- Conference
- 2015 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 4 December 2014
- Decision
- Carried
At a recent event organised through Clinical Commissioning Groups in Leeds, many NHS stakeholders including health, local authority, third sector and trade unions came together to discuss transforming roles in health and social care through integration.
We were presented with NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.
Amongst other things, this plan laid out the future and vision for the NHS.
NHS England’s vision of the NHS recognises the demand for care is growing rapidly and also there are also new opportunities to be had through new technologies and treatments and new ways to deliver care. This may result in dissolving traditional boundaries in how care is delivered.
The forward view also identifies three main gaps that must be addressed: health and wellbeing gap, care and quality gap and the funding gap, all of which needs to be met through efficiency and investment, new models of care and a radical upgrade in health prevention.
As a result of this five year plan there will be new deals for primary care that will include new funding schemes and investment in infrastructure.
It is planned that there will be an increase in Clinical Commissioning Groups influence over commissioning of services.
Furthermore there will be a need to train more community nurses and other primary care staff. Investment in new roles and the retention of staff will be crucial if the vision is to become a reality.
If these plans are rolled out to their fullest extent there will be huge implications for our members to their ways of working, pay, terms and conditions.
Additionally the delivery of this plan will be played out in a very challenging and changing political landscape post the general election.
However despite working closely with our local employers across community health this was the first we, as local activists knew of this and the first local engagement event with trade unions that we were involved in as without our involvement we cannot hope to influence.
Therefore in order to maintain good partnership working arrangements and open honest dialogues with NHS employers we call upon the Health Service Group Executive to:
1) highlight the presence of NHS England’s Five Year Forward View with health committees and branches;
2) work with all other appropriate bodies to promote and encourage activists to become involved wherever possible with the development and implementation of this plan nationally;
3) work with all relevant national bodies including the NHS Staff Council to raise the need for full trade union involvement and engagement through partnership working in the roll out of this plan;
4) report back to conference in 2016 of the developments and implementation of the five year plan post the general election.