Regional Pay (NHS)

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Andrew George

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mr Bradshaw]

The tariff is a separate issue, but that was an interesting intervention, because, for the first time, we had a Conservative MP actually speaking out in favour of regional pay in the NHS. That is not Government policy, and in all the correspondence that I have had from Ministers, they have denied that it is. At least the hon. Gentleman is one of the few MPs in the south-west who has the courage to be honest and to say that he supports it. He is almost alone; I have not spoken to a single other Conservative or Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who supports this policy. I hope, as I said earlier, that those who do not support it will have the courage of their convictions, stand up for the west country for once and vote for the Labour motion in the main Chamber later.

As I was saying, there will be an exodus of staff to other regions and to hospitals in our region that are not part of the cartel. Between May 2010 and 2012, the south-west suffered the biggest reduction—3.54%—in qualified nurses of any region in England, and the situation is set to get worse. However, the impact will be felt not just on the health service. The south-west of England already has the biggest gap of any region in England between housing costs and wages. A reduction in public sector pay in our region of just 1%—of course, the reductions that we are talking about are much bigger—would suck £140 million out of the south-west economy, at a time when we need more, not less, demand in our economy.

I acknowledge, as do the unions and staff organisations, that there may be a case for changes to Agenda for Change. The NHS—this is partly a response to the point made by the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Oliver Colvile)—is, after all, having to cope with the huge costs of the Government’s disastrous reorganisation of the health service, combined with its tightest-ever funding. However, the answer is to deal with these issues in national talks, in the usual way, and not to allow these parallel plans to proceed, threatening to derail national discussions and making a sensible agreement at national level less likely.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I would be grateful if the right hon. Gentleman clarified whether he supported the previous Government’s introduction of regional pay in the Courts Service or the freedoms that they gave foundation trusts, which enabled this very cartel to be established?

[Mr Bradshaw]

I am afraid the hon. Gentleman is wrong: the FT legislation allows FTs to pay wages that are as good as, or better than, those under Agenda for Change, so the claim often made by Liberal Democrats, who feel very uncomfortable being part of a Government who support regional pay in the NHS, is wrong. The FT legislation is quite clear: FT hospitals must pay rates as good as or higher than those under Agenda for Change. The hon. Gentleman’s point is completely irrelevant to our discussion.

In their answers to me so far, the current Health Secretary and his predecessor have tried to hide behind the very flexibility argument that the hon. Gentleman has just made—that flexibilities already exist in Agenda for Change—and they have declined to intervene. Yes, there are flexibilities in Agenda for Change to allow for local market conditions, but that is not what we are talking about. What we have here is an explicit—those involved have made it explicit—walking away from Agenda for Change, with the wholesale adoption of a regional and regionally negotiated pay structure, which, incidentally, takes no account of the different market conditions in, say, Cornwall and Wiltshire.

I know, as a former health Minister, that all it would take is a simple word from the Minister here today, and this madness could be stopped. Will she undertake to Members to intervene and make it clear to the 20 trusts involved that the Government do not support regional pay and that they should rejoin the national pay negotiation process under Agenda for Change? If she will not do that, she needs to explain why—and, please, no flannel about the NHS trusts being autonomous. She has been a Parliamentary Private Secretary and then a Minister for long enough to know that all she needs to do is speak to Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, or to the estimable chief executive of the southern region, Sir Ian Carruthers, and they would stop what is happening. If she will not intervene, she also needs to explain why she is prepared to continue to inflict damage on south-west NHS staff morale and destabilise the national pay negotiations.

If what is happening was thought up in the Department as a clever ruse to get the national talks kick-started, or to try to wring more concessions out of the staff side, it has backfired disastrously. There is a sensible way through, which the Minister has the power to achieve: to agree changes to Agenda for Change at the national level. The alternative is continuing uncertainty, long-term damage to staff morale and a wholly irresponsible risk to patient safety and the quality of care in the south-west of England.

Regional Pay (NHS)

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Andrew George

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andrew George]

If the hon. Gentleman really believes that, and the motion does say that the Government should intervene, is he aware that his Government gave foundation trusts such freedoms that in fact the Government cannot intervene?

[Mr Bradshaw]

Of course they can.

[Andrew George]

They cannot.