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Unite accuses Barclay of ‘insult’ after suggestion one-off extra payment would have to be linked to productivity increase
Unite, one of the unions involved in talks with Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has described what was put on the table this morning as an “insult” to members.
Unite is one of several unions that represent ambulance workers, and Onay Kasab, its national lead officer, told reporters that the talks had gone “not well” after he emerged from his meeting with Barclay. He went on:
Unfortunately, the government have missed yet another opportunity to put this right. We came here in good faith. What they want to talk about is productivity.
Our members are working 18-hour shifts. How you become more productive with that I do not know.
Today, unfortunately, despite us showing up in good faith, the government have missed yet another opportunity to put this right and what will happen is that a strike action taking place by Unite members, our ambulance workers … [will be taking place on 23 January].
Asked if Barclay had mentioned the possibility of a one-off payment for health staff for the current financial year, Kasab said the union was told that, to justify a payment like this, workers would have to come up with productivity savings. He went on:
That is absolutely ludicrous. This isn’t a factory we’re talking about.
We are talking about people who are working well beyond their contracted hours anyway just to get the job done, because they can’t hand patients over because they care so much.
So for the government to be talking about productivity in return for a [payment] is an insult to every single one of our members.
You all know what’s going on in hospitals at the moment. You all know how hard everybody is working. So today is an insult to our members.
UPDATE: This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.
Fwiw, I’m told that Onay Kasab was not actually in the meeting with Steve Barclay. Unite had a rep there, but it wasn’t him.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 9, 2023
Key events
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Steve Barclay tells MPs that conditions in A&E for some patients and staff have ‘not been acceptable in recent weeks’
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Barclay agreed to discuss lump sum or back pay for NHS workers, say sources
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Talks with education secretary ‘constructive but largely unsatisfactory’, says ASCL school leaders’ union
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Sturgeon says Scottish hospitals will be able to cancel non-urgent operations in response to ‘severe’ pressures
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RMT leader Mick Lynch leaves meeting at DfT refusing to give update and saying further talks planned this week
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NEU teaching union says it made ‘no concrete progress’ in talks on pay and strikes with Gillian Keegan
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Ambulance strike to go ahead as GMB says talks failed to achieve ‘anything substantial’
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Royal College of Nursing says meeting with health secretary about strikes ‘bitterly disappointing’
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Barclay accepts strikes will not be resolved unless health workers offered high pay this year, Unison says
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Train drivers’ union leader plays down prospect of progress after talks at transport department
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Unite accuses Barclay of ‘insult’ after suggestion one-off extra payment would have to be linked to productivity increase
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Teaching union leader says strike talks with Gillian Keegan will fail without ‘new money on table’
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Company with no website or staff has donated £345,000 to Labour MPs, investigation reveals
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Sturgeon says Scottish government to pay for extra beds in care homes to free up space in hospitals
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Sunak sums up his asylum promise as being to ‘stop the boats’
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Sunak refuses to say whether he thinks today’s talks could led to next week’s nurses’ strike being averted
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Sunak does not deny reports No 10 considering one-off payment to end nurses strike
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Linking future pay rises to NHS efficiency reforms shows ‘misunderstanding’ of state of NHS, says RCN
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RCN official says it is ‘unlikely’ today’s talks will lead to strike later this month being called off
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One-off payment ‘unlikely to avert teacher strikes in England and Wales’, says union leader
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Junior doctors very likely to vote for strike, says BMA, as ministers hold meetings with health, education and rail unions
Filters BETA
Barclay is responding to Streeting.
He rejects the claim that the talks today were a failure. He says Sara Gorton from Unison, who is chair of the NHS staff council, said that progress was made at the talks today. (See 1.26pm.)
And, without referring to him by name, he criticises one Unite official, Onay Kasab, for attacking the government’s stance in the talks despite not even being present at the meeting. (See 12.46pm.)
