectiveness and agility of in-house provision and service improvement programmes is not adequately considered in a race to privatise – contracts let under commercial confidentially often missing significant elements of services as the professional and dedicated staff being outsourced are excluded from the process. In July 2010 part of the NHSBSA’s IT services were outsourced to Capita. This is only the beginning as the business has made it clear that the direction of travel is outsourcing or joint ventures, as they see this as the only way to make the savings the government requires. Staff that do the day to day functions within the NHSBSA are already realising that outsourcing doesn’t work. Already we find that the model is inappropriate for the change of direction with the new government and that responsive, flexible services are frozen in two year procurements, then five or seven year contracts. However, to management and the Government it is seen as a success because they say it has saved money. This is only because the increased transactional, management and delay costs are ignored.
The NHSBSA provides a range of critical central services to NHS organisations, NHS Contractors, patients and public. Along with other ALBs, we are an essential part of the NHS and Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to:
1) Recognise the NHSBSA and other ALBs as an essential element to the NHS and front line services.
2) Ensure the current attacks are widely publicised and the protection of these services are an integral part of the UNISON campaign to fight NHS cuts.
3) Pressurise the Government to recognise and evaluate in-house cases in terms of value for money rather than an ideological drive to privatise.
4) Challenge the assumption that outsourcing companies waving investment cheques to get contracts, actually deliver on those commitments.
5) Send a clear message of support from this Conference to members in the NHSBSA and other ALBs.
6) Oppose attempts to privatise administrative and clerical members or outsource their duties.