The well being and social care secretary Steve Barclay has privately urged commerce unions to assist him make the case to the Treasury and No 10 for extra cash for nurses, ambulance staff and different NHS employees in a unprecedented twist to the escalating disaster over well being service strikes, the Observer can reveal.
A critical cabinet split has opened up, with Barclay now wanting more cash for all NHS employees besides medical doctors – whereas Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, are refusing to budge from their insistence that no extra may be provided.
Barclay’s name for the unions to assist him current a convincing case to Sunak and Hunt was made at a gathering between the unions and ministers final Monday.
Sara Gorton, head of well being at Unison, who chairs the 14-strong NHS group of unions, and who was current, instructed the Observer: “On Monday he talked about asking us to help make the case to the Treasury for the investment needed.”
Gorton stated that after weeks of stonewalling Barclay’s tone was “very different” within the assembly and that he was prepared to talk about more pay, together with for this 12 months.
But simply as shocking to union leaders was that Barclay requested assist from the unions to make an argument to Hunt and Sunak that more cash would assist cease the speedy exodus of NHS staff to different jobs, and enhance effectivity. “He asked for our assistance in making the case about how improving pay and investing in the workforce could lead to greater efficiencies and productivity.”
Gorton, who has been concerned in each pay spherical on behalf of Unison members within the NHS for the previous 20 years, defined that with the intention to attain offers with Conservative governments she had discovered that ministers wanted to have the ability to persuade the Treasury that any extra cash spent would result in financial savings within the medium and long run. “All of the agreements I have been involved with in the past have involved a certain amount of showing the benefits of investing,” she stated.
“He [Barclay] offered to be the advocate for health workers inside the cabinet. My interpretation of what he said was that he was prepared to make the case for us for investment in pay.”
Gorton has written to Barclay this weekend asking him to organise a gathering with the prime minister, the chancellor and Unison’s common secretary Christina McAnea. The goal, she stated, can be to safe additional funding for an improved settlement for NHS employees from exterior present budgets.
Gorton’s account was confirmed final evening by senior Whitehall officers who had been briefed on the assembly, in addition to a number of different sources from the well being unions.
One Whitehall official briefed on the discussions stated: “Everything Sara Gorton has said in public has turned out to be fair and accurate and this is a true reflection of what was said in the meeting.”
Downing Street stated No 10 and the Treasury continued to carry the view that ministers wouldn’t transfer past the pay review body suggestions, though a spokesman stated Barclay had made clear that his “door was open” for extra talks. No 10 stated it will reply to the letter from Gorton.
The Observer understands that whereas Barclay has caught doggedly to the official authorities line for months, he made the case inside authorities for increased pay for NHS employees early on within the dispute, solely to be instructed by the Treasury that making an exception for NHS staff would result in rash of other unaffordable claims throughout the general public sector.
Barclay is now understood to be involved that the NHS’s capacity crisis, and lengthening waiting times for ambulances, may result in the collapse of the service and extra employees quitting.
With the unions feeling more and more assured that they’re successful the argument, the Royal College of Nursing stated final evening that it will pull double the variety of nurses out on strike in February in contrast with previous strikes earlier than Christmas, and contain extra hospitals.
The newest Opinium ballot for the Observer reveals that public help for nurses and ambulance employees stays stable, with many extra voters blaming the federal government for the disaster than the unions. Some 57% of voters supported nurses hanging, in contrast with 31% who opposed the action. Striking ambulance employees have been backed by 52%, towards 35% who opposed them taking action.
Adam Drummond of Opinium stated: “The government will be disappointed if it was hoping the public would blame striking nurses and ambulance workers for the situation in the NHS. Although support for strikes in general has fallen slightly since before Christmas, the public are still overwhelmingly supportive.”
Despite Sunak’s makes an attempt to make political capital from the disaster by claiming Labour is within the pockets of the hanging unions, Keir Starmer’s get together has elevated its lead over the Tories within the Christmas interval. Labour is on 45% (+1) in contrast with the Conservatives, who’re unchanged on 29% since three weeks in the past.
The nurses’ strike will proceed this week with employees at greater than 70 NHS trusts in England that weren’t a part of December’s first wave of business action strolling out on Wednesday and Thursday. The RCN will announce new strike dates for the beginning of February within the 48 hours earlier than its second strike this week.
Nurses’ leaders stated that if progress was not made in negotiations by the top of January, the strikes in February would come with all eligible members in England for the primary time. Pat Cullen, common secretary of the RCN, stated: “The public supports nurses because of just how much nurses give to the public. Rishi Sunak’s intransigence is baffling, reckless and politically ill-considered.”
