The Social Partnership Forum (SPF) is pleased to launch the NHS Staff Passport toolkit at the NHS Employers annual conference: Leading Workforce Thinking 2009 today (3 November 2009). The SPF has been working in partnership on the NHS Staff Passport as a priority to bring clarity and reassurance to staff facing transfer in the NHS.

The toolkit has been designed to provide NHS staff facing transfer with an easy to use, practical guide to the employment standards and rights they can expect when being transferred either to another NHS provider or outside the NHS to a provider who is contracted to offer NHS services.

The NHS Staff Passport also aims to give HR advisors, trade union representatives and managers an online advice tool that they can use to advise staff facing a transfer on the employment standards that they can expect.

Ann Keen, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health Services said: “NHS staff play an essential role not only in delivering quality services but in driving continual improvements in the NHS for patients and the public. Improvements will only be achieved with the commitment, dedication and professionalism of NHS staff which I have been proud to witness whilst working in the NHS, and now in my role as Minister for Health. It is therefore essential that we support staff through times of change to allow them to deliver real improvements for patients.”

Mike Jackson, Senior National Officer Health said: “The Staff Passport ensures that staff are aware of their rights on and following transfer. Knowledge is the key to ensuring those rights are embedded by commissioners and respected by future employers.”

Gill Bellord, Director of Pay, Pensions & Employment Relations said: “For the first time, comprehensive information on transfers is brought together. We are sure that the passport will be welcomed by NHS staff and their employers”

The partnership is made up of NHS trade unions, NHS Employers and the Department of Health.

Notes to editors:

• The Toolkit is available on the SPF’s website here: www.socialpartnershipforum.org.
• The Social Partnership Forum is a partnership between the Department of Health, NHS Employers and NHS Trade Unions to discuss, debate and involve partners in the development and implementation of the workforce implications of policy in the NHS. The SPF ensures high standards of employment practices, providing a streamlined structure for early Employer and Union engagement, leading to effective implementation of policy. .

Contact details:

If you have a media enquiry for NHS Employers please contact the press office:

Andrew Mabey
020 7074 3287or andrew.mabey@nhsemployers.org

Mike Foster
020 7074 3308 or mike.foster@nhsemployers.org