- Conference
- 2015 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 3 December 2014
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
In 2015, it will be two years since we saw the implementation of this coalition government’s so called reforms to the health service and commissioning arrangements in England. The end of the purchaser / provider split, the end of primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, central services, and health protection agencies.
In their place we now see Clinical Commissioning Groups, Commissioning Support Units, NHS England, Public Health England, Primary Care Services, National Commissioning Boards, Clinical Senates, Strategic Clinical Networks, NHS Trust Development Agency, Care Quality Commission, Monitor, Health Watch England, Health Education England, Citizen Panels, Local NHS Training Boards and the list goes on. More commissioning bodies than we could ever imagine or know what to do with.
All you have to do is Google David Cameron’s “New NHS Bureaucracy” and look at the NHS Structure diagram – it’s unbelievable. Some of these bodies have changed beyond all recognition since April 2013; some will not even exist beyond 2015. But what will exist and will continue to exist into the foreseeable future is the UNISON members who remain working in these areas. UNISON members at all levels and on all pay bands, UNISON members who still pay their subs, UNISON members who still face day-to-day problems at work, UNISON members whose jobs are now more at risk than ever before and most important of all, UNISON members who still need our support and representation.
We know from what our existing stewards working in community health branches tell us, that we can’t always support members effectively in these areas. After all, they have been telling us for over two years that they are under pressure and this is a problem at branch level.
Some health branches are being creative with the way they support their members in commissioning bodies by employing, at a cost to the branch, caseworkers to carry out this representation. However, not all health branches can afford this option and as we face more and more changes to these health organisations, including job losses and outsourcing, health branches will struggle to sustain this way of organising, recruiting and representing its members in the long term. Conference enough is enough – it’s time we dealt with this matter once and for all and put our house in order. We need to be prepared and proactive not reactive.
Conference therefore calls upon the Health Service Group Executive to work with all relevant bodies, including Learning and Organising Services to review existing training materials to ensure they are suitable and fit for purpose when recruiting new workplace contacts activists and representatives – specifically in commissioning bodies and to work with health branches and regional health committees to create and implement training packages that fully equip new stewards and support existing representatives to support their health members working in the “new and constantly changing NHS”.