Health Minister Announces £500k Partnership Fund To Support Staff Development, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 07 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PST

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A new fund to promote and develop partnership working between employers and trades unions will be announced today by Health Minister Ann Keen.

Speaking at the NHS Employers conference in Birmingham today, the Minister will launch 'The Partnership Fund', which will offer employers and unions in the NHS a chance to bid for support to help develop local partnership working.

Constructive joint working can help deliver improved patient services. This builds on the work done by the Social Partnership Forum (SPF) at national level, which has improved working relationships between the Department, NHS Employers and the trade unions.

It is anticipated that this fund could be used in a number of ways such as joint training sessions and workshops where employers and trade unions can develop local agreements about how they can work together to have a positive impact on NHS services.

Health Minister Ann Keen said: "I want staff to feel supported and actively engaged in the organisation in which they work. Employers and unions working constructively together can make a real difference to the improvement of quality workplaces. This partnership approach will improve the quality of service that we offer our patients and ensure that workforce implications are considered."

The national Social Partnership Forum was re-launched in February last year and has already engaged trade unions and employers on important policy development issues such as World Class Commissioning, the NHS Constitution and the Next Stage Review.

Karen Jennings, UNISON Head of Health and Staff Side Chair of the Social Partnership Forum, said: "Partnership working brings benefits to both staff and employers and, in the NHS, most importantly to patients. In workplaces where union's and managers work together, staff have improved working conditions and practises, they have greater access to training and development and managers communicate better with their staff. In the NHS these benefits have the potential to improve patient care, so UNISON is pleased to see the introduction of the new partnership fund. Staff in the NHS are currently facing huge changes to the way they work, so trade unions and trust managers need more than ever to work in partnership, to make sure these changes deliver better patient care, based on local needs."

The Partnership Fund will deliver on the commitment made in the draft NHS Constitution Handbook to co-fund trust to develop local partnerships. The fund's principles will be developed jointly by the Department of Health, NHS Employers, SHAs and NHS Trades Union. Learning from local projects should be made widely available to other NHS organisations to spread learning and good practice. Ann Keen is chair of the national Social Partnership Forum. The SPF has developed highly effective working relationships on the workforce implications of policy since its re-launch in February 2007.

Department of Health , UK