Monthly Archives: August 2017

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23 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Environment (local), Rural communities

“Rural littering is down to councils charging residents more to use local dumps” says Countryside presenter

Well, it seems simple to us countryfolk: charge people too much to remove their waste and they will dump it somewhere that is free … But councils no longer work for their electors – they are big businesses that exist for profit and development. Fewer services for more money to spend on vanity projects and unsympathetic regeneration.

“… Official figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed councils across England reported 936,090 cases in 2015/16, up 4 per cent on the previous year.

Clearing up all the waste is said to cost councils £49.8million a year, and on-the-spot fines of up to £400 are said to have done little to ease the situation.

Craven, who has fronted Countryfile for more than 25 years, continued: ‘This scourge had been on the decline but now it’s peaking and in some quarters blame is being put on local councils.

‘Because they are strapped for cash, they are charging more to use local rubbish tips and even closing some of them, while at the same time cutting back on household waste collections. …”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4814648/John-Craven-s-despair-fly-tipping-epidemic.html

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22 Aug 2017

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Developers/ Development, Regeneration, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Reminder: Port Royal (Sidmouth) meeting tomorrow

“Public Meeting this

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

from 7-9pm
All Saints Church Hall, All Saints Road, Sidmouth EX10 8ES

Organised by 3Rs campaign ..Retain, Refurbish, Reuse..an alternative plan for Port Royal

Details provided by the organisers, as follows:

Retain Refurbish and Reuse
Public meeting Wednesday 23rd August
Purpose of the meeting:
To present an alternative vision for Port Royal for East Devon District Council and Sidmouth Town Council to consider.
We shall discuss how to:
-Retain existing buildings and uses, for the benefit of all;
-Refurbish buildings;
-Renew street furniture;
-‘Green’ the car parks etc;
-Reuse old buildings and spaces such as the Drill Hall and old boat park behind the Ham play area.

The meeting will include presentations and discussion on:

-a summary of the consultation findings
-Neighbourhood Plan findings on Port Royal
-the current EDDC proposal
-ideas for an alternative vision
-how an alternative vision could be funded and delivered
We want to hear your views and answer questions
Where to next? Protest, petition, write letters!

To help get this alternative considered, it’s important that you :

-Sign the petition online: search 38 degrees Sidmouth Retain
-Write to Town and District Councillors to explain what you want
-Join us on Facebook: Retain Refurbish Reuse
-Attend the picnic on the Ham on 27th August from 1-4pm

Public Meeting this Wednesday, 23 August . Organised by 3Rs campaign ..Retain, Refurbish, Reuse..an alternative plan for Port Royal

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22 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Hunt v Hawking – no contest!

Guardian letters:

“• Jeremy Hunt’s tweeted dismissal of Hawking’s article (How to solve the NHS crisis – scientifically, 19 August) is revealing: “Stephen Hawking is brilliant physicist but wrong on lack of evidence 4 weekend effect.2015 Fremantle [sic] study most comprehensive ever”.

If Hunt bases policy on a single publication (which no serious observer would do) then he should read it, and he would see Freemantle’s warning: “It is not possible to ascertain the extent to which these excess deaths may be preventable; to assume that they are avoidable would be rash and misleading.”

Freemantle found that patients admitted over the weekend are more seriously ill and more likely to die. Nobody denies that the “weekend effect” exists, but one must not jump to the facile and unsubstantiated conclusion that it reflects quality of care.

Hunt cherrypicks not only the evidence but even the authors’ interpretation.
Dr Richard O’Brien
Highbridge, Somerset

Jeremy Hunt accuses Stephen Hawking of ‘pernicious falsehood’ in NHS row

• Privately provided services, with their bank loan costs, dividend payments and management add-ons, cost far more than state-funded ones. The administration of privatisation, with the consultants, lawyers, accountants, billing agents etc involved in franchising NHS services, also add substantial costs. Hospital PFIs (private finance initiatives) have evidenced the billions that privatisation is costing the NHS and taxpayer.

Yet the government’s and NHS England’s “reconfiguring” of the NHS is using regional accountable care organisations (ACOs) which allow for extended involvement of the private sector in the running and provisioning of NHS services. This not only accepts the continuing financial burden of privatisation to the taxpayer, but allows further costs to that burden.

