Steve Barnett plenary

Director of NHS Employers, Steve Barnett.

Thanks Ed and a very warm welcome to everyone to 'Leading Workforce Thinking' NHS Employers Annual Conference and Exhibition, now occupying its new autumn slot and surely the perfect pick-me-up after another lousy summer.

This is one of the biggest conferences in Europe dedicated to workforce related issues.

Once again we have a brilliant programme for you with top speakers a fantastic range of expertise in our workshops and many networking opportunities

- opportunities for all of us to listen learn discuss and question.

And most important of all a real opportunity for NHS Employers to stay in tune with you and what's happening in your organisations

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I have to admit that coming on after Ed Stourton gives you a very strong urge to want to read the shipping forecast but I'm going to resist that and concentrate instead on just three things in my short speech

- the year we've just come through

- avoiding a year like the one we've just come through

- and how NHS Employers is changing to support you in the future.

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Last week we had the announcement by Ara Darzi of the interim review of the NHS.

The Government talks of a vision of a world-class NHS built on the foundations of public patient and staff engagement.

Employers have argued for some time that there should be greater links between workforce, financial and service planning.

Lord Darzi now advocates this strongly.

Most important of all his proposals are underpinned by a strong commitment to engagement something we would all say is a pre-condition to avoiding some of the turbulence we have seen in the past year.

I am pleased to see that some of the key inputs made to the review by NHS Employers have been listened to.

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We always seem to start these conferences by reflecting on how tough the last year has been - but this year we're not kidding are we?

The NHS workforce is never far away from media headlines - factual or fabricated - but the last year provided a bumper crop of issues for them to get their teeth into.

Have a look at some of the more colourful headlines from the last few months ....

NHS Employers was caught in the eye of the storm of most of these and we certainly can't complain about the profile this provided for us.

In fact for Sian, Alastair and myself we only needed appearances on Richard and Judy and Ready, Steady, Cook and we'd have had the whole lot covered! We even had a first for us - a live interview for Al Jahzeera TV conducted down a side street in Victoria and watched by four bemused drunks.

There are however some serious points in this.

Firstly, it demonstrates what we've often highlighted

- that people are the most important thing about the NHS and when we manage them poorly, subject them to too much change and reform too quickly, fail to provide opportunities for their talents - and fail to tell them where their 'journey' is taking them, then the consequences can be sharp and painful - often manifested in loss of morale increased levels of stress and a drop in productivity.

And second - we now have a much stronger voice than ever before for employers.

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I want to illustrate these two points with a couple of examples in particular.

First, Modernising Medical Careers / MTAS.

This issue brings to mind a number of hackneyed phrases such as the road to hell being paved with good intentions and that for every complex problem there is usually a simple solution that is wrong.

What is certainly true on this one - is that it's easy to forget how terrible things used to be when you're dealing with how terrible things are!"

I don't think any of us could have imagined the year we've had on MMC.

The difficulties that emerged during the speciality recruitment process have offered us many salutary lessons.

The underestimation of applicant numbers - the use of an untested shortlisting process - confused and inconsistently applied eligibility criteria - a process that was sometimes rushed - has proved painful for many :

- doctors

- deaneries

- employers

and of course politicians.

By any measure this was a problem you could confidently describe as a big one - when an issue prompts mums to take to the streets of Whitehall - you know you have an issue!

All stakeholders know that it's not just processes that need to be fixed here but that the trust of many junior and senior doctors has to be regained - that process is now underway.

Another example is the issue of unemployed graduating healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists and nurses.

At a time of record levels of investment in the NHS it's difficult to explain to the public, much less young professionals themselves, how we can fail to find jobs for them..................in a service where their skills will be greatly needed.

This issue is the result of many factors including financial pressures and changing service requirements - but predominantly down, I feel, to poor workforce planning - failing patients and staff alike.

Have a look at what the Health Select Committee thought recently of our workforce planning in the NHS..................

Throw in national industrial action - marches on Whitehall - adverse reports on core elements of our pay modernisation programme - a new Prime Minster and health team - and describing the last year as tough - is probably an understatement.

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I've reminded you - as if you needed reminding - of some of our more difficult days in the past year.

It's easy to catastrophise these things - but you know, out of this veil of tears - something remarkable has been happening.

