Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
8:55 am
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I have mixed feelings about parts of these amendments, and I wish to take the Minister through those, in what I hope will be seen as a constructive intervention.
I do not have a problem with the idea of restricting the franchise to people who are employed by the hospital. It is reasonable to say that if people choose to work for an agency and hire themselves out to the trusts—perhaps at the higher rates that are available because of the failure of work-force planning in the health service—they should accept that, because they are liable to be employed by various people, and because they want the flexibility of agency work, there will be a downside with regard to the approach that people will take to their long-term commitment to the trust.
I do not deny that that is a valid thing for them to do, but one must accept that choosing to work for an agency specifically means that one does not want to tie oneself, full-time at least, to the trust. Some people work part-time for an agency and are employed by the trust on that basis. My understanding is that they would still qualify for the franchise under these arrangements.