In his response to Steve Barclay, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the disruption caused by the NHS strikes could have been averted if the government had held serious talks on pay. He said today’s talks were an “abysmal failure”.
He said that, after 13 years of Tory government, the NHS was in crisis.
Barclay says the NHS is also implementing plans to reduce pressure on the service in the long term.
He says data technology is being used to identify when patients can be released more quickly.
He says virtual wards, which involve IT being used to monitor patients in their own homes, have “incredible potential”. This will be expanded, he says.
He says the government wants to allow more NHS patients to be treated in the private sector, where capacity is available.
From March community pharmacies will take referrals from emergency settings, he says. But he says he wants to go further and allow them to deliver more services, as they do in Scotland.
He says the government has signed a memorandum of understanding with BioNTech to trial the use of vaccines against cancer from later this year.
And he says the government is reviewing how elderly parents can be cared for so they do not need to be treated in hospital.
Barclay is now summarising the plans announced overnight to speed up the discharge of patients from hospital.
He says £200m is being spent buying up bed space in care homes and elsewhere, so that patients ready to leave hospital can be discharged.
He says money is also being spent expanding capacity in hospitals.
And Care Quality Commission inspections are being cut back, to free up more staff time for dealing with patients, he says.
Steve Barclay tells MPs that conditions in A&E for some patients and staff have ‘not been acceptable in recent weeks’
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, is making a statement to MPs about the winter pressures facing the NHS. He started by accepting that conditions in A&E in recent weeks have “not been acceptable”. He said:
I regret the experience for some patients and staff in emergency care has not been acceptable in recent weeks.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, summoned Iran’s most senior British-based diplomat after Tehran executed two more protesters over the weekend, PA Media reports. PA says Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini were executed by the Iranian authorities over the weekend, prompting widespread international condemnation, including from Pope Francis.
Cleverly said:
Today I have summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires to condemn in the strongest possible terms the abhorrent executions we witnessed over the weekend.
The Iranian regime must end its campaign of brutal repression and start listening to the concerns of its people.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is due to announce plans later this week for NHS physiotherapists to go on strike over pay. Speaking after Steve Barclay’s meeting with the health unions this morning, Elaine Sparkes, assistant director at CSP, said:
Although the meeting was more constructive this time, there is nothing tangible on the table.
As such, we’ll be announcing the first of our strike dates later this week as we continue to push for a fairer deal for our members and their colleagues.
Unions in Scotland’s have responded to Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement about emergency measures for hospitals in Scotland (see 2.57pm) by saying that the Scottish government should never have let the NHS get into this state in the first place.
Wilma Brown, chair of Unison Scotland’s health committee, said:
NHS staff are being pushed to the absolute limit. The first minister’s recognition that staff are working hard and delivering truly excellent care has never been in doubt – but it is simply not enough.
Our patients and staff are not safe in these conditions and they deserve so much better. The Scottish government should never put the country in this situation again. We need a meaningful long-term plan to bring the NHS back to full health which means recruiting more staff now, a significant reform to social care and investment in all health and care staff in Scotland.
And Colin Poolman, the Royal College of Nursing’s Scotland director, said:
Our previous warnings have not been listened to. Thousands of nursing posts are vacant, we’re not seeing the numbers we need applying to study nursing and many experienced staff are so worn down they are opting to leave the profession. The Scottish government and employers must do more to value and retain our existing experienced nursing workforce and to attract the workforce of the future – fair pay is a fundamental part of this.
Barclay agreed to discuss lump sum or back pay for NHS workers, say sources
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has agreed to discuss the possibility of a lump sum payment or backdating pay in order to end NHS strikes, according to multiple sources, though strikes will go ahead for nurses and ambulance staff next week.
Though health unions publicly attacked the talks as disappointing, both union and government sources acknowledged a significant change in approach and that the government would be prepared to ease the pain staff were experiencing because of the cost of living.
Our full story on this is here.
