Josie Irwin from the RCN, representing NHS Trade Unions jointly chaired the third national SPF event on behalf of the Social Partnership Forum along with co-chairs Gill Bellord; NHS Employers and Nick Adkin; Department of Health.
Gill welcomed delegates and began by reinforcing the strength and benefits of partnership working by outlining where both the national SPF and regional SPFs had made a difference on key issues. These include:
- reducing hospital acquired infections
- pandemic flu preparedness
- inputting into the Transforming Community Services agenda
- establishment of redeployment networks for displaced staff
- drafting of regional HR frameworks
She acknowledged the real progress achieved by regional SPFs in embedding partnership working and referred to the feedback from the national SPFs visits to regions throughout 2010/11, and asked for reciprocal feedback from the regional SPF chairs.
Before handing over to Josie, she left delegates with a quote from Sarah Pass who had done some work for the Department of Health on partnership working:
‘working together makes good business sense and is essential for companies and industries committed to success. Good employers know that only by valuing people can you boost productivity and encourage innovation.’
Josie Irwin outlined the purpose of the day; firstly to identify the challenges facing partnership working in the NHS during the transition and under the new architecture, and secondly to identify ways of ensuring partnership working remains effective at both a local and regional level moving forward.
Delegates heard presentations by Dr Peter Samuel from Nottingham University Business School on the Scottish and Welsh Partnership Forums. Greg Allen and Sue Orwin from NHS Devon shared their experience of working on the Devon sub-regional cluster model and finally Phil Thompson, UNISON Lead for Health in London told delegates about the London regional model.
Earl Howe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health addressed the delegates. He firstly gave apologies for Simon Burns, who is chair of the national SPF, who was unable to attend because he was required in Parliament to speak on health bill issues. Earl Howe reiterated the government's commitment to partnership working, a sentiment welcomed by everyone at the event, and referred to the full ministerial team's attendance at the June 2010 SPF meeting.
He told delegates that SPF was an exemplar of what the government wanted to see in the NHS with staff and management from different parts of the NHS coming together to decide the best way forward. He said the Government recognised the importance of working in partnership and that by listening to and working with NHS trade unions and employers, it can make sure that policies relating to the NHS workforce can be shaped and implemented to improve the lives of staff and outcomes for patients.
Read Earl Howe's full speech here.
Nic Greenfield, Director of Workforce Policy in the Department of Health summarised the changes set out in the white paper and the Health and Social Care Bill.
In introducing Workshop 1 looking at the challenges facing the NHS and partnership working, Nic identified three main issues for consideration:
- The impact of the loss of SHAs and their command and control function - what happens after 2012?
- Plurality of provision - social enterprises/private sector/the role and attitude of GP Consortia to TUs.
- The risk to partnership working now - don't wait until 2012.
The workshops
Workshop 1 asked delegates to identify three main challenges to partnership working and certain threads came out of the discussions:
- the uncertainty of working with several layers
- the structure of the NHS itself
- the role of HR and the impact of staff cuts
- the ability to build new relationships with GPCCs
- the ability to develop partnership working and sustain existing relationships
- the uncertainty about capacity and experience of all sides
- TU representation in the new structure - will it cope with being stretched?
- the capacity and experience of GPs
- assurance about the commitment to partnership
- the industrial relations climate and likelihood of TUs being in campaigning mode
In summary, Nick Adkin highlighted the following issues arising from Workshop 1:
- the industrial relations climate and how this could change
- how the different voices in the new landscape will be heard
- staff morale is important and can impact on many areas
- national level partnership working - if it's working we need to tell people
- loss of experience in the service and amongst the key players in SPF.
In acknowledging the last point, Nick paid tribute to Mike Jackson, NHS trade unions chair of SPF who had been one of the key driving forces for SPF and who was leaving shortly - his influence and commitment to SPF would be greatly missed.
Workshop 2 asked delegates to consider the possible solutions and new ways of working in partnership moving forward.
Key findings included:
- not losing the connections of current partnership working by taking on too much - consolidate where possible
- the potential for wider engagement (through AWP) on different types of issues
- the need to educate the new providers
- the need to be pro-active
- don't lose sight of the partnership between TUs as well as partnership between TUs and employers - SPF needs to have common position
- to capitalise on Lord Howe's statement that government was committed to partnership. Investigate ways of endorsing that commitment - one example is how partnership working was embedded within the Boorman review
Gill Bellord thanked delegates for their contributions, acknowledging the consensus view that government should in some way officially endorse their commitment to partnership working. She offered to feed this view back at the next SPF Steering Group meeting in May.
Read more on the key themes arising from both workshops here.
Josie Irwin summed up the day
In closing, Josie said she was inspired by the comments and commitment of both speakers and delegates throughout the day - there was a positive buzz listening to discussions at the workshops.
She highlighted two main points taken from Nic Greenfield's presentation:
1. That partnership working was a no-brainer - it's the right thing to do!
2. Reflecting on the attitude of the new ministerial team when they met SPF for the first time in June. They were nervous to start with but soon realised that they had more in common with the trade unions than they might think and that employers had more in common with staff side than they might think too. Commonality of vision and approach is something to hang onto.
It was clear that throughout the day delegates had discussed a lot of issues and come up with a lot of ideas, the challenge now was to translate them into practical actions.