- Conference
- 2011 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 2 December 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Ambulance services will be at the forefront of the preventative health treatment agenda and branches will need to be able to support members working in new and untested areas of provision – from paramedics using new prescribing powers; to control and dispatch staff advising on care pathways; and planned care staff being moved across to new organisational forms.
Ambulance branches work within an environment where employers are – like other NHS organisations – facing cost pressures; changes to funding arrangements and structural changes and are reacting to this by increasingly co-ordinating their activities and improving their ability to share information. It is important that the union is able to actively engage with ambulance employers through all relevant channels, but also that we equip ourselves to share information and keep up with the constant set of challenges facing our members working in the service. The sector has, over the last year, developed a UK-wide work programme to complement the negotiating and development priorities within ambulance branches. This will hopefully enable us to better engage with the employers at national and local level on a range of important issues such as:
• 111 pilot monitoring and rollout
• Use of community responders and other ‘volunteer’ services
• Common scope of practice for existing and emerging roles and the ‘upskilling’ required to develop the workforce
• Extension of the role of the private sector, particularly in areas such as PTS, cleaning and make ready services
Ambulance branches are typically an area of high density within our membership, but it is important that we recognise the levels of competition from other unions. We need to maintain and increase the profile of ambulance staff within our organising and campaigning work and to recognise the diversity of roles within our ambulance membership. Emergency crew are an important part of the workforce and of our membership, but so too are other members of the team such as control room staff, cleaners, admin and clerical workers, patient transport staff and maintenance crew.
Over the past few months, suggestions have been made that the emergency response part of ambulance services should be separated off and merged with other 999 response services. Ambulance staff deliver a range of complex healthcare interventions, and Conference urges the Executive to campaign against any separation of the emergency function and to actively promote the role of ambulance services and staff as a vital part of the NHS team.
In order for UNISON to maintain and increase our status as the union for all ambulance staff, Conference calls on the SGE to:
i) Support ambulance branches to recruit and retain members by maintaining and strengthening the profile of ambulance staff in the work of the service group, particularly recognising the diversity of roles within membership in relevant branches;
ii) Campaign against any separation of the emergency function and to actively promote the role of ambulance services and staff as a vital part of the NHS team;
iii) Encourage ambulance branches to work together on the identified issues and share information as appropriate;
iv) Actively engage stewards within the ambulance service in UNISON’s UK-wide ambulance work programme.