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Alice Hood

Alice Hood

I’m a TUC senior policy officer working on public services. I cover policy areas such as public service reform, health, local government, public service pensions and pay.

Before joining the TUC I worked in a policy role at the Local Government Association, for the European Parliamentary Labour Party and before that as a full-time elected student union officer.

  • Public services

    NHS reforms “extremely risky and potentially disastrous”

    17th January 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    Ahead of the publication of the Health and Social Care Bill this Wednesday, unions representing workers across the NHS have used a strongly-worded letter to the Times (paywall) to warn that the planned reforms are “extremely risky and potentially disastrous”. The unions (BMA, RCN, Unison, Unite, RCM and CSP) between them represent the majority of the 1.4 million people working in the NHS in England, including doctors, nurses, midwives, health visitors, psychologists, physiotherapists and many more. They argue that the current proposals could damage the quality of care and hamper effective collaborative working. The nature of the changes, the speed and scale of implementation, and the requirement to make £20 billion in savings at the same time all add up to a potent cocktail of risks.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #324: LGA predicts 140,000 council job cuts in the next year

    25th November 2010 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Regions, Labour market

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    More details are emerging about the likely scale of local government job cuts and the impact on the most deprived areas of the country.  The Local Government Association has today revised its estimate of the number of jobs likely to be lost in the next year, raising the figure from 100,000 to 140,000. The LGA says that this is because of the way that the cuts are being front-loaded towards the first year of the four year spending review period.

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  • Cuts Watch

    CutsWatch #321: Local government job cuts tally reaches 50,000

    24th November 2010

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    Ten days ago I reported on work by the GMB to track the numbers of job cuts being announced in councils as a result of the 28% cut to local government funding announced in the spending review.  The figures are frightening and are rising fast, with almost 50,000 job cuts in 43 local authorities now identified by the union.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #315: more museum cuts

    19th November 2010 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Culture, Cuts Watch: Regions

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    The Guardian has uncovered further huge cuts to museums this week. The cuts, tucked away in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Business Plan, will affect up to 20 institutions classed as ‘non-national’ which receive DCMS funding. The affected museums and galleries will have their grant from DCMS entirely removed in 2015.

    For some institutions such as the National Coalmining Museum in Wakefield, this represents about 80% of their funding. Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums is not a single institution, but a body that manages a dozen museums and galleries in Tyne and Wear, all of which are expected to be affected as this article from the Newcastle Journal explains. 

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #309: 30,000 council job cuts

    12th November 2010

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    Work by the GMB has found that almost 30,000 jobs are set to go in 21 local authorities, with others facing changes to pay, terms and conditions.  The scale of the cuts is emerging ahead of the local government financial settlement, which will be announced in early December, with council budgets being finalised in the spring. The Local Government Association warned (Local Government Chronicle subscription required) last month that 100,000 jobs are likely to be lost as a result of the cuts to local government announced in the spending review, but the GMB’s work suggests that this figure could be even higher as many councils are still to announce their plans.

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  • Public services

    Half a million public sector jobs to go as prospects for jobseekers worsen

    20th October 2010 — Filed under: Public services

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    Thanks to Danny Alexander’s gaffe we already knew that we would be told today that the spending review will cost 490,000 public sector jobs. In his statement to the Commons, the Chancellor confirmed that estimate, which was actually taken from the Office of Budget Responsibility projections at the time of the June budget. An updated forecast will be published on 29 November and it seems like a fair bet it will show a worsening picture.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Public service pensions: waiting for Hutton, but contributions to rise

    20th October 2010 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    In today’s spending review, George Osborne sent mixed messages on public service pensions. The government will wait until Lord Hutton’s final report as the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission in March 2011 before making changes to schemes. But at the same time the Chancellor set a precise figure of £1.8bn a year for the savings they aim to be making from reforms to public service pensions by 2014/15.

    The Chancellor clearly indicated that contribution rates would rise, although he accepted Lord Hutton’s recommendation that increases should be staggered and “progressive” – of course the devil will be in the detail as to whether this is borne out when reforms are proposed and negotiated. According to the CSR papers (page 38) the savings figure of £1.8bn per year by 2014/15 is equivalent to 3 per cent on average, to be phased in from 2012.

    Coming at a time of pay freezes, rising inflation and redundancies, increasing contribution rates means a further cut in take home pay. Contribution increases could also come on top of those already in the pipeline in some schemesdue to revaluations under the existing “cap and share” arrangements. And there is also a real risk that people feeling the squeeze could decide to leave pension schemes if contributions rise, leaving them without savings for retirement.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cutswatch #202: Audit Commission scrapped

    13th August 2010

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    The Audit Commission will be scrapped, Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles announced this afternoon. The Commission is an independent watchdog charged with auditing and supporting local councils to ensure that they deliver effective, value for money services.  In a move set to raise plenty of questions (and eyebrows) the audit functions of the Commission will be moved to the private sector. Its research activities will simply cease.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts Watch #198: knock-on effects of BSF cuts begin

    12th August 2010 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Education, Economics, Labour market

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    One early indication of the impact of the Building Schools for the Future cuts cropped up in yesterday’s unemployment stats: an 11.5% increase in unemployment among architects over the past month. This is the first rise in unemployment in the profession for ten months after levels peaked in August 2009, reports journal BD.

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  • Cuts Watch

    Cuts watch #195: Nottinghamshire council to cut up to 25% of workforce

    11th August 2010 — Filed under: Cuts Watch: Regions, Cuts Watch: Social care

    Alice Hood Alice Hood

    Local Government Chronicle reports (subscription required) that Nottinghamshire County Council is looking to cut up for a quarter of its workforce over the next three years.

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