The Minister, stressed the need for a partnership and engagement approach that looked after the interests of staff working towards building a clinically-led NHS built around the principle of quality. He emphasised that this goal would be impossible to achieve without the support, the engagement and leadership of staff.
Setting out the huge leadership and management challenge that NHS managers face in equiping staff for their new roles whilst maintaining morale and improving patient care, he praised the work of the Social Partnership Forum that had gone a long way in creating a culture within which we can work to deliver High Quality Care For All.
Accepting that NHS staff would look at the effects of the credit crunch with a sense of dread, he said that a slash and burn cuts approach would not be the way forward and that he would not hesitate in criticising any trust that took this approach.
The Minister also launched the NHS Staff Passport, published by the Social Partnership Forum on 3 November at the conference. The NHS Staff Passport, is an online toolkit which will support staff who find themselves moving from one type of organisation to another as a result to changes in the delivery of NHS services.
The toolkit, sets out the employment standards and legal rights that staff can expect and is available on the Social Partnership Forum website.
Watch Mike O'Brien speaking at Leading workforce thinking 2009