ACOs, and other NHS England plans such as the move from the family GP practice model to a system of commercially driven super-clinics called multi-speciality community providers, originate from the US’s notoriously costly and flawed healthcare system. The plans have been drawn up by business consultants with extensive US interests like McKinsey and Optum, a subsidiary of US private health provider/private health insurer United Health. NHS England’s CEO Simon Stevens is a former UnitedHealth senior executive.

Professor Hawking’s concerns about the privatisation and Americanisation of the NHS are therefore unsurprising. Removing all the privatisation apparatus from the NHS would allay such concerns, which are shared by many. The savings that this would make would cover the lion’s share of the costs of the extra demands facing the NHS (the ageing population etc) which are blamed for making the NHS “unaffordable”.
John Furse
London

• I am 100% behind Stephen Hawking’s attack on the Tories over the plight of the NHS. As a nurse for the last 40 years, I think that the NHS is by far the best health system in the world and it is only surviving because of the deep commitment of thousands of medical and admin staff to a worthy cause. I know for a fact that after the referendum results, scores of foreign doctors and nurses started to leave our large local hospital, for fear that they would not be allowed the freedom to stay. This has left our hospital grossly understaffed and under tremendous pressure. Others have gone off sick with severe stress after all the extra hours they are expected to put in to care for patients.

The Tories’ recent promise to provide training for thousands of medical students and nurses in a few years’ time is of no use whatsoever. Something drastic is needed now and that is to give the nurses the pay rise that others are getting. With conditions and pay at such an all-time low, how else are they going to recruit any new nurses?
Sue Ingleby
Gloucester

• What wise words from Prof Hawking and what a pathetic response from Jeremy Hunt. Hawking is right to draw attention to the vast amounts of public money going into the coffers of private organisations for services that could be handled better and cheaper in-house. The question of agencies providing nurses to fill gaps is analogous with those providing supply teachers. Previously hospitals relied on their own “banks” to provide cover for absentees, usually drawn from any of their own staff who requested extra shifts. The advantage of employing their known staff is obvious. Schools requiring temporary help could contact their local education authority (now sadly almost defunct) which kept a list of qualified teachers requesting temporary work. No money was exchanged, unlike today where in many cases the agency charges both the professional worker and the employer. How did we allow this to happen?
Ruth Lewis
Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

• Stephen Hawking’s article is so wonderfully simple and beautiful it made me want to cry. How precious the NHS is and how much it means to us. Thanks to him for writing it and to the Guardian for printing it. It should be printed in all the newspapers.
Jenny Bushell
London”

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22 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local)

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University Vice-Chancellors in the butter, students paying for it

“Another MP has resigned from his role at the University of Bath in protest against its vice-chancellor’s £451,000 pay package.

Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, became the fourth politician to step down from the university’s court, a statutory body representing the interests of the university stakeholders, in protest over Dame Glynis Breakwell’s pay deal. His resignation on Tuesday afternoon follows those of two Labour colleagues Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, and David Drew, MP for Stroud,. as well as Andrew Murrison, Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire.

As the mounting resignations prompted former Labour education minister Andrew Adonis to call for Breakwell to stand down, Jones said: “Students in my constituency are paying increasingly high tuition fees, with many families helping their children out with the costs associated with going to university.

“Vice-chancellors pay needs to be set within the context of value for money. And students take on excessive debt to get a good education, not to pay bloated executive pay.”

The issue of pay was raised by Lord Adonis in an article for the Guardian earlier this month.

University vice-chancellors are paid too much, says Lord Adonis
Murrison resigned from the university court last week, saying university bosses were “looking increasingly like a self-serving cartel”.

The series of resignations also puts the squeeze on a government already facing pressure to investigate the high salaries awarded to vice-chancellors, amid mounting accusations that students’ tuition fees are being used to inflate the pay packets of senior management.

McCarthy and Drew said Breakwell’s salary, as well as those of senior staff, could not be justified when students were taking on debts of £60,000 to pay fees.

McCarthy said her resignation was about “sending out a signal”.

She said: “I’ve been concerned for quite some time about the level of vice-chancellors’ pay; it’s the fact it’s now coupled with increasing pressures on students. It’s not just that student fees have gone up to £9,000 a year, but the interest they’re being charged on those has gone up to about 6%.

