Formal Response to Our Meeting with John HuttonA report of the recent meeting with John Hutton has already been circulated. Below is the text from his formal response. In it he reiterates that for most of the issues we raised, Agenda for Change will resolve them. However there are three issues where he offers some immediate hope: Medical Physics - DoH will remind Trusts that they have the ability to use local pay supplements to address the recruitment and retention problems. This is an open invitation for local reps to engage Trusts. Please notify Rachael Maskell - lead officer for this group - of any progress. Chaplains - We need to ensure that the Advance Letter properly reflects his assurance. Community Nursery Nurses - We have a clear steer that Trusts are not constrained by a rigid interpretation. It will be for local reps to ensure compliance. Any successes please notify our Research Officer Colin Adkins. He also thanks Amicus-MSF members and professional staff for the work we are all doing to further modernisation. "I promised to write to you about some of the issues arising from the current pay round that were raised at our meeting on the 10 April. I found the session with you and your colleagues from Amicus useful & constructive. Let me assure you that the Ministers do appreciate the vital contribution that your members and professional staff generally are making to the modernisation of the National Health Service. The NHS Plan made clear our commitment to fair pay for all NHS staff. In this context it is worth noting that all NHS professional staff whether or not under the remit of the pay review bodies have been offered the same above inflation pay increase for 2002/2003. I hope you will appreciate that in this years pay round we have gone some way to addressing the most often raised problems affecting your members. It has not however been possible to address all the areas we would have liked to. The existing pay system is outdated and clearly in need of reform. You understand that it is neither practical nor affordable to make the further structural changes needed to address the pay anomalies and problems of career progression that you have brought to our attention. These issues can only be properly addressed through Agenda For Change. I know we can look forward to Amicus continuing to play an important part in the pay modernisation negotiations. I explained to you at the meeting that we are not in a position to reopen the pay negotiations after final offers have been made to all of the Whitley Councils. We have made some difficult decisions as to where to target the limited extra resources we had available this year. Our priority has been to address the pay of some of the lowest paid staff working in the NHS particularly the ancillary group and in response to representations by Amicus to give extra help to the lower grades of medical technical officers (MTO). In relation to pathology staff, I note your concerns that the structural changes we made last year to the MLSO grades have squeezed pay differentials and caused some pay anomalies. These problems are perhaps an inevitable result of piecemeal changes made to the grading structures over recent years. You also asked whether we could give further thought to about the creation of senior MLA grade. On balance our judgement is that targeting problems in the MTO grades was a higher priority for this year. I acknowledge that there are issues relating to the fairness & equity of some employers' local "out of hours" arrangements. This is not an issue that can be solved in this pay round but I would stress that our proposals for a new pay system include new arrangements for unsocial hours working that will apply to all staff groups. There are some recruitment and retention issues affecting some of the clinical scientists specialties including medical physicists. I appreciate that physicists are a highly skilled and specialised group of staff vital to the implementation of our cancer strategy. Our strategy for healthcare scientists "Making the Change" acknowledges that our workforce information on some of the smaller scientific groups could be improved. The new Workforce Developments Confederations will have a key role to ensure that planning for the scientific groups is fully integrated into the wider workforce planning policies. Under the current pay system we cannot however single out medical physicists from other clinical scientists but we will take steps to remind employers that they are able to use local pay supplements to address particular recruitment and retention problems. It is somewhat anomalous that part time hospital chaplains are not formally under the remit of the national pay negotiations. There are historical reasons for this and now is not the time to extend the scope of the Whitley Councils. It is the case however that, as a result of the Part-time Workers Regulations, all part time employees should be provided with pro rata pay and conditions comparable to full time staff. I will ask officials if there is an opportunity to include reference to this in the Chaplains Advance Letter. Finally, you raised an issue concerning nursery nurses and the extra increment available to nursing support staff who obtain NVQ qualifications. The Nurses & Midwives Advance Letter precisely reflected the recommendation of the Pay Review Body. There are however a number of qualifications that may be equivalent to Care NVQs and local employers are free to take these into account if they think it appropriate. Thank you once again to you and your colleagues for finding the time to discuss these issues with me. I look forward to an early and complete resolution to this pay round to allow us to put all our efforts into negotiating a new pay system which will benefit both NHS staff & patients.
