| Description | Guidance |
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| ISBN | (Web Only) |
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| Official Print Publication Date | |
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| Website Publication Date | July 27, 1999 |
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Local Partnership Agreements
Dear Colleague
LOCAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS
Background
1. The Scottish Executive has signalled its strong belief in partnership with the programme for government set out in Partnership for Scotland. The Minister for Health & Community Care emphasised the importance she attached to partnership working in her speech to the NHSiS at Peebles on 16June.
2. We need to ensure that partnership working is fully established in the Service. Boards of all NHS bodies in Scotland need to recognise that a modern health service is dependent upon a modern workforce, in a modern workplace supported by modern working practices.
3. A good start on working together has been made through the Scottish Partnership Forum ( SPF) and through other initiatives and we need to build on this. The HR Strategy called on all Trusts and Health Boards to develop Local Partnership Agreements with staff and their representatives by October 1999. The SPF has developed the attached guidance on Local Partnership Agreements to assist in taking this work forward.
4. Primary Care Trusts will have a particular responsibility for involving their Local Health Care Co-operatives in this process.
5. Key to harnessing the potential of our staff will be the development of partnership working, ensuring that at all levels staff feel they are involved in the decision making process, have access to information and Board meetings and have the opportunity to make their views known about organisational changes which may affect them.
Partnership
6. Partnership is not merely about good employee relations; it is about trust, integrity and openness across all our activities in the health service. It embraces the core values of fairness and consistency that are central to the HR strategy, along with commitment to partnership working. It is also about the practical issues that affect peoples daily working lives and our working practices must reflect this.
Existing Arrangements
7. Existing mechanisms for recognition will be maintained by Trusts and Health Boards, to support the development of local partnership working. All Trade Unions and professional organisations currently recognised should continue to be recognised within the newly configured Trusts.
Training
8. Joint training is seen as a key factor in developing successful partnership arrangements and the SPF has sponsored the development of a joint training programme. This has now been successfully piloted in four Trusts and will shortly be made available to Trusts and Health Boards as part of their joint training initiatives.
Action
9. Trusts and Health Boards should address the actions set out within the attached Annex A to ensure that Local Partnership Agreements are in place by October 1999 and that local partnership forums are established.
10. Trusts and Health Boards are asked to complete the monitoring form at AnnexB and to return it, by 19 November 1999, to
Mr W Welsh at the Scottish Executive,
NHSManagement Executive,
Room 61A,
StAndrew's House,
Edinburgh,
EH1 3DG.
Yours sincerely
GEOFF SCAIFE
Chief Executive