“And I know that ordinary academic staff who are on pretty modest incomes have generally had their pay held back to a 1% pay rise. We’ve got it at local government level, where you’ve got chief executives that are on several hundred thousand a year, quite a few of their senior officers are on more than the prime minister, and yet you’re holding back pay rises for the bin men.

“I think it sends out a very poor signal to the students if the impression they’re given is they are the ones bearing the financial burden.”

Subsequent to the resignations, Adonis said a pay reduction for Breakwell would not be enough to solve the problem.

“The crisis at the university of Bath can only now be resolved one way, which is by the resignation of the vice-chancellor,” he told the Guardian. “It’s clear that she’s progressively losing the support of her court and council, and for very good reason. Her pay and conduct has been unacceptable.”

The peer has previously called for an inquiry in the House of Lords and criticised the “serious controversy” of salary increases awarded to Breakwell, along with benefits such as “a large house in the historic centre of Bath”, and non-executive directorships she holds.

Jones said on Tuesday that he agreed with Adonis that government should undertake an inquiry into public sector executive pay. “I have therefore resigned from my ex officio position on the court of Bath University as a sign of my support for such a review,” he said.

While Breakwell is top of the salary list, the controversy is not unique to Bath. Vice-chancellors received an average salary package of £277,834 in the last academic year, more than six times the average pay of university staff.

A report released by University and College Union (UCU) in February revealed that 23 British universities had increased the pay packages of their vice-chancellors by 10% or more in 2015-16. Fifty-five universities paid their heads more than £300,000, with 11 vice-chancellors earning more than £400,000 a year.

Breakwell’s package was an 11% rise on the previous year, despite a 1.1% cap on pay for non-managerial staff across the higher education sector.

The Higher Education and Funding council for England (‌Hefce), the universities charities watchdog, has been asked to examine whether Breakwell’s salary is in line with charitable duties and responsibilities. It has said it would investigate “governance in relation to the remuneration committee of the university”.

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, has told universities that in future they will have to justify exceptionally high salaries.

A University of Bath spokesperson said: “We are providing Hefce with all the information they have requested including in relation to meetings of university court. The university does not intend to comment further on these matters until such time as Hefce have concluded their investigation.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/22/two-more-mps-quit-bath-university-roles-over-vice-chancellors-pay

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22 Aug 2017

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East Devon Tories

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Tory Party could be a minority party rather soon!

Especially as people are for the first time in decades people are dying younger.

“Former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has warned the electoral base is dying off at a rate of 2 per cent a year and has called for a new party leader.

Lord Heseltine, who worked with Margaret Thatcher and was deputy to John Major, said the party needs to work hard to “restore its electoral fortunes” and that Theresa May should step down after a “matter of months”. …

“One thing which is just worth having in mind, and you can’t do anything about it, 2 per cent of the older part of the electorate die every year – they are 70 per cent Conservative,” Lord Heseltine told Sky News.

”Another 2 per cent come in at the young end of the electorate – they are about 70 per cent Labour. That’s about 2 per cent change each year. There isn’t that much time. …“

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/conservative-voters-dying-off-lord-michael-heseltine-tory-part-elderly-support-base-pensioners-a7798386.html

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22 Aug 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Persimmon

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One of those “too poor to build affordables” posts 30% profit rise

“LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s second biggest housebuilder Persimmon said its first-half pre-tax profits rose 30 percent to 457 million pounds but it would remain cautious over land buying due to uncertainty around Brexit.

Persimmon, which built just over 15,100 homes across the country in 2016, said its volumes rose 8 percent to 7,794 units in the first six months of the year and that customer interest in its developments remained strong.

The firm said the housing market was still “confident” and its reservation rate had risen 2 percent in recent weeks but it would be prudent about buying land for future building, the biggest cost faced by most builders.

“We will remain cautious with respect to new land investment for as long as the uncertainties facing the market persist, particularly those associated with the risks to the UK economy resulting from the UK’s exit from the EU,” the firm said on Tuesday.”