A report of the recent meeting with John Hutton has already been circulated. Below is the text from his formal response. In it he reiterates that for most of the issues we raised, Agenda for Change will resolve them. However there are three issues where he offers some immediate hope:
Medical Physics - DoH will remind Trusts that they have the ability to use local pay supplements to address the recruitment and retention problems. This is an open invitation for local reps to engage Trusts. Please notify Rachael Maskell - lead officer for this group - of any progress.
Chaplains - We need to ensure that the Advance Letter properly reflects his assurance.
Community Nursery Nurses - We have a clear steer that Trusts are not constrained by a rigid interpretation. It will be for local reps to ensure compliance. Any successes please notify our Research Officer Colin Adkins.
He also thanks Amicus-MSF members and professional staff for the work we are all doing to further modernisation.
"I promised to write to you about some of the issues arising from the current pay round that were raised at our meeting on the 10 April. I found the session with you and your colleagues from Amicus useful & constructive.
Let me assure you that the Ministers do appreciate the vital contribution that your members and professional staff generally are making to the modernisation of the National Health Service. The NHS Plan made clear our commitment to fair pay for all NHS staff. In this context it is worth noting that all NHS professional staff whether or not under the remit of the pay review bodies have been offered the same above inflation pay increase for 2002/2003.
I hope you will appreciate that in this years pay round we have gone some way to addressing the most often raised problems affecting your members. It has not however been possible to address all the areas we would have liked to. The existing pay system is outdated and clearly in need of reform. You understand that it is neither practical nor affordable to make the further structural changes needed to address the pay anomalies and problems of career progression that you have brought to our attention. These issues can only be properly addressed through Agenda For Change. I know we can look forward to Amicus continuing to play an important part in the pay modernisation negotiations.
I explained to you at the meeting that we are not in a position to reopen the pay negotiations after final offers have been made to all of the Whitley Councils. We have made some difficult decisions as to where to target the limited extra resources we had available this year. Our priority has been to address the pay of some of the lowest paid staff working in the NHS particularly the ancillary group and in response to representations by Amicus to give extra help to the lower grades of medical technical officers (MTO).
In relation to pathology staff, I note your concerns that the structural changes we made last year to the MLSO grades have squeezed pay differentials and caused some pay anomalies. These problems are perhaps an inevitable result of piecemeal changes made to the grading structures over recent years. You also asked whether we could give further thought to about the creation of senior MLA grade. On balance our judgement is that targeting problems in the MTO grades was a higher priority for this year. I acknowledge that there are issues relating to the fairness & equity of some employers' local "out of hours" arrangements. This is not an issue that can be solved in this pay round but I would stress that our proposals for a new pay system include new arrangements for unsocial hours working that will apply to all staff groups.
There are some recruitment and retention issues affecting some of the clinical scientists specialties including medical physicists. I appreciate that physicists are a highly skilled and specialised group of staff vital to the implementation of our cancer strategy. Our strategy for healthcare scientists "Making the Change" acknowledges that our workforce information on some of the smaller scientific groups could be improved. The new Workforce Developments Confederations will have a key role to ensure that planning for the scientific groups is fully integrated into the wider workforce planning policies. Under the current pay system we cannot however single out medical physicists from other clinical scientists but we will take steps to remind employers that they are able to use local pay supplements to address particular recruitment and retention problems.
It is somewhat anomalous that part time hospital chaplains are not formally under the remit of the national pay negotiations. There are historical reasons for this and now is not the time to extend the scope of the Whitley Councils. It is the case however that, as a result of the Part-time Workers Regulations, all part time employees should be provided with pro rata pay and conditions comparable to full time staff. I will ask officials if there is an opportunity to include reference to this in the Chaplains Advance Letter.
Finally, you raised an issue concerning nursery nurses and the extra increment available to nursing support staff who obtain NVQ qualifications. The Nurses & Midwives Advance Letter precisely reflected the recommendation of the Pay Review Body. There are however a number of qualifications that may be equivalent to Care NVQs and local employers are free to take these into account if they think it appropriate.
Thank you once again to you and your colleagues for finding the time to discuss these issues with me. I look forward to an early and complete resolution to this pay round to allow us to put all our efforts into negotiating a new pay system which will benefit both NHS staff & patients.
