A potential transfer of NHS staff in Hampshire to a wholly owned subsidary has been paused thanks to UNISON.
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) had initially planned to transfer hundreds of staff to a private company owned by the Trust.
Wholly owned subsidiaries – or SubCos – are a form of NHS privatisation, where staff are transferred to a private company owned by the Trust. This is often a form of tax avoidance and can lead to potential attacks on staff terms and conditions.
The transfer at HHFT is now paused and unlikely to take place, giving relief to workers who wanted to stay employed by the NHS.
UNISON Regional Organiser James Smith said: “The clarity provided by Trust management today is a positive step in the right direction and shows the Trust are listening to the union’s concerns and the anxieties of their workforce. UNISON’s pressure at national level, acknowledged by NHS England as a key influence in their change of position on SubCos, has brought about change which ultimately has made HHFT’s proposal unviable.
“The NHS relies on support staff to keep hospitals clean, safe and running efficiently. They need to be fully engaged with and listened to when changes are proposed.
“Subsidiary companies have never been the right way to deliver NHS services and there are better ways to save money or reorganise services.
“The Trust have committed to engage with us on finding ways to improve the in-house NHS service prior to considering outsourcing of any nature in the future.”
What happened at HHFT?
Over the summer, HHFT began a staff engagement exercise around the possibility of transferring approximately 800 estates and facilities management staff (E&FM) to a wholly owned subsidiary, Hampshire Hospitals Contract Services Limited (HHCS). Staff could have been transferred to the ‘SubCo’ by as early as 1 April 2026.
Leaving an NHS organisation where terms and conditions are protected by national agreements and joining an organisation that can undermine these conditions is a big risk. It would mean uncertainty and the potential for attacks on terms, conditions, job security and pensions, even if initially the organisations gave assurances on these.
UNISON members know outsourced staff often have lower pay and worse conditions than workers employed directly by the NHS, and are less likely to have the same access to career opportunities and pensions. This is why so many E&FM staff were outraged by the proposed transfer. The E&FM transfer to HHCS was formally a ‘staff engagement’ exercise, but the transfer was presented by HHFT as something inevitable.
But if the HFFT Board did not agree the transfer was a good idea, then it could not take place.
This was an opportunity for UNISON to stall or even prevent the transfer.
Board Meeting
Early on, UNISON launched a member survey, held member meetings and wrote to Human Resources, senior managers and the Chief Executive expressing concern. We asked a significant number of questions and pushed to see both the business case for the proposal and evidence of an in-house service review.
The level of detail provided in response didn’t satisfy UNISON members. UNISON then wrote to the HHFT Board and posed written questions in advance of the September meeting. UNISON was able to share the responses to the survey, which included anonymised verbatim responses from E&FM staff, plus the clear message that that over 90% were willing to undertake strike action if the final transfer proposal contained attacks on existing terms and conditions.
UNISON Regional Organiser James Smith attended the September board meeting and asked extensive questions. It soon became apparent that many of the concerns that UNISON had raised as to the validity of the proposal were also challenged by NHS England.
Just prior to the Board meeting it had been decided that more work was needed on the proposal and HHFT would need to present a stronger and more detailed case to the next board meeting, likely to be held in November.
This was great news for UNISON members, giving them more time to organise and push back on the proposals.
NHS England
But the great news didn’t stop there.
Shortly afterwards, a statement by NHS England further derailed HHFT’s plans. Simply put, this statement argued that all Trusts needed to pause the setting up of SubCos, unless trade unions agree with the proposals – and UNISON members at HHFT certainly did not agree.
UNISON opposition to out-sourcing strongly influenced this policy and unusually, our union is named in the statement directly (and the only union named). This high-level intervention stemmed from the strong opposition to SubCos from UNISON members all across the NHS.
This led to the confirmation today (10 October) that the Trust has halted the proposal and subject to a HHFT Board decision, it is highly unlikely that further work will be carried out on it.
It would appear the proposal is binned.
What’s next?
With the funding crisis in the NHS on-going, UNISON know that HHFT will need to make savings in other ways.
Whilst UNISON members should remain vigilant, members are more organised to push back on any future attacks.
Part of this preparation includes an agreement with HHFT management that if future proposals are considered for transfer of staff to a SubCo (or outsourced as part of any other form of privatisation), the workforce and trade unions will be properly engaged with.
HHFT committed that any future change to services will include an in-house review. This means looking at the existing NHS services and seeing if they can be operated more effectively before considering outsourcing.
This is what HHFT should have done in the first place. The UNISON members working in E&FM know there are many ways to save money that don’t involve privatisation.