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-court-idUKKCN1B120X

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22 Aug 2017

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Accountability, DCC, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, NHS (local), Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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County councils say they cannot meet bed-blocking targets

Owl bangs on: Closing Seaton and Honiton hospital beds was NOT about patient care it was simply about THIS. And no use whinging Devonians – if you voted Conservative (and you did in sufficient numbers to ensure a majority on EDDC and DCC) this IS what you voted for and the buck does stop with YOU as much as them – and if you keep voting them in, it will get even worse:

“County council leaders have written to health secretary Jeremy Hunt asking him to reconsider proposals to withhold social care funding if bed-blocking targets are not met.

Under new guidance produced by the Department of Health last week, county authorities would have to reduce delayed discharges from hospitals by an average by 43% within the next few months – double the target of London.

Herefordshire has a target of a 69% reduction whilst Suffolk has a target of 67%, which county leaders have called “undeliverable” and “arbitrary”.

Colin Noble, County Councils Network health and social care spokesman, described the targets as a “backwards step” and said the resulting lack of funding would push services to breaking point.

“It is perverse that this money – designed to ease pressures – could be taken away if we cannot hit virtually undeliverable and arbitrary targets within a very short time period,” he said.

Noble highlighted that counties are the least well funded councils for social care and urged the government to draw up a sustainable solution not a “double whammy” of underfunding and the prospect of funds being withdrawn.

The CCN notes that the problem facing rural councils is even more acute because they contain the fastest growing elderly populations yet are the worst funded councils for social care.

In total, the 37 county authorities receive £2bn less funding for health and social care than other parts of the country, according to the network.

The CCN argues that there is no quick fix to the issue of delayed discharges and only one third of them nationally are attributable to social care.

Noble called on the government to develop long-lasting reform to social care that makes the system work better. He said counties, which spend 47% of the nation’s total expenditure on social care, want to work with the government to better integrate services.

However, the network argues the social care funding crisis will only be solved if funding discrepancies between rural and urban councils are resolved in tandem with a long-term sustainable funding settlement for all councils.

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “No one should stay in hospital longer than necessary. It puts unneeded pressure on our hospitals and wastes taxpayers’ money.”

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/08/counties-urge-hunt-rethink-bed-blocking-targets

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22 Aug 2017

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Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Care homes – a dying industry

“Care homes are teetering “on the edge” and a chronic shortage of funding risks “catastrophic failure” within the National Health Service, the businessman expected to be the biggest operator of residential homes has warned.

Chai Patel, chairman of HC-One, which could take over more than 120 homes from Bupa, predicted that six national chains would emerge to dominate the market by benefiting from economies of scale. The acquisition would enable his company to expand to about 350 homes with 22,000 care beds and become the biggest in the sector.

There is immense pressure on care homes amid government funding cuts and an increase in costs since all adults over 25 became eligible for the national living wage. Some small operators are quitting, with 144 care homes closing last year and a loss of about 2,000 beds a year. Many more are “zombie” homes, feared to be close to bankruptcy as struggling councils force down the rates they pay.

A shortage of capacity means that the number of people in residential homes has not increased in line with rising longevity, forcing many frail and elderly people to rely on specialist care in their own homes.

In an interview with The Times, Dr Patel admitted: “There is no question the sector itself is on the edge.” He added: “The impact of chronic under-funding of social care will result in catastrophic failure in the NHS.”

and underneath this article:

“An investment group that is set to be the biggest care homes owner in Britain has vowed that it will not become the next Southern Cross.

HC-One is poised to acquire about 120 homes from Bupa, possibly through a debt and equity deal amid unease about the implications for the group’s debt levels and with memories of Southern Cross’s collapse fresh in the memory.

Southern Cross, which once ran more than 750 care homes and had 37,000 beds and some 41,000 staff, failed in 2011 when all its homes were taken over by their landlords.

The equity for the Bupa purchase, which is close to completion, is understood to be being provided by Stepstone Real Estate and Safanad, an investment firm, and the debt arranged through Deutsche Bank and Apollo Global Management.

The acquisition of more than 9,000 beds from Bupa would take HC-One’s total to almost 22,000 and catapult it above Barchester Healthcare and Four Seasons Health Care. HC-One rose from the ashes of Southern Cross when it acquired about a third of the homes and has expanded through two other acquisitions since 2015. The purchase of Helen McArdle Care, which had 20 homes, was funded through debt.”