Between the key stakeholders - notably employers - trade unions - and government -

I feel there's a new maturity to our relationships, a shared commitment to using our pooled expertise, energies and commitment, a shared understanding - that success for the NHS can only come through the people who work in it.

We are becoming - in the real sense of the word - much more like partners in a common cause.

Partnership is the new language of business across many sectors - a recognition that no one organisation can be self-sustaining.

Shared interests have to be given a legitimate platform.

A standard observation nowadays from the employment relations perspective - is that the best approaches conjoin individual, team and collective forms of engagement - to promote a shared commitment to the success of the enterprise.

This builds trust and involvement, and recognises the legitimacy of the partners.

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Let me go back briefly to one of my earlier examples -- MMC / MTAS..................

We all know how difficult it's been - but I believe that by representing your views nationally we've made a difference for the future.

From early March, when problems with the recruitment process for specialty training started to emerge - we devoted significant resource on your behalf - to help resolve issues of both policy and implementation.

This information, we systematically gathered from employers was not only timely - but it's relevance and accent on maintaining services for patients made it hard to resist.

Consequently, many of the arrangements announced this week for 2008 and proposed in Sir John Tooke's report for the longer term - have been shaped directly by NHS Employers acting on your behalf .

I see this as a real achievement.

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This example briefly typifies the approach I want NHS Employers to continue taking to tackle this - and some of the other big workforce issues I referred to earlier.

Through mature and honest dialogue - respect - and consensus - between all and not just some of the partners we're putting things right.

Re-establishing trust and applying the learning from our combined experiences.

Last year I signed alongside Karen Jennings, - Clare Chapman and Andy Burnham, a formal Social Partnership Agreement.

For us and for you it was a seminal moment - formal recognition for the first time that employers had a legitimate voice in tri-partite discussions and consultations on healthcare policy and its workforce implications - NHS Employers acting on your behalf as true partners.

I think the new emphasis on partnership working has contributed to some notable successes as you can see on the screen behind me - successes such as a modernised and more responsive NHS Careers service; a range of new Large- Scale Workforce Change programmes on topics like 18 week waits - and a brand new toolkit for the service on developing a healthy workplace, that we'll be launching here this week.

Through partnership working there are some significant achievements.

First, the successful conclusion of the review and re-design of the NHS pension scheme - a complex task to protect scheme benefits for existing staff - provide an attractive option for new staff - but also contain employer costs.

A fantastic result and we are all indebted to the joint Chairs, Eddie Saville and David Jordison for steering this to a conclusion.

Second - the re-launch of the Knowledge and Skills Framework - a vital component of Agenda for Change that we all have a shared interest in making work effectively.

And on pay more broadly - we have to work harder in partnership - to show that we really can realise the benefits from the substantial investment in modernisation -- being entrusted with a further potential multi - year pay deal demands nothing less!

And finally - our medical workforce project - guided by the employers who sit on our medical workforce forum.

It's an area where we're now leading the debate - a true example of leading workforce thinking - and are benefiting from our links with the NHS Confederation.

This week - we publish a position paper on the future of the medical workforce, following on from last week's Confederation publication with the JCC - on the clinical vision for the NHS.

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David Nicholson is right to tell us to look out in the service and not up - and to focus on transforming the service locally.

It's particularly reassuring to know - that leadership and people come so high on his agenda.

Clare Chapman - our Director General for Workforce, is developing a convincing and impressive strategy for linking what matters to patients - staff and the public locally - to drive that transformational journey.

Pulling the different parts of the service closer together again.

The emphasis on 'local' is right - and it should be given effect by employers creating and sustaining partnerships locally - setting the conditions in which their local stakeholders work together to create excellence for patients - and excellence for staff - reality and not rhetoric.

And in this - I include the SHA's - with whom NHS Employers work closely.

Their role in creating and supporting the conditions for local innovation - local freedoms - and local partnerships, is absolutely vital - acting as the cartilage in the joint if you like - between the centre and the front line.

The 'lost in translation' report produced by the Confederation's Policy Director, Nigel Edwards - reveals a widening discrepancy between patient and public perceptions of the NHS - and negative views of staff locally contribute to this.

Employers - working in partnerships - hold the key to restoring our staff as the most powerful advocates of the service.

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Now, the NHS is not devoid of good examples of partnership working.

A couple of weeks ago - I spent a brilliant day at Bolton Hospital on one of their LEAN projects in a surgical department.

