- Conference
- 2012 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 24 November 2011
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the Tory-led government intends to roll out personal health budgets in England without a robust pilot programme having taken place or assessed.
Initial assessment of the limited data already available suggests that difficulties are occurring.
Conference believes that it is extremely foolish to introduce a system into the NHS without proper testing that has the potential to cause massive turmoil in terms of the funding of patient care and will openly encourage private providers into the market.
Conference calls upon the service group executive to:
1)continue to highlight the potential danger of further fragmentation and privatisation that will result from the roll out of personal health budgets;
2)press for robust and fully tested pilots so that any risks that personal health budgets pose to patient care can be prevented;
3)press for robust minimum standards for providers and employees that are contracted through personal health budgets in order to protect patients as well as staff;
4)work with the Local Government Service Group to draw attention to the fact that the benefits of personalised and self-directed care can be effectively realised without the need for personal budgets;
5)work with other bodies within UNISON to organise the workforce which is affected by the Government’s personalisation agenda;
6)campaign against the potential increased casualisation of the workforce.