IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v31y2017i1p123-141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social partnership and political devolution in the National Health Service: emergence, operation and outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Bacon

    (City University London, UK)

  • Peter Samuel

    (Nottingham University, UK)

Abstract

This article explores the emergence, operation and outcomes of social partnership in the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland and Wales. Social partnership emerged in the NHS following political devolution in 1998 which transferred powers to left-wing governments in Scotland and Wales. These arrangements helped improve health services, modernize industrial relations and enhance staff terms and conditions. In NHS Scotland, union participation in strategic decisions produced extensive co-operation to dismantle the internal health market, improve services and enhance staff terms and conditions. Union participation in NHS Wales was restricted to discussing workforce issues, and although co-operation increased when Welsh governments gained enhanced legislative powers and dismantled the internal health market, it delivered fewer improvements in service and pay levels. Differences in government political positioning (against public sector marketization) and degree of independence (with devolved administrations granted different legislative powers) help explain the operation and outcomes of social partnership.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Bacon & Peter Samuel, 2017. "Social partnership and political devolution in the National Health Service: emergence, operation and outcomes," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(1), pages 123-141, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:1:p:123-141
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017015616910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017015616910
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017015616910?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Roper & Philip James & Paul Higgins, 2005. "Workplace partnership and public service provision," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(3), pages 639-649, September.
    2. Stephen Bach, 2002. "Public‐sector Employment Relations Reform under Labour: Muddling Through on Modernization?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 40(2), pages 319-339, June.
    3. Michael Keating, 2005. "Policy convergence and divergence in Scotland under devolution," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 453-463.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlo J Morelli & Paul T. Seaman, 2010. "Devolution as a Policy Crucible: The Case of Universal Free School Meals," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(1), pages 139-161, January.
    2. Les Worrall & Kim Mather & Roger Seifert, 2010. "Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 117-137, June.
    3. Ian Cunningham & Philip James, 2009. "The outsourcing of social care in Britain: what does it mean for voluntary sector workers?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(2), pages 363-375, June.
    4. Peter Samuel, 2007. "Partnership consultation and employer domination in two British life and pensions firms," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(3), pages 459-477, September.
    5. Stuart Cooper & Graham Pearce, 2011. "Climate change performance measurement, control and accountability in English local authority areas," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1097-1118, October.
    6. Jēkabsone Inga & Sloka Biruta, 2016. "Social Capital, Well-Being and Municipality: Salaspils Municipality (Latvia) Case," Economics and Culture, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 65-75, June.
    7. Gareth Mulvey & Dimitris Skleparis & Brian Boyle, 2023. "Territorial variance in the UK’s refugee politics and its consequences: Young Syrian refugees in England and Scotland," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(5), pages 958-975, August.
    8. Morelli, Carlo & Seaman, Paul, 2009. "Devolution & Entrenched Household Poverty: Is Scotland less mobile?," SIRE Discussion Papers 2009-06, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. Andy Inch, 2018. "‘Opening for business’? Neoliberalism and the cultural politics of modernising planning in Scotland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(5), pages 1076-1092, April.
    10. Ian Cunningham & Philip James, 2017. "Analysing public service outsourcing: The value of a regulatory perspective," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(6), pages 958-974, September.
    11. Peter Matthews, 2013. "The return of place in Scottish social policy," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(1), pages 9-16, February.
    12. Damian Grimshaw & Mat Johnson & Stefania Marino & Jill Rubery, 2017. "Towards more disorganised decentralisation? Collective bargaining in the public sector under pay restraint," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 22-41, January.
    13. M.G. Lloyd, 2008. "Towards a ‘Pooled Sovereignty‘ in Community Planning in Scotland?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 23(1), pages 58-68, February.
    14. Giampaolo Garzarelli & Lyndal Keeton, 2016. "Policy Experimentation and Intergovernmental Grants in a Federal System," Working Papers 8/16, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:1:p:123-141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.