Next Wednesday, 18th March, Salford Council is set to endorse a Memorandum of Understanding developed between the ten Greater Manchester councils, local Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS England, which will lead to the devolution of health and social care to Greater Manchester.
Despite the controversy surrounding the proposal - mainly concerning the lack of public debate, fears of the privatisation of the NHS and potential budgetary risks* – the full meeting of Salford councillors is expected agree to the plans, even though the report they will endorse has no Risk Assessment attached.
Meanwhile, yesterday, public sector trade union, Salford City UNISON, passed a motion titled Devo Manc, the NHS and Regional Pay which expresses `strong concerns' over the devolution deal.
"While we have sympathy for the NHS to be more accountable to local populations, we are concerned this maybe the latest phase of a Tory plan to break up the National Health Service and destroy national collective bargaining over pay" it states "The Tories have been trying to introduce regional pay for years now, but were thrown back in their first attempt to do so in 2012. This latest announcement could see the idea introduced by the back door and could therefore represent a grave threat to the rights of unions to collectively bargain for their members on a national basis."
The UNISON motion also expresses concerns that social care, currently accountable to local councils, could now be commissioned at a Greater Manchester level "with less democratic oversight and greater bureaucracy".
While the union states its support for greater integration of health and social care, it adds that "this model contains a number of potentially terrible risks that Greater Manchester politicians appear willing to ignore...
"One clear risk is that all of these proposals – commonly referred to as `Devo Manc' - are an attempt to offset responsibility for cuts and privatisation to local authorities and to enshrine a new tier of government within the `City Region' that will take democracy further from the people and lead to decisions being made with less consultation and democratic oversight" it explains.
"It is ironic that the very same GM council leaders who insist that no blame for the cuts should be placed at their door appear happy to invite responsibility - and therefore blame - for resources that will not adequately meet the needs of the people they represent" it adds "The suggestion that these budgets will somehow grow through increased revenue raising powers places a naïve faith in the sort of trickle-down economics that have failed Greater Manchester."
The motion also calls for a referendum on the proposals as the "only fair way to settle this", and agrees to support the Protest called by Greater Manchester TUC on the 29th March.
See also previous Salford Star articles for further info:
*Greater Manchester Devolution Will Destroy NHS, state health campaign groups – click here
NHS Devolution Silence from Salford Civic Leaders – click here
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