NHS Wholly Owned Subsidiary Companies Debate
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Mike Hill
Main Page: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)Department Debates - View all Mike Hill's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
NHS Wholly Owned Subsidiary Companies
Mike Hill Excerpts(6 years, 9 months ago)
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Liz Twist
I most certainly do agree, and I will expand on that point shortly.
I want to speak about the impact on staff—some of the same staff we have all been praising in recent days for turning up to work in the snow and coping when we have the only too frequent crises. They are an integral part of the NHS team, as the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) said, making it possible for nursing and medical staff and other allied health professionals to do their bit in caring for patients.
On transfer to a wholly owned subsidiary company, staff already employed by the trust will be transferred on their existing terms and conditions. That is, on “Agenda for Change” terms and conditions and pay rates, negotiated nationally and checked to ensure equal pay for work of equal value. They will retain their membership of the NHS pension scheme and a set of decent terms and conditions applying to all NHS staff. The main way that trusts can make savings through these companies is by employing new staff on different, and worse, terms and conditions.
Mike Hill (Hartlepool) (Lab)
On the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) about North Tees and Hartlepool Solutions, as the LLP is called, does my hon. Friend agree that its immediate intention to introduce worse terms for new starters sets a dangerous precedent?