Disability discriminination and health workers

This conference is concerned that working conditions for health members are deteriorating and that the use of policies and procedures are being used to the particular detriment of disabled members, eroding both their opportunities for career progression at work and their general living standards. Health employers appear to be failing to meet their employment responsibilities […]

Variable and zero hour contracts and the undermining of Agenda for Change

Conference will be aware that for some time we have seen an increase in zero hours or permanent variable hours contracts within the public sector. Employers within the Northern region have been using variable contracts as a means of compulsory redundancies. NHS Foundation Trusts are not the only ones using using zero hours or variable […]

The hidden cost of cuts undermines equality for women

Conference notes with concern the devastating impact of the cuts in the NHS, and the hidden impact on the earning ability and pensions of women NHS workers. As many as one in three women currently work in the public sector in the UK, and as the majority of both service users and providers, women will […]

Retirement age for ambulance members

Ambulance staff work in uncontrollable and challenging environments. They are often subjected to abuse and injuries undertaking their duties. The Government doesn’t consider ambulance services to be emergency services and describes them as essential services. With the current proposed changes to retirement age this presents a difficult and a seemingly impossible challenge to our members […]

Expose front line staff myth

Whilst Conference acknowledges and supports all the NHS staff who are involved in direct patient/client care and who are traditionally regarded as front line, we reject the government position that they are not affected by the cuts to our NHS with nurses, therapists etc. facing redundancy and service closures constantly. However, we also need to […]

NHS reforms – defending public health

The turn of the millennium is often said to have witnessed a second golden age for Public Health across the UK. In the late 1990s and 2000s new programmes, services and initiatives were commissioned and launched intended to improve the health of our citizens and more directly to reduce the growing health divide between the […]

Any Qualified Provider

Conference is extremely alarmed by the roll out of Any Qualified Provider (AQP). Following experiences with the implementation of the similar Any Willing Provider policy on a West Midlands smoking cessation service, the contract was written in such a way that a number of NHS staff were lawfully made redundant as TUPE did not apply […]

Unfreezing NHS pay

Our members in the NHS are about to enter the second year of a pay freeze imposed as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review presented by the Chancellor in October 2010. This means that for the second year running, the NHS Pay Review Body was given a restricted remit by the Secretary of State […]

Shared services integration

Conference notes the damaging effects to patients and NHS staff through the privatisation of NHS shared services in England. Since 2005, shared services such as finance, accountancy, human resources, payroll and family health services have been contracted out to NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS). NHS SBS is a joint venture between the NHS and […]