Will she, won’t she? Theresa May’s position on pay for public service workers has been all over the place this week. On Wednesday we had a surprise announcement that the government might be considering an end to its policy of capping public sector pay. But hours later, a spectacular double-u-turn saw her whip her MPs…
This blog takes a look at what this Budget delivered for social care, health and education. In our pre-Budget blog we looked at what the Budget needed to deliver for public services, creaking after almost a decade of austerity. Social Care Few could deny the intensifying crisis in social care. Cuts of over 9 per…
Our economy should work for everyone, but if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you Theresa May, Conservative Party conference, October 2016 Yesterday our budget blog set out our case for investment in public services, stretched…
In 2018/19, in real terms, NHS spending is going to go down – 10 years after Lehman brothers and austerity began Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, wasn’t pulling his punches at the Public Accounts Committee last month. “There are very clearly substantial pressures and it doesn’t help anybody to try and pretend that…
“Departments will continue to deliver overall spending plans set at the Spending Review 2015” That was how the Chancellor used the Autumn Statement to respond to the crisis in our NHS and social care services. The NHS, deep in funding crisis, wasn’t mentioned once – prompting a wave of anger and dismay from all corners.…
“Let us take this opportunity to show that we, the Conservative Party, truly are the party of the workers. The party of the public servants. The party of the NHS. Because we believe in public service. We believe in investing in and supporting the institutions that make our country great” Thus spoke Theresa May to…
The Daily Mail took the TUC to task over claims made by our General Secretary, Frances O’Grady that industrial action was not on the increase and that the number of strikes were “very, very low”. Referring to industrial disputes on Southern, ScotRail and Virgin East Coast, the Mail claimed that “passengers have endured the worst…
This week’s news that United Lincolnshire Hospital’s NHS Trust will be closing its A&E department in Grantham in the evenings due to staff shortages is, in the words of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, “disappointing, yet unsurprising”. The TUC and health unions, campaigners and think tanks like the Kings Fund and Health Foundation have…
In a stark comment given in an interview to the Health Service Journal this week, Jim Mackey, head of NHS Improvement made clear the new policy priority for the NHS – austerity comes first. Ahead of a set of announcements for further belt tightening expected soon – what’s been termed the NHS financial reset –…
While attention is focussed on the growing financial crisis in the NHS, along comes another privatisation shambles to remind us all that the government’s funding squeeze is not the only threat to the future of our health service. The performance of non-emergency transport services since Coperforma took over the contract from the NHS’s South East…