Statement by Tony Blair on 'Breakfast With Frost'Yet again a statement by Tony Blair has been spun out of recognition by the unhelpful media. The full interview with David Frost can be found on the BBC website www.bbc.co.uk. Part of the text has been copied below for your information: David Frost: And in terms of going ahead with your plans and so on, the other thing that people say is that you are, you are planning, in order to speed things up, for greater private involvement in the NHS. Tony Blair: Well, we use the private sector where it helps. So, for example, if there's spare capacity inside the private sector, I don't think that people think it's inconsistent with the National Health Service to say the health service itself will purchase that spare capacity. If we need to attract people in to run some of these dedicated units working around elective surgery, let's do it. If there's spare capacity elsewhere in Europe that we can use, let's use it. Because this is a long term programme of change. I mean we've had, what, three decades of underinvestment in the National Health Service. We've got now to put it right, over time. It does take time. The health service plan was a ten year plan from July 2000 and you know we've got to make sure that we make whatever provision we can from whatever quarter we can to get the service better. David Frost: If you have to take on the unions, are you prepared to do so? Tony Blair: I think in the past few years, I've shown where I have a disagreement with the unions and I believe the national interest requires us to do something they don't want, then I'm perfectly prepared to take people on. But I don't go into it with the attitude that I'm spoiling for a fight with anybody. I think that you will see from the comments made by Unison, which is one of the main unions inside the health service, that they support the reform agenda. Now, true it is that some of the trade unions are very reluctant to have anything to do with the private sector, and that's in some ways for understandable reasons, they feel their members haven't been properly protected when they've been transferred to the private sector, but, you know, the reform programme is there, it's been set out very clearly, we were elected on a programme of invest and reform in the public services and we've got to carry it through, but I'm convinced myself that we will be able to carry this through with people inside the National Health Service basically backing us. David Frost: How much of a risk is this? Everybody's had headlines to that effect, that it's a huge gamble. It's a rather untypical gamble it may be said, because you're making the gamble but it's with our money - that's unusual for a gamble. But how much of a gamble, how much of a risk, how much danger are you in? Because the danger obviously comes from, not the 76 per cent who welcome it, but if the 20 per cent will become 76 per cent if it doesn't work.
Yet again a statement by Tony Blair has been spun out of recognition by the unhelpful media. The full interview with David Frost can be found on the BBC website www.bbc.co.uk. Part of the text has been copied below for your information:
David Frost: And in terms of going ahead with your plans and so on, the other thing that people say is that you are, you are planning, in order to speed things up, for greater private involvement in the NHS.
Tony Blair: Well, we use the private sector where it helps. So, for example, if there's spare capacity inside the private sector, I don't think that people think it's inconsistent with the National Health Service to say the health service itself will purchase that spare capacity. If we need to attract people in to run some of these dedicated units working around elective surgery, let's do it. If there's spare capacity elsewhere in Europe that we can use, let's use it. Because this is a long term programme of change. I mean we've had, what, three decades of underinvestment in the National Health Service. We've got now to put it right, over time. It does take time. The health service plan was a ten year plan from July 2000 and you know we've got to make sure that we make whatever provision we can from whatever quarter we can to get the service better.
David Frost: If you have to take on the unions, are you prepared to do so?
Tony Blair: I think in the past few years, I've shown where I have a disagreement with the unions and I believe the national interest requires us to do something they don't want, then I'm perfectly prepared to take people on. But I don't go into it with the attitude that I'm spoiling for a fight with anybody. I think that you will see from the comments made by Unison, which is one of the main unions inside the health service, that they support the reform agenda. Now, true it is that some of the trade unions are very reluctant to have anything to do with the private sector, and that's in some ways for understandable reasons, they feel their members haven't been properly protected when they've been transferred to the private sector, but, you know, the reform programme is there, it's been set out very clearly, we were elected on a programme of invest and reform in the public services and we've got to carry it through, but I'm convinced myself that we will be able to carry this through with people inside the National Health Service basically backing us.
David Frost: How much of a risk is this? Everybody's had headlines to that effect, that it's a huge gamble. It's a rather untypical gamble it may be said, because you're making the gamble but it's with our money - that's unusual for a gamble. But how much of a gamble, how much of a risk, how much danger are you in? Because the danger obviously comes from, not the 76 per cent who welcome it, but if the 20 per cent will become 76 per cent if it doesn't work.
