Clause 18 - General powers
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
5:30 pm
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
This is an interesting debate and one that we have not had properly so far, certainly on the Floor of the House, because the Government's position seems to change regularly. However, there is no doubt that this is a difficult area, because a balance has to be struck between the wish to provide independence for this significant part of the trust's turnover and the need to ensure that there is not what the Government sometimes describe or used to describe as poaching, but now describe as a return to competition instead of collaboration. It is a difficult position. The Liberal Democrats are not opposed on principle to local pay, locally responsive pay and, for what it is worth, the resultant pay inflation that will allow the public sector to compete with the private sector in areas where it needs to.
There is not ideological opposition to local pay as there used to be—in the Labour party as well. To an extent we already have local pay in two ways: first, we have cost of living allowances that differ greatly from one area of the country to another. They are not sensitive enough; they are not adequate, but they are different, which means that take-home pay is different, although it is supposed to monitor living costs. Secondly, in the appointment, recruitment and pay of agency staff there is an unregulated local pay situation where nurses often leave the NHS to get a better deal from trust money through an agency.