Why Prof Robert Winston Saddened Me

A few people may have noticed that I had an issue with Professor Robert Winston’s Party Political Broadcast on Wednesday night on behalf of the Labour Party.

As the restrictive limit of Twitter means it is difficult to fully express issues I thought I would take the opportunity to set out why I think the broadcast was misleading and why Professor Winston’s role was ingenuous.

The main thrust of the broadcast was the broken promises on the NHS by David Cameron and the Coalition, the ‘top-down’ reform imposed on the NHS by the Health and Social Care Act, the loss of nursing jobs and the cuts in NHS services in general. I have no disagreement with any of this and it is the normal cut and thrust of politics.

What I did disagree with was the implication that voting Labour in the forthcoming Local elections would help improve the NHS.

The fact is Local Councils have no executive power when it comes to the NHS, Councils cannot reverse cuts, Councils cannot employ more nurses in the NHS and Councils do not have the power to initiate any reforms of the NHS.

If you read the Health and Social Care Act (which I have) there is a significant increase in local council involvement in Health, particularly in terms of public health, integrated services (e.g. social care) and through Health & Well Being boards, but none of this gives local councils power over the NHS.

Now if Ed Milliband had been touting that voting Labour in May the NHS would be improved in the areas where Labour held the council I probably would not have batted an eyelid. I (and I expect many people) expect politicians to try and mislead me in order to  seduce me  to vote for them.

However when a well-respected, well-known figure of authority does this, it should be of major concern. I spoke to someone today who saw the broadcast and asked them what it meant, and they told me that if Labour won the council elections they would make changes to improve the NHS. When I pointed out that, actually, that would not happen I was told I was wrong because Robert Winston had said it.

It is somewhat ironic that the Party Political Broadcast that complained about the broken promises by one politician was actually implying promises that it could not keep!

Political spin will always exist but I am saddened when figures of authority indulge in it as it will, inevitably, diminish that authority.

Why I Am Supporting #Twobby - End the Care Crisis

Back in 2008 I sat in the press conference where then Health Minister, Alan Johnson, announced that the Labour Government was launching a consultation on a social care Green Paper. Now a Green Paper is, in itself, a consultation document – so it was the announcement of a consultation on a consultation! This, effectively, meant that the then Labour Government would not have to tackle the issue of social care before a General Election, something that was raised by numerous journalists at the time.

Since May 2010 we have had a Conservative/LibDem  Government whose only action, so far, has been to launch yet another consultation – Dilnot – with the promise of a White Paper which appears to be delayed yet again, although reports last week suggested we will get a draft version which will be open for consultation!

Apart from the blatant prevarication by all parties there is also the issue of what the constant consultations involve and that is the issue of who pays what for social care.

Yet the issues go deeper than that, social care has been facing cuts since well before the recession actually kicked in with issues over less than inflation fee increases by local authorities going back to at least 2007.

So it is not only a case of who pays but also is enough actually being paid?

Principle in this question of how much is being paid is what we are paying social care staff. At the end of last year the BBC revealed that many care workers are actually getting less than the minimum wage http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9604000/9604221.stm

If we want to provide the best possible quality of care for the most vulnerable in society then we need the best possible workers to provide that care and support. Yet care workers have been described as ‘vulnerable workers’ by the TUC and there seems to be little political action on improving the image of care work to encourage more people into the sector.

In 2010/2011 there were around 1.5 million adults accessing Local Authority funded social care services and this does not include those ineligible for funding and who are having to pay for their own care. And the issue of social care will only become more pressing over time, more people will need care and support services as the population continues to live longer and WE WILL NEED more workers to provide that support.

Government should be about leadership yet ALL political parties seem to prefer to run and hide when it comes to dealing with social care.

I am supporting #Twobby because those who sit in Westminster need to STAND UP and take action on social care NOW rather than endlessly prevaricate in the hope that it will go away