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General Council Report 2021

TUC Congress 2021
Report type
Research and reports
Issue date
Good Services
Social care workers need improved pay and conditions to offset a decade of cuts © Dean Mitchell/ Getty Image
Social care workers need improved pay and conditions to offset a decade of cuts © Dean Mitchell/ Getty Image

4.1 Introduction

The pandemic has confirmed that the safety and security of society relies on strong and resilient public services, and on our public sector workers who have worked tirelessly to keep essential services going during the crisis.

As we emerge out of the crisis, our public services are best positioned to lead our economic recovery. Guided by resolutions 9 and 40, we used our budget submission to argue for fast-tracking investment in green infrastructure and public services. The TUC set out a plan for 600,000 new, secure jobs in public services to tackle unemployment, support spending in the economy, and address persistent social, regional and health inequalities.

The TUC has lobbied government to reward 4.4 million public service workers with fair pay rises that restore a decade of lost earnings, to defend public service pensions, and to provide a new funding settlement for all our public services. We continue to lobby for a reduced private sector role in public services. And we demand a new approach to procurement that prioritises high-quality service delivery and employment standards, and is subject to strong transparency and accountability requirements.

4.2 Education

Over the past year, the TUC has worked closely with the affiliated unions on policy and workforce issues, including supporting the campaign priorities in resolutions 49, 50 and 51. We have drawn on the input of all the education unions to inform the work of the General Council on education policy and wider campaigning on public services. The government’s inconsistent approach to tackling the impact of the pandemic on our education system was marked by a series of high-profile U-turns. Two notable examples included government strategies on exam grading methodologies and free school meals provision during school holidays. The education unions joined with many other stakeholders to campaign against the government’s initial approach in both areas.

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady joins a student protest outside the Department for Education in Westminster, calling for a full review into grade inequality following the exam results chaos © Stephen Chung/Alamy Stock Photo
UCU General Secretary Jo Grady joins a student protest outside the Department for Education in Westminster, calling for a full review into grade inequality following the exam results chaos © Stephen Chung/Alamy Stock Photo

Throughout the year, the General Council has called for increased resources for education recovery programmes and there was a broad welcome for the scale of funding being considered by Sir Kevan Collins, the education recovery commissioner. The subsequent announcement by government of a £1.4bn package of measures, compared to an anticipated £15bn programme, led to the resignation of the commissioner and a highly critical response. The education unions have also campaigned on a number of other fronts, including the pupil premium, school funding, academisation, assessment and testing, special education provision, and key workforce issues such as increased workload and the pay freeze.

Paul Nowak, TUC deputy general secretary, was a member of the Independent Commission on the College of the Future. It published a series of reports, recommending a significant boost to pay and strengthened social partnership arrangements in the English further education system (FE). In January the government set out its FE strategy in the Skills for Jobs white paper, but this excluded any mention of unions or measures to address the major pay shortfall. See Skills in Section 3 for more detail on the white paper.

Alongside the white paper, the government published a brief interim response to the review, chaired by Philip Augar, of post-18 education and funding that originally reported back in May 2019. The General Council had previously welcomed some of the review’s key proposals, including tackling the FE pay shortfall, boosting long-term funding for colleges, and restoring maintenance grants. However, the government once again delayed its response to these key recommendations until the spending review later this year.

During the past year the government continued its reform of vocational qualifications, including the phased rollout of T-Levels and ongoing reviews of existing qualifications. The TUC responded to two government consultations on post-16 qualifications and strongly recommended that any plans to remove the funding for existing qualifications (eg BTECs) should be delayed until the full T-Level programme is rolled out and evaluated. In line with submissions by Ofqual and other stakeholders, the TUC responses also highlighted that some existing qualifications will remain more suitable than T-Levels for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) students and other groups.

4.3 NHS

The NHS came under acute strain as it dealt with the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent resurgences. At the same time, the NHS delivered the biggest and most ambitious vaccine campaign in its history. NHS professionals worked tirelessly throughout, risking their safety to care for others, leaving many traumatised and exhausted.

The safety and wellbeing of our NHS workforce remains paramount. In line with resolution 46, the TUC has worked closely with health unions to ensure no worker is subject to violence or harassment when doing their job.

The NHS now faces significant challenges, including clearing a growing backlog with a demoralised and underpaid workforce reeling from the government’s one per cent pay offer. The TUC has supported the union-led #WithNHSStaff campaign, calling on the chair of the NHS pay review body to have the courage and confidence to give NHS workers a significant and early pay rise.

The differential effect of the pandemic on ethnic minority groups and working-class communities underlines the deep roots of health inequalities. Despite the UK’s BME population being around 13 per cent, Black women comprised 55 per cent of women hospitalised while pregnant with coronavirus. In line with resolution 45, the TUC worked with health unions and campaigners to tackle these disparities, including organising a panel discussion at the TUC Women’s Conference 2021 on Black women’s maternal healthcare.

The TUC has continued to oppose NHS procurement processes that undermine efforts to establish integrated care models. Guided by resolution 47, we have argued that procurement should be a function of the NHS and for competition regulations to be replaced by a procurement ‘best value test’. This should prioritise the quality of patient care, employment standards and the interests of the public.               

4.4 Social care

The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to put huge strain on adult social care. The crisis has exacerbated many of the challenges affecting the sector – including inadequate funding, unacceptably high levels of unmet care need, low pay and workforce precarity.

In line with composite 12, the TUC has worked with affiliates in the sector to highlight the inadequacies of the current system, building on our Fixing Social Care report in September 2020. Ahead of the budget, we lobbied government for a new funding settlement for social care to fully offset the cuts of the previous decade and establish future rises at a level that will allow local authorities to meet rising demand and improve pay and conditions for staff. We have campaigned for parity with the NHS, with guaranteed training and progression opportunities for all staff, and a new sectoral minimum wage of £10 per hour.

