Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
8:55 am
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
The Under-Secretary said that the amendments are simple and straightforward, but I am not convinced that that tells the whole story; it glibly passes over what the Government seek to do.
Amendment No. 152 would allow a member of staff to join the staff constituency only if they had an employment contract with the public benefit corporation. That is perfectly reasonable. It is amendment No. 153 that concerns me, because it would restrict membership of the staff constituency to employees who have an employment contract with that corporation that is valid for a year or more. That time scale causes me some concern, because it would potentially disfranchise many staff who have worked for a corporation for what most people would consider to be a reasonable amount of time.
In recent years, as the Under-Secretary knows, staff in the NHS and elsewhere have increasingly been employed on temporary contracts or through agencies. Dr. Beverly Malone at the Royal College of Nursing
has confirmed, and the Under-Secretary will doubtless acknowledge, that the NHS remains heavily reliant on, for example, agency nurses. Latest statistics show that, on the average ward, 10 per cent. of staff are bank and agency nurses. Over the past seven years, NHS spending on agency nurses has increased to the point that, last year, it reached £520 million. That suggests that a significant number of agency nurses are working in the NHS. The amendment would disfranchise and undermine those who, although agency nurses, have a stake in the corporation because they work there—and not just for the odd week or so.