07 November 2003
The Department of Health is considering abandoning plans allowing foundation trusts to implement a new variable pay system earlier than most other trusts in England.
At present 12 trusts, including four foundation applicants, are piloting the Agenda for Change system, which applies to the majority of NHS staff.
Ministers had intended to allow at least some of the other 25 foundation applicants to implement the system before they are formally established next April.
But rumours have been circulating in the health sector that foundation trusts will now implement the system at the same time as all other trusts.
This is due to be on October 1, 2004, if staff – principally Unison and Royal College of Nursing members – vote to accept the deal early next year once the results of the pilots are known.
A health department spokeswoman told Public Finance: 'At the moment, no final decision on this issue has been made. Discussions are ongoing.'
But this equivocation contrasts sharply with a speech by health minister John Hutton to the RCN annual congress on April 30. He said: 'There will be a second wave of early implementation sites covering those likely to become NHS foundation trusts.'
The legislation needed to establish foundations is currently in the Lords and is due back in the Commons for its third and final reading in the next few weeks.
Foundation trusts' ability to vary pay has worried many Labour backbenchers. They are concerned that the higher salaries on offer under the new system would give them a competitive edge if they were able to implement the scheme early.
Ministers may hope to allay their fears by abandoning plans for early implementation.
Unison sought to keep up the pressure on ministers by urging Labour MPs to vote against the legislation.
In a letter to the MPs this week, the union's general secretary, Dave Prentis, insisted that foundation trusts would introduce a competitive market in the NHS.
He added that proposed governance arrangements were a shambles.
'Foundation trusts will define their own constituency and their members will be self-selecting. It remains unclear how members will be able to influence the development of the trust,' he said.
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