Source: Times (pay wall)

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22 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Audit (EDDC), Austerity cuts, Democracy, Developers/ Development, Greater Exeter, Local Enterprise Partnership, Scrutiny, Transparency

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The erosion of democracy to serve the cult of celebrity and business

From an article about how Boris Johnsom frittered away nearly a billion pounds on projects that came to nothing while he was London mayor – echoes of the East Devon Business Forum, the Local Enterprise Partnership, Greater Exeter …

“… Still, Johnson merely highlights a number of problems. He shows what happens when our celebrity culture, in which he has a starring role, fuses with an era of denuded press and desiccated politics. This is the age of the administrative monarch. We are encouraged to place power and trust in individuals of purported unparalleled wisdom, vision and probity. Mayors, metro mayors, police commissioners, superheads; we outsource to individuals, increasing their power in the belief they will get things done, unencumbered by faint hearts and red tape.

By this thinking, democratic checks and balances are a bother. There can, in this political calibration, be some light-touch monitoring, but the monarch must have all the power. True democracy can be such a millstone.

This is a philosophy tilted towards business in its many lucrative interactions with the public sector, for it sends a message that the special individual talents of the market do not need the democratic or collective checks and balances that might save us from folly. We saw this in the framing of the London mayoralty, where the initial hope was that a Richard Branson or a Greg Dyke would seize the sceptre. That didn’t work out. Instead of an industry titan, the befuddled lawmakers ended up with Ken Livingstone, the very antithesis of their hopes, and then Johnson.

But the thinking endures that true progress needs turbo-empowered individuals in whom we endow complete trust, as we might for a pilot or a brain surgeon, because their knowledge and drive and networking prowess surpasses our understanding. Theresa May sought that sort of unquestioning trust when she implored us not to worry our pretty little heads and to give her complete and personal authority to do as she pleased in Brussels. The country eventually called her out on that, but isn’t it time to question that philosophy everywhere?

Isn’t it time to reassess the extent to which we have loosened the regulatory structures? The Tory-led coalition scrapped the audit commission and with it a level of scrutiny that once gave the reckless pause. The Standards Board for England, responsible for monitoring ethical standards in local government, was doused in ministerial petrol and thrown on to the same so-called bonfire of the quangos.

At the same time, the right or expectation that local councillors, representing their communities, should sit on the boards of organisations in receipt of public funds – such as schools, housing associations and private firms delivering communal services – has been steadily eroded.

Our system is a largely a centralised one, but still the canny determined mayor can disengage the handbrake knowing that no one can, in real time, reapply it. Voters can assert their authority at some point on the journey, but it may be some way down the road. By that point the vehicle, recklessly driven, may have crashed. And by the time the authorities arrive, the driver may well have legged it.

So these leaders may never be held to account. Maybe they have already left office. The heat turns down, the world moves on. The protection of celebrity deflects the glare. Isn’t that what’s happened in the case of the garden bridge and all of the wasteful, ill-conceived Johnsonian follies?

But isn’t it also – in terms of the public’s apparent inability to bring poor and reckless administrators to account – what’s happened in universities up and down the country? Vice-chancellors on grotesquely bloated salaries charge £9,000-plus tuition fees without any improvement in the offer to students. And in notorious academy schools, deified super-heads have taken advantage of huge pay cheques and light public supervision to provide pupils with a substandard education.

We have grown scornful of the mundanities of democracy. The celebrity-as-saviour populist version excites. But the dull, traditional, sometimes tortuous structures – with checks and balances and inquests and punishments – existed for a reason. With them grand projects took longer, consensus was required, and foolhardy stewardship carried risks. But without them we spend millions on the dream of a flowery bridge while services atrophy, food banks flourish, and the designers of that outrage move onwards and upwards.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/22/boris-johnson-940-million-system-to-blame

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, DCC, Democracy, East Devon Tories, EDDC, Paul Diviani, Sarah Randall Johnson, Scrutiny, Sleaze, Spin, Standards Committee

(Tory) Council leaders, don’t you just love ’em – not!

Current leader of EDDC, Paul Diviani, and his Tory friends on the council voted against hospital bed cuts at EDDC (which is toothless on this matter) but he then voted FOR the same cuts at Devon County Council, which has just a few gnashers, but where former EDDC Leader and DCC councillor for Whimple, Sarah Randall Johnson, silenced a legitimate opposition debate on closures using very dubious tactics against her arch-enemy (campaigner and ouster from her EDDC seat) Claire Wright:

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/08/12/conduct-of-health-committee-members-investigated-by-devon-council-diviani-and-randall-johnson-heavily-criticised-for-behaviour/

Now the former Leader of Grenfell Tower Council joins the merry band:

“The council leader who presided over the Grenfell Tower disaster offered paid “advice” on public sector cutbacks – and tried to “whitewash” his CV in the process.