Alan Milburn to Focus on Recruitment of AHPs & HCSsThis summer a £1 million recruitment campaign will begin to increase the number of allied health professionals (AHPs) working for the NHS. Health secretary Alan Milburn will also hold a summit in June with AHPs and health care scientists (HCSs) to discuss how recruitment and retention can be improved in these fields. Speaking at the Allied Health Professions and Healthcare Scientists National Conference, Mr Milburn emphasised how these health professionals are as vital to the NHS as doctors and nurses. He said: "I wanted to be here today for a simple reason - to acknowledge that the work you do has not always received the attention it deserves and that it is time to put that right. "First we will be increasing training numbers. We have reversed the cuts in training places that took place in some of your professions during the mid-1990s with increases of over one third in healthcare scientist, radiography, occupational therapists and physiotherapist places. "We estimate that over 1,500 more therapists and other health professionals have entered training over these last two years. I am now expecting these numbers to increase by at least a further 1,000 from April this year. "We will want to discuss with leaders and representatives from your professions how we can build on the momentum that is underway in expanding staff numbers. Here a fairer pay deal will play a part. Negotiations on a new pay system have been going well and I am determined to see them through." He said that he expected at least 500 staff who have left the NHS to return in the next year as a result of the summer campaign. Also speaking at the conference, Modernisation Agency director David Fillingham recognised that AHPs and HCSs face enormous challenges to overcome financial pressures and workforce difficulties. He emphasised the support the Department of Health's Modernisation Agency would provide to help tackle these problems in terms of helping spread best practice and investing in training and development. The Department of Health's director of allied health professionals Avril Imison reported on the work which has been carried out in listening to the needs of AHPs and HCSs. She recognised that staff have been crying out for better leadership training opportunities while middle managers need help in balancing roles and responsibilities, developing communication networks and living with uncertainty. Training programmes such as the Leading Empowered Organisations (LEO) course has been set up and will continually be developed to help meet these demands. To find out more about leadership training courses visit www.nhs.uk/modernnhs or call 0845 607 4646.
This summer a £1 million recruitment campaign will begin to increase the number of allied health professionals (AHPs) working for the NHS.
Health secretary Alan Milburn will also hold a summit in June with AHPs and health care scientists (HCSs) to discuss how recruitment and retention can be improved in these fields.
Speaking at the Allied Health Professions and Healthcare Scientists National Conference, Mr Milburn emphasised how these health professionals are as vital to the NHS as doctors and nurses.
He said: "I wanted to be here today for a simple reason - to acknowledge that the work you do has not always received the attention it deserves and that it is time to put that right.
"First we will be increasing training numbers. We have reversed the cuts in training places that took place in some of your professions during the mid-1990s with increases of over one third in healthcare scientist, radiography, occupational therapists and physiotherapist places.
"We estimate that over 1,500 more therapists and other health professionals have entered training over these last two years. I am now expecting these numbers to increase by at least a further 1,000 from April this year.
"We will want to discuss with leaders and representatives from your professions how we can build on the momentum that is underway in expanding staff numbers. Here a fairer pay deal will play a part. Negotiations on a new pay system have been going well and I am determined to see them through."
He said that he expected at least 500 staff who have left the NHS to return in the next year as a result of the summer campaign.
Also speaking at the conference, Modernisation Agency director David Fillingham recognised that AHPs and HCSs face enormous challenges to overcome financial pressures and workforce difficulties. He emphasised the support the Department of Health's Modernisation Agency would provide to help tackle these problems in terms of helping spread best practice and investing in training and development.
The Department of Health's director of allied health professionals Avril Imison reported on the work which has been carried out in listening to the needs of AHPs and HCSs. She recognised that staff have been crying out for better leadership training opportunities while middle managers need help in balancing roles and responsibilities, developing communication networks and living with uncertainty. Training programmes such as the Leading Empowered Organisations (LEO) course has been set up and will continually be developed to help meet these demands.
To find out more about leadership training courses visit www.nhs.uk/modernnhs or call 0845 607 4646.
NHS Reps Courses at Whitehall College
Please note that there are still places available on the NHS 2 course between the 27th - 31st May 2002.
The purpose of this course is to train senior reps who might play a leading role at relevant events.
For further information or to register for the course please contact Education Officer Brian Kelly at Whitehall College on 01279 755677 or by e-mail to Brian.Kelly@amicus-m.org by Friday 3rd May.
Application Forms
Unfortunately the banks demand a real signature for Direct Debit so we are unable to use forms returned electronically.
Please provide a copy of this Reps Direct to all staff in your department, and where we have no reps, with the application form and a reminder from yourself of the importance of joining. Agenda for Change will need staff to avail themselves of the expertise and training Amicus MSF will provide and of course it is likely non members will have no say in a ballot.
This attachment can be accessed directly from the main MSF website at:
www.msf.org.uk/joinus.shtml
Alternatively application forms can still be requested directly from our membership department here at Moreland Street on 020 7505 3000.