This was literally a 'hands on day' - spent with enthusiastic staff - patients reps - staff side colleagues - and clinicians - streamlining the patient pathways - demonstrating how the deal for patients could be improved - better quality and less cost.

People feeling valued, more engaged and performing better.

I spent the afternoon clearing out a storeroom ready for patient equipment to be relocated - and I have to say it was knackering.

We were joined in the afternoon - by the clinical director - and I asked him if he was going to help me lift some of the boxes.

And he said - " Steve - I'd love to, but I can't risk damaging these hands".

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I want to move to my final theme now - the future.

Members have been explicit with the NHS Confederation -that they believe better outcomes for patients - can be achieved when priorities are set and decisions made at a local level - and that better services are delivered - when trusts are free to shape the delivery of care in partnership with patients.

From the workforce perspective - I think this freedom also brings responsibility.

A responsibility on employers to vigorously pursue excellence in the management of people

- their careers

- their performance

- their development

- their working lives

- and their dignity.

This builds trust -- and partnerships with the workforce can't thrive without trust.

And it's that trust - that gives us confidence in the future of this great organisation - that we're all so privileged to manage.

If you want a glimpse of that future - listen to some of the young people in whom we'll eventually be entrusting the NHS - in a video we've just produced for NHS Careers ...................

I defy anyone to watch that video - and not feel inspired by these young people - and our future for the NHS.

They bring energy and commitment to the future.

They are our future.

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And what will NHS Employers need to do to build on our strong first three years - and gear ourselves up for that future?

Two years ago - in my speech to you - I stressed the importance of NHS Employers achieving the three "Is"

- impact

- influence

- independence

From what I've told you today - I hope you feel that we've made great strides on all three.

But I want us to do more in our fourth year.

To satisfy the three tests I always set for NHS Employers - is what we do making your lives easier, not harder - are we adding value in what we do - and, when it gets tough, are we there for you?

In all we've done in the last year or so I strongly believe that to be the case.

The feedback you gave in detailed research we carried out earlier this year - backs this up - but also provides pointers for where we need to continue to improve our services.

I want us to be stronger - be more independent - but at the same time retain our substantial influence at the highest levels.

My ambition going forward - for NHS Employers - is an organisation that is relevant and of its time - professional and honest in everything we do - in tune with you - and delivering on the agenda you set for us.

Earlier this year - I commissioned a review of NHS Employers business model - to which many of you contributed.

This is drawing to a close - and messages from you are loud and clear.

You want us to retain our key influencing role - and to work closely with key stakeholders - but you also want us to broaden the range of products and services we offer - for example, consultancy and training services - access through business alliances - to specialist advice and using the very latest interactive technologies - such as online tv services - to offer you speedy access to the information and support you need to be excellent employers.

It will be my task to lead us into this next exciting phase of our development.

I want NHS Employers to continue to be rooted in the service.

Over the last 18 months or so - we've had inputs from well over a thousand people and organisations - to a whole range of work - from membership of the Policy Board - to pay negotiations, attendance at Health Select Committees - to giving evidence to Pay Review Bodies, speaking for us in the media - and defending our reputation - and much much more besides.

To all of those people - I'd like to say a big thank you.

Thanks also to all my colleagues in NHS Employers and the Confederation - for their work throughout the year - and for the planning and organisation of our excellent conference.

And my final thoughts .....

Great partnership working - requires you to look beyond convenient boxes and labels - manager

- doctor

- trade unionist

- civil servant,

searching out common ground and avoiding stereotypes.

I saw the perils of falling into this trap recently - when I was asked to speak at a conference in the Calabar State of Nigeria.

As part of the trip - I was to meet his Excellency the State Governor - to talk about links between our healthcare managers.

This was a really big deal - so I took with me a new pinstripe suit - a new white shirt - and a nice red tie.

But my local hosts persuaded me - that what would really impress him - would be me wearing a full Nigerian costume - including ornate hat - which I duly did.

So when I was waiting in his grand office - I was understandably a bit nervous.

Anyway - he marched in - with great ceremony - we looked at one another - and we both did a complete double take - because he was wearing.............. a pinstripe suit - a white shirt - and a nice red tie!

A valuable lesson for me and him that day - and I hope that there will be some for you over the next three days.

Have a great conference.

Thank you.