Talks with education secretary ‘constructive but largely unsatisfactory’, says ASCL school leaders’ union
Sally Weale
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), expressed frustration at the lack of progress in union leaders’ meeting with the education secretary. He said:
The meeting was constructive but largely unsatisfactory in that our concerns over the long-term erosion of teacher pay and conditions, the inadequacy of this year’s pay award, and the ongoing teacher recruitment and retention crisis, remain unresolved.
He said the education secretary had promised to look at union submissions to the pay review body for next year’s school teacher pay award, but no progress had been made on this year’s below-inflation award. He went on:
We cannot go on like this. The government missed its target for recruiting trainee secondary teachers by 40% this year, and nearly a third of teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying.
It is increasingly difficult for schools to be able to put teachers in front of classes. Pay and conditions must be improved together with sufficient funding for schools to be able to afford these costs.
We are expecting further talks to take place in the near future, and we sincerely hope that these issues can be resolved through discussion rather than industrial action. However, these talks must lead to a positive outcome.
ASCL is currently considering a formal ballot for strike action, after 54% of eligible members voted in an indicative ballot, with 69% in favour of moving to a formal ballot on strike action over pay and 74% backing a formal ballot on action short of a strike.
Sturgeon says Scottish hospitals will be able to cancel non-urgent operations in response to ‘severe’ pressures
Severin Carrell
Scottish hospitals will be allowed to cancel non-urgent operations and move patients into care homes to help tackle “exceptional and severe” pressures on the NHS, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The first minister said Scotland’s hospitals were “almost completely full” as she unveiled a package of emergency measures to help relieve pressure on emergency rooms and allow hospitals to focus on critical care.
Sturgeon admitted, however, she was pessimistic about the chances of averting a strike by Scottish nurses and midwives later this month, in an ongoing dispute over a pay settlement imposed on NHS staff in December.
The Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives are expected to announce the first strikes in their history shortly, but Sturgeon said her government had no more money to offer them. She said:
We have no more money this year. I think this will be a very, very hard thing to achieve but I am very, very clear about the priority I attach to avoiding industrial action.
She said Scottish NHS staff had been given 7.5% on average, compared to 4.5% in England and Wales, but indicated a fresh offer to improve terms and conditions could be made, with talks on next year’s pay due to start soon.
At a media briefing in Edinburgh, the first minister said:
We anticipated and planned for this winter to be difficult but even so, the current pressures are exceptional and severe.
The recent surge in Covid cases, a mushrooming in influenza hospitalisations and an increase in Strep A infections had made the picture far worse; in some cases hospital staff were falling ill, exacerbating these problems.
Among a package of measures, Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf, the Scottish health secretary, said:
RMT leader Mick Lynch leaves meeting at DfT refusing to give update and saying further talks planned this week
Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, told reporters that he was “neither more nor less” hopeful about the prospects of a resolution to the rail dispute following his talks today with Huw Merriman, the rail minister. He said that there would be further talks later this week.
Despite being pressed by several journalists, the normally loquacious Lynch refused to say any more.
That suggests there has been some movement in the negotiations. There has been speculation about a resolution to the rail dispute coming soon, and so the rail talks may turn out to be the most successful of the three sets of union-ministerial talks taking place today.
At 3.30pm there will be an urgent question in the Commons on the announcement last week that the government has abandoned plans to privatise Channel 4.
After that there will be two statements. At around 4.15pm Steve Barclay, the health secretary, will make an announcement about NHS winter pressures. And about an hour or so later James Cartlidge, a Treasury minister, will give details of the new energy support package for businesses.
When the government said last week it was inviting unions to talks with ministers about pay, it said the discussion would focus on next year’s pay settlement, for the 2023-24 financial year. But, according to one union source, at today’s meeting Steve Barclay did not rule out backdating any pay rise for 2023-24 to cover the current financial year too. The source said Barclay seemed to have “softened” his stance somewhat, and that union officials came away with the impression that it might be the Treasury, or No 10, holding up progress towards a deal on pay.
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