Nick Paget-Brown resigned as leader of Kensington and Chelsea council after the authority’s woeful response to the deadly inferno drew widespread criticism.

He has remained a councillor but has attracted fresh ire from survivors and rival politicians after advertising his own company – NPB Consulting – on his new Linkedin profile.

The firm, of which he is managing director, offers specialist advice on “financial planning in an age of austerity” to other councils.

Paget-Brown is also accused of hurling a “final insult” to victims as he has omitted his experience as council leader from his CV’s career history, leaving a space between the end of his time as deputy leader in 2013 and founding NPB in 2017. His appointment as leader was mentioned elsewhere. …

Paget-Brown used the networking site to advertise his skills, including “policy analysis, seminars, briefings and drafting assistance for organisations working with local authorities”.

Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP for Kensington, said: “Paget-Brown’s attempt to whitewash his career by becoming a cost-cutting consultant is the final insult.”

Moyra Samuels, co-founder of the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign, said: “To effectively say, ‘I’m moving on swiftly to my next project’ shows complete disdain for this community.”

At the time of his resignation, Paget-Brown said he shared responsibility for the “perceived failings” of the council. “

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/grenfell-paget-brown_uk_599a96bbe4b0e8cc855e707e

Only “perceived” note …

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, NHS (local), Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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Coverage of Seaton hospital bed closures

Owl still thinks THIS is the real reason for the hurried closure:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/08/20/is-this-why-there-is-a-dangerous-rush-to-close-community-hospital-beds/

“Protesters waved banners and shouted ‘shame’ outside Seaton Hospital today (Monday, August 21) as health chiefs began implementing their in-patient bed closure plans.

A similar vigil will take place outside Honiton Hospital next Monday when the cuts are due to begin there.

Yesterday’s gathering was addressed by Seaton’s county councillor Martin Shaw who said the town had been badly let down, and town mayor Jack Rowland, who said that while they may have lost the fight to save the beds the battle would now begin to save the actual hospital.

The dates for the closure of in-patient beds in East Devon was announced by health officials last week.

In a statement the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust said: “The NHS has given details of how it intends to implement its ‘Your Future Care’ plans to improve patient care across Eastern Devon, including creating new nursing, therapist and support roles.

“Your Future Care” set out proposals to move away from the existing bed-based model of care. Instead it proposed a model of care focused on proactively averting health crises and promoting independence and wellbeing.

“The plans were subject to a 13-week public consultation that closed earlier this year, following which the NHS NEW Devon CCG approved a way forward which enhanced community services to support more home-based care by redirecting and reinvesting some existing bed-based resources. The net result would mean an increase of over 50 community-based staff to support out of hospital care and a reduction in community inpatient beds across the Eastern locality of Devon.

“Detailed operational work began in this area with the introduction of the Community Connect out-of-hospital service in March which has already led to a reduction in demand for community inpatient beds.

“In order to achieve this transition safely, implementation will take a phased approach to redeploy and recruit staff to the additional nursing, therapy, care workers and pharmacist roles which will enhance community services in Exeter, East Devon and Mid Devon.

This will enable the reduction in inpatient beds – moving from seven community inpatient units to three.

The timetable for implementation is:

• Seaton Community Hospital week commencing 21 August 2017

• Okehampton Community Hospital week commencing 21 August 2017

• Honiton Community Hospital week commencing 28 August 2017

• Exeter Community Hospital week commencing 4 September 2017.

“The provision of inpatient services at these locations will cease from these dates. All other services at these hospitals will continue as normal. Patients in these areas in medical need of a community inpatient bed will be accommodated at either Tiverton, Sidmouth or Exmouth hospitals, depending on where they live.

“Over the past couple of weeks it has become apparent that the schedule for the closure of the in-patient units needs to be brought forward. This is due to the increasing pressures on safely staffing the current configuration of seven community inpatient units. Furthermore, now that the workforce HR consultation has been completed, 170 staff can be redeployed into the enhanced community teams and our hospitals to provide extra capacity and resilience to meet the demand for care for the people of Eastern Devon.”

