Mr. Bernard Gloster:

There is a three-step approach. We are starting with the pressure that is on emergency departments and the outflow from hospitals, which does include mental health presentations. There is a three-step approach to securing an extended week of what we might call "normal service" as opposed to just on-call service. We need to finish some discussions with the unions but we have put to them that we would like to invite staff to voluntarily change from a five-over-five contract to a five-over-seven contract. That would allow them to be rostered over the seven days.

That is the first step. The second step is to secure agreement to proceed with including in the contract terms and conditions of all new employees of the health service, regardless of who they are and including me, the option for the service to deploy them on a five-over-seven basis, subject to fair rostering. Depending on whether we have enough in that, the third would involve some previous public sector agreements that allowed for changes to be made. We would have to negotiate how best to implement those but I hope that we can get there between new recruitment and voluntary arrangements. The one challenge the unions probably articulate most to me is that, if we want a seven-day service, we will need additional staff. That is, of course, correct but it is not the only part. I believe there is a benefit to the public in utilising what we currently have better over seven days rather than over five days in the case of a number of disciplines. That is the approach. To be fair, it is a conversation and will come down to individual disciplines having different views but I am confident that we will get closer than people thought we might. That will include the capacity of community services, including mental health services.