Analysis for our key worker campaign showed how the lack of adequate sick pay has disproportionately affected care workers, with one in twenty not qualifying for statutory sick pay (SSP).

We worked closely with affiliates to respond to the government consultation on mandatory vaccination for care home staff, highlighting concerns in the sector and calling for targeted support and awareness-raising instead.

4.5 Privatisation

In line with resolution 47, the TUC has continued to make the case that insourcing and social value procurement should be at the heart of local, regional and national recovery plans. We commissioned new analysis by the New Economics Foundation and Landman Economics that showed across six key metrics – including hours, pay, job tenure and qualifications – workers in the public sector had better standards than those performing the same jobs in the private or voluntary sector.

Throughout the pandemic, the TUC called for greater transparency in government procurement and opposed government proposals to expand the scope for the use of informal tendering processes. Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Treasury has reliable or complete data on contracts awarded in Whitehall, and no consolidated data exists for the NHS, local government or the devolved administrations. There is too little information in the public domain to conduct an effective analysis of the performance, rewards and governance of major contractors delivering publicly funded services.

Given the track record of poor procurement practice undertaken by the government during the coronavirus pandemic, we urgently need reforms to the procurement process to restore public confidence in its credibility, probity and efficacy.

Unionised cleaners subcontracted to government department BEIS picket over safer workplaces and better pay © Guy Bell
Unionised cleaners subcontracted to government department BEIS picket over safer workplaces and better pay © Guy Bell

A more strategic and intelligent approach to procurement that levers the purchasing power of the public sector in support of employment standards, jobs, skills and economic development is crucial.

However, plans set out in the Transforming Public Procurement green paper would give new powers to the cabinet secretary to declare crisis conditions that would allow greater use of direct awards and exempt these contracts from automatic suspension if legally challenged. Rather than formalising the practices we saw during the pandemic, the TUC believes that securing an approved supplier list of potential providers through an open procurement process would be a better approach. As well as providing confidence and transparency, this could also develop the capacity of UK supply chains.

4.6 Civil service

As the pandemic has shown, a fair and impartial civil service is crucial to the economic, political and social wellbeing of the country. In line with resolution 52, the TUC has opposed any attempts to undermine the impartiality and professionalism of our civil servants. It is vital that the government works with trade unions to maintain an independent, well-resourced civil service with well-trained, fairly treated employees, a strong public service ethos and high levels of public trust.

The TUC supported civil service unions in calling for government to halt all planned redundancies, including those in the Ministry of Justice and HMRC. We have lobbied government to invest in 600,000 jobs in public services, with a parallel commitment to improve pay and conditions. We believe an additional 30,000 jobs could be created in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help the universal credit system meet the extra demands of rising unemployment.

After effective lobbying by the TUC and civil service unions, the government revoked plans to introduce a cap on exit payments, a measure that would have disproportionately affected workers with long years of public service.

4.7 Justice

In line with resolution 56, the TUC continues to support unions in probation services to undo the damage caused by the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. This year those probation services that were being delivered by private community rehabilitation companies returned to the National Probation Service. However, there is still work to be done to ensure a fully unified service delivered in the public sector.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is a non-departmental public body that is currently within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Cafcass is clearly not a priority for the MoJ. We believe that outcomes for Cafcass and its service users would be better served if it was moved to the Department for Education (DfE), where it could fall under the remit of the minister of state for children and families.

As called for in resolution 57, Cafcass services need the right support from government. We support the work of family court unions and the opposition to press government ministers to take necessary steps, including placing it within the remit of the DfE.

The TUC continues to work with prison unions to demand a fair deal for the prison workforce. Our plan for new public sector jobs includes the recruitment of 4,000 new prison officers to address severe understaffing and overcrowding in our prisons.

4.8 Transport

Guided by composite 13, the TUC has continued to make the case for a publicly owned rail system and calls for a new deal for public transport across all modes.

The railways played a vital role in keeping our country running through the Covid-19 pandemic, and will play a key role when we come out of it.

Workers on the railways, buses and across public transport modes have been on the frontline of the pandemic, putting them up to three times more at risk of infection and death.

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted flaws that were already present in our transport industry, with the sector now facing acute challenges. After the fragmented and chaotic rail franchise system collapsed, the government brought in a concession model that paid a flat fee to train operating companies (TOCs).

While this model gives greater control to the Department for Transport (DfT), it leaves the private sector embedded in the system. That means funding still leaks out through private profit and dividend payments. The Shapps-Williams Review, published in May 2021, leaves this model largely intact.

We believe that only public ownership under a single guiding authority can achieve the levels of investment required to see improvements like electrification. Public ownership would guarantee the coordination required to reunite track and train, enhancing safety standards undermined by the profit motive.

The TUC has continued to make the case for a publicly owned rail industry, both directly to ministers and DfT officials and in our public statements and calls. We continue to argue that a publicly owned transport system is the best way to ensure that we meet our environmental commitments and protect workers and passengers.

We oppose all attempts to impose austerity on public transport, including the attacks on funding for Transport for London (TfL).

Passenger numbers on our bus network have also fallen dramatically, with government stepping in to support services through the Covid-19 Bus Services Support Grant.

This year the government published its National Bus Strategy. While this includes some improvements on the old, unregulated system, it falls well short of the radical change needed.

The TUC supported the successful campaign in Manchester to return buses to public control. We support regional campaigns to persuade metro mayors in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire to use their franchising powers to take greater control of local bus services. We are also engaging with the Liverpool City Region to improve services in Merseyside.

The TUC has also called for local authorities to have the right to run their own municipal services in meetings with DfT ministers and in our public statements.

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