Motion 51 and amendments
Congress believes a healthcare recruitment and retention crisis is threatening NHS staff’s health and wellbeing. With waiting times increasing and patient outcomes worsening, this is also a threat to all workers.
Congress notes that, following decades of underinvestment:
i. there are not enough staff to meet the population’s changing health needs, with 100,000 vacancies now recorded across the NHS
ii. those who are working are doing so under immense pressure, and the intention to leave is growing.
Reality is moving ever further away from the commitment to universal provision laid out in the NHS constitution.
Congress recognises that NHS and healthcare funding are political decisions. Congress calls for:
a. an urgent retention package for NHS staff, with a restorative pay rise for all workers at its heart
b. funding to meet the increasing travel costs of NHS staff, which are largely being met by staff
c. proper career framework structures to retain and develop all registered and non-registered staff
d. strategic workforce planning, including national and regional workforce plans, based on realistic workforce assessments of service delivery plans
e. joined-up government action to guarantee future workforce supply. This should include a halt to government proposals to lower the salary threshold for student loans, extending loans’ repayment periods, and increasing repayment rates. All of which will deter prospective new healthcare students
f. banding outcomes to reflect job content
g. a co-ordinated campaign by all affiliated NHS unions and the TUC to protect members from further erosions of their terms and conditions such as pay, pensions and flexible working.
Congress notes that the Westminster government has now published the pay outcome for NHS staff in England and recognises the anger this has produced among healthcare staff and their trade unions. Congress calls on the General Council to support health unions’ plans to challenge the outcome, including potential industrial action.
Mover: Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Seconder: UNISON
Supporters: Royal College of Midwives; Royal College of Podiatry