Daily Archives: 6 Nov 2017

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6 Nov 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Planning System, Public Open Space

Jeremy Corbyn on green belt development

“I feel very strongly about the principle of the green belt, because if you take away this cordon of green space and cleaner air around big cities, I think you have the danger of massive ribbon development. So I am somebody that is very sceptical about building on the green belt. I see that in some cases there are land swaps that go on, where a piece of open space is created somewhere else in return for it. That obviously is a trade off that can be looked at.

But I just think as a society we all need a bit of open space around us. We all value our parks. You don’t go to them every day, but it’s good for you to know they are there and good for everybody else if they want to go and use them. So I am concerned about encroaching on the green belt.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2017/nov/06/cbi-tells-may-that-business-needs-clarity-over-brexit-transition-by-christmas-politics-live

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6 Nov 2017

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

Another CCG judicial review request – but not in Devon

“Campaigners have applied to the High Court for judicial review over Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust plans to shake up services.
The Hands Off HRI campaign, advised by law firm Irwin Mitchell, is seeking to challenge the NHS Trust’s plans to axe the A&E department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) and replacing the 400-bed hospital with a 64-bed “planned care” facility.

It said the plans would also see a transfer of capacity to Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) in Halifax, which would be expanded to have 674 beds.
The group claimed that the costs of the plans were estimated at being more than £300m, proposed to be funded by a Private Finance Initiative.

Yogi Amin, a partner at Irwin Mitchell and the lawyer representing the Hands Off HRI campaign, said: “We believe that the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has produced a flawed business case, which does not present all the necessary evidence or follow the government guidelines.

“The effect of seeing through these plans could not only be millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being used, but also the closure of much needed acute local NHS services. Local campaigners and professionals have argued that alternative local options based on the use of existing resources should have been considered as opposed to the current proposed plan which would see hundreds of patients every month transported from the Huddersfield facility to CRH in Halifax.”

A spokesman from Hands Off HRI campaign group said: “This is a long and complicated road that we are taking to challenge the proposed changes to take away our much needed local hospital services in Huddersfield.

“We support the judicial review and we believe that the Court will consider the case fairly. In the meantime we hope that no steps are taken to make any changes to the hospital services.

“The NHS Trust plans are opposed by local people and have yet to receive any funding or full backing from the government, so we do not think that it would be fair to go ahead and move hospital services from Huddersfield to the CRH in Halifax.”

The NHS trust has been approached for comment.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php

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6 Nov 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, Neil Parish, NHS (local), Privatisation, Scrutiny, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton, Spin

Do tors question privatisation – no confidence in contractor Capita

Oh Lord, government says it is “holding Capita’s feet to the fire”. Would that be the same fire that MP Neil Parish said he was holding the CCG’s feet to, just before Honiton and Seaton hospitals closed?

Not much of a fire, feet rather a long way from it.

“Doctors raise alarm about controversial private company’s plans to overhaul cancer screening

GP representatives have raised concerns about the potential risk of delayed or missed cancer diagnosis from a new IT service being developed to administer smear testing for cervical cancer.

The British Medical Association’s GP Committee (GPC) has written to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens to highlight the continued failures in key back-office functions from paying doctors to registering patients.

The problems all relate to a major contract for primary care “support services” that are essential to the day-to-day running of GP practices, dentists, opticians and pharmacists.

NHS England decided to contract for a single national supplier and awarded a contract to outsourcing giant Capita, starting in September 2015.

The BMA letter says major problems have persisted since NHS England commissioned the service two years ago, changes the letter says are “putting patients at risk”.

But it warns there are more changes planned for next year.

GPC chair Dr Richard Vautrey writes: “We understand that new systems for both cervical screening and GP payments and pensions are due to go live in July of next year.

“We are very concerned that preparations are not sufficiently advanced at this stage of the projects to guarantee a seamless transfer to the new service.”

“We have no confidence in Capita’s ability to deliver this service,” the letter adds.

A spokesperson for Capita told The Independent that a final date had not been set, but did confirm that a July deadline has been discussed.

