| Date: Weds 17 April
2013
Involve staff in health and social care integration or watch
reform fail
UNISON today warned that changes to services for the most vulnerable
people must do more to involve staff or watch reform fail.
The public
services union also said that Scottish Government plans to
integrate health and social care services must maintain
democratic accountability.
Speaking at the Scottish Trades Union
Congress Annual Congress in Perth, UNISON Scotland Convener
Lilian Macer listed four
key principles for the STUC General Council to take to
the Scottish Government:
Any attempts to open up the NHS to privatisation
must be stopped; quality services, not cost-cutting must be
a principle of integration;
service users and staff must be at the centre of decision
making; and democratic control is fundamental.
Lilian warned: "Real
change comes when staff and service users work together planning
how services should be delivered.
"All evidence shows that top down reorganisation won’t
produce real integration. The focus must be on joint outcomes –agreed
with local partners and relevant to their local circumstances.
"The
proposals must have at their core the desire to improve services,
not cut costs."
And she blasted proposals for the new Community Health and Social
Care Partnerships, to be run by a single individual – the
Jointly Accountable Officer, responsible for a multi million
pound budget of public money.
Lilian said: "Technically accountable to both the local
authority and the health board the so-called jointly accountable
officer will in reality be accountable to no one."
UNISON has urged the Scottish Government to set in place a broad
staffing framework, based on best practice, to cover a range
of issues when public services are reformed.
These include: staff transfer, pensions, secondment, training
and development, equality duties, governance and procurement – covering
the protections that should prevent setting up a two tier workforce
when services are contracted out.
Notes to Editors
UNISON is Scotland's largest trade union representing
160,000 members working in the public sector.
UNISON’s submission to the Scottish Government consultation
on the integration of adult health and social care in Scotland
is at www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/
IntegrationofAdultHealthandSocialCare_response_Sep2012.pdf
UNISON’s Bargaining Briefing on integration is at www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/b032_BargainingBrief_
IntegrationofAdultHealth+SocialCare_Mar2013.pdf
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