Adel Jones, Integration Director at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust said: “It is acknowledged that getting to this point in the process has not been without its challenges and I would like to thank all who have contributed to the development of the implementation plans.”

Dr Anthony Hemsley, Associate Medical Director at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital said: “Although the decision to reduce inpatient beds will only affect a small number of patients per week, we, with the support of the clinical assurance panel, are confident that our plans to provide more care at home are safe and ultimately will help more people to be independent.

“At the point of implementation, we will be able to redirect some of the existing bed-based resource into local community teams. Additional staff including community nurses, therapists and personal support workers will be there to provide greater provision and access to care and support. However, we know that there is still much more work to be done, particularly around prevention, wellbeing, recruitment of staff and availability of domiciliary care. This can only be done in partnership with communities and we at the RD&E look forward to continuing this work.”

Rob Sainsbury, chief operating officer for NEW Devon CCG, said: “Reallocating resources away from hospital bed-based care into more home-based and community care will really make a positive difference to people’s lives.

“It will ensure that everyone who needs the service in our community has the best access to good quality and sustainable health services and help people to stay independent for longer, with the benefit of being cared for closer to family and friends.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/protest-over-seaton-hospital-bed-closures-1-5157377

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, General Election, Proportional representation, Voting

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Electoral reform needed; system not strong OR stable!

“… In the end, we have a system that only recognises the geographical location of a voter and nothing else. It is where voters are – rather than how many are backing whom – that matters. This must change if we are to restore legitimacy to our political institutions.

But the real question for our politicians is this: if the two main parties can gain over 80% of the vote for the first time in decades, in a system designed for two parties, and yet both still lose – when will they show the leadership the country so desperately needs and fix our voting system?

Doing so would send a message that far from being in it for themselves, parties can make brave and bold decisions to revitalise our democracy. If there’s anything this last few years have shown, it’s that people feel alienated from politics and are struggling to be heard. Let’s find positive ways of making that happen.”

Read the full report here:

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/the-myth-that-westminsters-voting-system-is-strong-and-stable-has-been-bust-for-good/

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, Neil Parish, NHS (local), Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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Care at home – in your dreams, sorry – nightmares!

A comment from Save Our Hospitals Facebook on the Seaton hospital beds closure today and Honiton next week:

“What utter tripe!!!!

Out of all our nursing auxiliaries at Honiton there is ONE, being redeployed in community. The rest have been shipped to Exeter and Sidmouth!!
How’s that for care in the community! The bloke [Neil Parish MP, who responds to worried constituents with an anodyne “round robin” but voted through the cuts] is a total liar, as is the rest of them!! When it came to the crunch,they all turned their backs on their community!! God help them!!”

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Neil Parish, NHS (local), Paul Diviani, Sarah Randall Johnson, Scrutiny, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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RIP Seaton Community Hospital beds – vigil, noon today

The town with the largest catchment area for elderly people – its community hospital closes the doors on its beds today.

Built by public subscription, funded by a hard-working League of Friends, only its outpatient services will remain – for now.

The heart of a community stops beating today.

Thanks to the vote of East Devon District Leader (Paul Diviani – who voted at EDDC against his own district recommendation) and former Leader and Chair of DCC Health and Social Care Committee Sarah Randall-Johnson, who voted along with all other Conservatives on that committee not to refer the closures of Seaton and Honiton (next Monday) to the Secretary of State.

This will leave the whole of the eastern side of the district with no community beds at all – the few remaining beds to be (for the time being) in Sidmouth and Exmouth, closer to Exeter and Cranbrook.

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Coastal communities, Democracy, Environment (local), Regeneration, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Sidmouth Port Royal: “Retain, reuse, reburbish” meeting Wednesday 23 August 7.30 pm

The meeting, on

Wednesday 23rd August
starts at 7pm at
All Saints Church Hall, All Saints Road, Sidmouth.

“More than a thousand people have now signed the petition “an alternative plan for Sidmouth’s Port Royal—the 3 Rs.

If you, too, feel strongly about appropriate development at the eastern end of the seafront, but haven’t yet added your name, it is urgent to do so as a decision is imminent.