They added that the new service was being developed alongside NHS England, NHS Digital and Public Health England.

Capita’s support services website shows it is responsible for updating and operating key elements of the National Cervical Screening Programme.

The programme invites women aged 25 and 64 years for a routine smear test every three years, and health chiefs warned earlier this year that screening uptake had hit a 19-year low. …

… A Capita spokesperson said: “This is a major transformation project to modernise a localised and unstandardised service, which inevitably has meant some challenges.

“This letter does not accurately reflect our involvement and responsibilities in PCSE, nor does it reflect our recent correspondence from NHS England who have recognised the improvements and significant progress being made across services in 2017, which has been demonstrated through improved and increasing customer satisfaction.

NHS England said: “We are holding Capita’s ‘feet to the fire’ on needed improvements”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-cancer-screenings-changes-capita-overhaul-doctors-raise-alarm-a8036381.html

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6 Nov 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Inequality

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Austerity cuts and working people

“… a couple with two young children, one working full-time and the other part-time on the national living wage, will lose more than £1,200 a year due to universal credit cuts.

Another example given is that of a single parent with two young children who starts work at 12 hours a week on the national living wage and will have an effective hourly wage of £4.18, as opposed to £5.01 before the cuts.

The authors detail the wider penalties for families due to the benefit cuts and other changes, saying those with four or more children will lose more than £4,000 a year overall, or £5,000 if they move to universal credit.

Single parents will be especially badly hit, the report said, with changes to universal credit leaving them on average £710 a year worse off. Parents of children with disabilities will also be disproportionately affected, it adds.

The report said: “The losses are alarming, and will damage the life chances of hundreds of thousands of children growing up under austerity.”

Overall, the study said, cuts to the existing benefit system since 2010 will push 700,000 children into poverty, after accounting for housing costs. The two-child limit for benefit payments alone will put 200,000 children in poverty once the system has been fully extended nationwide, the calculations suggested. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/06/families-thousands-of-pounds-worse-off-after-years-of-cuts-study-finds

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6 Nov 2017

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Accountability, Education (local)

180 children in a class – yes: one hundred and eighty! – but it’s OK – it’s only PE

A school in England has a class with more than 180 pupils in it as Tory cuts hammer the education system.

Children across the UK are often taught in classes of 100 or more students a Freedom of Information request revealed.

The class of 181 was in a school in Sutton, South West London. It was unclear which subject was being taught, but it was possible it was PE or music.

Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, said she was appalled by the figures.

She said: “Everyone from the public accounts committee to the teaching unions has warned that Tory cuts will lead to large class sizes – and this admission is yet more evidence that they are right.”

A class in Sefton, Merseyside, had 141 pupils and one in Suffolk had 135. The figures were collected by counting the number of children in each class on a specific day in January this year.

They also showed 10 classes of 70 or more pupils and 52 classes with 50-plus students. At primary school level, there were 14 schools with more than 40 pupils in a class.

The largest primary school class was in Somerset, which had 60 pupils.

Head teachers are calling for more than £1billion extra for education and are linking rising class sizes to the £2.8billion real-terms cut since 2015.

The Department for Education said: “We have invested £5.8billion in the school estate, creating 735,000 places since 2010,

At Harrop Fold School in Salford, the head teacher, Drew Povey, said he had once taught 150 children in a class. “We have taught huge classes in the past, though infrequently, partly to save money on supply teachers.

“I honestly think we are going to see class sizes balloon in schools over the next few years because of the funding cuts.”

Labour made it illegal for schools to have more than 30 pupils in infant classes.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “We have spoken to the three schools with the largest class sizes.

“These figures relate to PE lessons and choir practice where it is not uncommon for classes to be taught together.

“The schools’ pupil-to-teacher ratios remain well below the national average.

“We also expect this is the case for many of the other schools reporting larger classes in this data.

“We have invested £5.8bn in the school estate, creating 735,000 places since 2010, and despite rising pupil numbers, the average class size has not changed. In fact, less than 1% of primary school pupils are taught in classes of 36 or more, less than in 2010.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/180-pupils-one-class-appalling-11473734