Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
9:30 am
Ms Hazel Blears (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (public health), Department of Health; Salford, Labour)
Yes, indeed. I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman. Perhaps it was a little early in the morning to attempt to sail through these amendments. However, it is an indication of the usefulness of the debate in drawing out what we want to achieve as our policy commitments in this case.
One or two other matters have been raised by the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon and by my hon. Friends the Members for Birmingham, Hall Green and for Leigh (Mr. Burnham), particularly in relation to the position of contracted-out staff as a result of private finance initiative contracts. Members know that we have put an end to compulsory competitive tendering. That means that more staff are increasingly providing services directly within the NHS and playing a full part in the organisation.
The second issue is the new, and I hope welcome, development in the PFI programme of the retention of employment schemes. All new PFI schemes ensure that the vast majority of staff are now retained within the NHS family rather than being seconded out to the facilities managers or providers of those other services. Therefore, increasingly, people can retain their NHS employment, their terms and conditions and their pensions—all of which are crucial to them—rather than be contracted out. In the future, that will be a significant benefit for us.
This is one of the first times that we have talked about a real system of industrial democracy, in which people who work for an organisation will have a say in how it is managed, how it is shaped and what its priorities are. Many members of staff and members of trade unions throughout the country will welcome the opportunity to be involved in this way.