Signatures for the ‘Retain-Refurbish-Reuse’ option are being collected online at

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/alternative-plan-for-sidmouth-s-port-royal-the-3r-s

or alternatively on paper – for example at this week’s 3Rs Public Meeting, organised by EDDC Councillors Matt Booth, Cathy Gardner, Dawn Manley and Marianne Rixson, and Chaired by Di Fuller – see header above”

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21 Aug 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, General Election, Proportional representation, Voting

The “hold your nose” General Election – 20 million votes “wasted”

“Twenty-two million votes were “wasted” in June’s election and had no impact on the result, a study reveals today.

Nearly seven out of 10 ballots made no different to the outcome, which stripped Theresa May of a Commons majority, the Electoral Reform Society report claims.

It brands the 2017 poll the ‘hold your nose’ election, estimating 6.5 million people voted tactically because they knew ticking the box for their favourite party or candidate would have no influence.

Other findings include that if just 0.0016% of voters chose differently, the Conservatives would have won a majority; the rise of very marginal seats, with 11 seats won by fewer than 100 votes; and the second highest voting volatility since 1931, with people switching sides at “astonishing” levels.

The ERS also blasts Britain’s first-past-the-post system, which is designed to avoid hung parliaments – but, for the second time in three general elections, left no party with a majority.

Chief executive Darren Hughes said: “The vast majority of votes are going to waste, with millions still stuck in the electoral black hole of winner-takes-all – a diverse and shifting public having to work around a broken two-party system.

“The result is volatile voting and random results in the different parts of the UK.

“There are a wide range of systems where votes are not thrown on the electoral scrapheap.

“We need to move towards a means of electing our MPs where all voices are heard and where people don’t feel forced to hold their nose at the ballot box.”

The ERS’ ‘Volatile Voting – Random Results’ report says while Labour secured 29% of votes in the South East it got just 10% of seats.

In the North East, the Tories netted 34% of votes but scooped just 9% of seats.

Meanwhile, the SNP continued to be over-represented in Scotland, as was Labour in Wales, while Northern Ireland voters were “forced into two camps”, according to the report.

Researchers discovered the Conservatives benefited most from the mismatch between votes and seats, winning 46% of English votes but 56% of seats.

Mr Hughes said: “June’s election has shown first-past-the-post is unable to cope with people’s changing voting habits – forcing citizens and parties to try and game the system.

“With an estimated 6.5 million people ‘holding their nose’ at the ballot box, voters have been denied real choice and representation.

“This surge in tactical voting – double the rate of 2015 – meant voters shifted their party allegiances at unprecedented rates, with the second highest level of voter volatility since the inter-war years.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tens-million-votes-wasted-general-11020317

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20 Aug 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Greater Exeter, Land Supply, Local Plan, NPPF

Is EDDC gearing up for even greater development for 5-year Local Plan review?

All Local Plans have to be reviewed every five years. Though it is likely that the next Local Plan won’t be very local as “Greater Exeter” will almost certainly be what is put forward, East Devon being only one part of it.

Now it seems the current Local Plan didn’t go to plan!

“The number of new homes being built in East Devon has dramatically dropped, government data has revealed.

In total, 620 new properties were completed by private developers and housing associations in 2016/17.

But this is more than 250 homes fewer than were built in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 – where an average of 836 new properties were finished each year.

In the last decade, a total of 4,690 properties have been built and completed in the district and more than 12,600 new homes were finished across Devon. …”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/number-of-new-homes-being-built-in-east-devon-dramatically-drops-1-5155038

In fact 2013/14 and 2014/15 and 2015/16 were the result of the years during which the developer free-for-all took place when EDDC had no Local Plan and no 5 year land supply so we had a situation where, under government rules, developers could build any amount of houses practically anywhere. So it’s hardly surprising there was a boom.

So, it now appears that, in fact, the number of houses EDDC had expected to see built this year haven’t materialised.

That could mean that more will be front-loaded to a revised (probably Greater Exeter) plan. And/or the whole area might be back to not having a 5-year land supply so it will be a developer free-for-all – again.

What is VERY interesting is that around 37% of all new homes in the whole of Devon have been built in East Devon in the last decade.

Perhaps time for other parts of Greater Exeter to take the strain in the coming decade?