Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSUnison warning over social enterprises
Nurse entrepreneurs risk shouldering the blame for services that fail in tough financial conditions, Unison head of health Karen Jennings has warned.
The white paper says the government aims to “create the largest social enterprise in the world” by giving NHS staff more opportunities to set up not for profit service providers.
But Ms Jennings said: “This is about devolving responsibility away from the secretary of state at a time when we are going to have the most serious financial cuts across the public sector. It will be the small enterprises who will take the blame [if things go wrong].”
She told Nursing Times setting up a social enterprise in the current financial climate would be a “formidable responsibility”.
“If they start to hit financial difficulties, they will have to cut back on staff numbers and pay, which will have a significant impact on patient care,” she said.
“Anybody entering into a social enterprise now would also need to be absolutely crystal clear that staff have the same pensions and the same terms and conditions as they have in the NHS, or why would staff want to join?”
But Queen’s Nursing Institute director Rosemary Cook said the white paper could also reassure nurses that the government was committed to making social enterprise schemes work.
She said: “Nurses may be encouraged to make the leap if it is clear there is support and if the mechanisms are in place.”
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Readers' comments (4)
mike | 20-Jul-2010 0:32 am
Yet what if social enterprises for Nurses worked? What if Nurse led clinics run along the same principles as a GP surgery actually put Nurses in control?
This has the potential to be a very good thing indeed, we just have to grab it!
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Natalie Jewell | 20-Jul-2010 1:33 am
It's about time nurses stepped up to the plate. Nursing isn't just about caring. It's about leadership from top to bottom. Personal leadership at every level and strong leaders at the top who give firm directions and who know what it's like to have been where nurses have been the past few years.
Too many nurses, when asked at consultation, look the other way and say it's nothing to do with them. The same nurses complain when decisions are made without them.
Come on nurses - show us what you're made of!
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Deirdre Budd | 22-Jul-2010 9:28 am
The way things are going there are going to be many more nurses working in their own field and offering their skills through their own enterprises. We should not be afraid of this.
Unison has failed nurses.
The NHS is crumbling. The tinkering of succesive governments and the paucity of protest by Unison will not be successful in defending it.
The future will most likely consist of a mix of free care and care offered through private enterprise. We either grab this thistle, and develop services ourselves, or we let American Health care providers in to offer systems of care at premuim rates.
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Anonymous | 24-Jul-2010 9:16 pm
Lets be clear, neither Unison, nor RCN are able to prevent social enterprises for going ahead. Despite some early adopters being able to offer AFC terms and conditions, it is very doubtful that staff will go forward with the same term, conditions and pensions, as more and more change. Lets face it, one of the driving motivations is to get rid of government liability for staff and their costs.
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