10 Questions Weston Area Health Trust need to answer about the Pay Consortium

UNISON members will put the following questions to the Trust Board at their Annual General Meeting on 26th September.

1. Who took the decision to join the Pay Consortium, and when was the decision taken?

2. Has the Trust Board retained full authority for taking key decisions on involvement in the Pay Consortium, and if not which body has that authority been delegated to?

3. Which budget has the £10,000 joining fee come from?

4. The Annual Review says the Trust made surpluses of £3.6 million in 2011/12, £2.6 million in 2010/11 and £2.4 million in 2009/10. Why then is there a need for pay cuts?

5. The Annual review says the Trust intend to make £4.5 million of savings overall in 2012/13. How much does the Trust intend to save from the Pay & Conditions Consortium proposals?

6. Has the Trust considered alternative ways of making efficiency savings, e.g. reduced spend on agency staff and business consultants, opportunities for cost sharing, more efficient every day processes, procurement savings, environmental savings such as installation of solar panels to generate electricity to sell back to the grid?

7. The Annual review says that the Trust has invested £1 million into energy efficiency – how much does it expect to save from this investment?

8. Has the Pay Consortium undertaken an equality impact assessment of the proposals to cuts staff pay and conditions? It is really important that this is done at an early stage, so that those of the 28 proposals being considered, which would have a disproportionate impact on people with the protected characteristics (gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion / belief etc), are immediately eliminated from your considerations.

9. Has the Trust considered the impact on staff morale and consequently recruitment and retention of reducing pay and conditions, particularly at a time when the Trust is considering creating an Integrated Care Organisation and is trying to become a Foundation Trust? A move to regional pay may ultimately add to the pay bill through increased agency costs?

10.The Trust is no doubt aware of the connection between low income and poor health. Has the Trust considered the long-term impact on the region of lower incomes, poorer health outcomes and therefore increased pressure on the NHS?