- Conference
- 2024 National Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 6 December 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that NHS Professionals provides temporary clinical and non-clinical staff to the NHS, as bank workers. Originally formed as a national staffing service in 2001, NHSP later became a Special Health Authority. Then in 2008 it was incorporated as a private limited company, owned by the Department of Health and Social Care.
In 2017 UNISON successfully fought alongside the campaign group ‘We own it’ to stop the Tory government privatising NHSP. Retaining it in public ownership was an important victory. Since then, NHSP’s involvement and reach across the NHS appears to have grown but the transparency with which it operates has not. Conference notes that whilst NHSP remains in public ownership and is ‘wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health’, it does not recognise or bargain with trade unions, and information about what happens to its profits is hard to find.
Conference is concerned at the lack of support for internal (Trust operated) banks, as an increasing number of employers are choosing to bring NHS Professionals in to run their banks. The lack of transparency within NHSP, and its refusal to engage with or recognise trade unions, presents a serious challenge to UNISON branches and their ability to negotiate pay rates for bank workers, or represent them on grievance and disciplinary matters.
During 2023, UNISON’s health group executive identified a number of concerns about NHSP, which warrant further examination. These include the lack of published terms and conditions, policies, rights and responsibilities for NHSP bank workers, and lack of access to the NHS pension scheme. It is also concerned about the potential for NHSP staff to be used during periods of industrial action by directly employed NHS staff.
Conference agrees to support a plan of action to have NHS Professionals more clearly recognised and accountable as a part of the NHS. It calls on the Health Service Group Executive to develop a political campaign plan seeking full transparency, public accountability, and trade union recognition within NHSP, with initial scoping actions to include the following:
1. survey UNISON members employed or deployed by NHSP to find out what concerns them and whether they would support a demand for TU recognition and negotiating rights within NHSP.
2. develop a briefing for branches and regions, outlining UNISON’s concerns about NHS Professionals and why greater transparency, public accountability and trade union recognition is an important objective for the union; and providing guidance on how branches can respond where organisations are considering bringing NHSP in
3. use the Freedom of Information Act to submit searching questions to NHS Professionals about its business activities, its finances, and its treatment of staff, and if appropriate, commission a piece of focused research into the business of NHSP.
4. engage with a range of allies and influencers, including Labour’s shadow health team to raise awareness of our concerns about NHS Professionals’ lack of transparency.