Mental health discharge waits a “humanitarian disgrace”

One elderly patient had to wait more than three years to be let out of a mental health unit after being declared ready to leave. These figures are a humanitarian disgrace.

Figures on mental health delayed discharges released today are a “humanitarian disgrace”.

The shocking new figures revealed that people have had to wait over a thousand days to be let out of a mental health unit after being declared ready to leave.

Figures by the BBC revealed that patients in Sussex have had to wait more than three years to be moved out of a mental health unit after being declared ready to leave.

This is a humanitarian disgrace which violates the human rights of patients.

Mental health units by necessity are secure so these people have been deprived of their liberty.

There is a failure of the system because people need a home and care within the community, not an institution.

But there is a lack of link up in our public services and this is the result of not spending on patient care while simultaneously wasting money on keeping people in highly expensive institutions where they should no longer be.

Only the Liberal Democrats have set out a comprehensive and positive plan that will deliver a step change in mental health.

This includes ending the under-funding of mental health, new units for children and more professionals at more locations capable of delivering therapies.

 

265% increase in Bury’s Classes with over 30 pupils

Investigations by Liberal Democrat councillors have revealed a shocking 265% increase in the number of class sizes over 30 in Bury’s secondary schools in just one year.

Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Pickstone asked: “Could the Leader update members on the number of secondary school children in Bury who are taught in classes of more than 30 children, and how this compares to previous years?

The answer was: “There are a total of 63 classes of thirty or more pupils spread across all but two of the boroughs secondary schools. There is no statutory limit on KS3/4 class sizes and it is, therefore, a matter for each school to determine. This is a significant increase on last year’s figures of 23 classes in excess of 30 from the same number of secondary schools.”

Councillor Pickstone said: “There might not be a statutory limit to class sizes in secondary schools, but it is not difficult to work out that a larger class size gives children less teacher attention for each child.

Schools across Bury have been forced to reduce staffing – teachers and teaching assistants – largely because costs have increased while funding has not kept up.

Education is a vital part of giving all children the best possible start in life. Lack of money is having an impact on children’s education”.

Kevin Courtney, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: “The increase in class sizes over 30 is one of the many consequences of cutting school funding. More and more schools are only able to balance their budgets by cutting staff and forming larger classes. Both primary and secondary schools will be put under increasing budgetary pressures to look at ways to ‘make do’ and the Department for Education recommends increasing class size as a way for schools to save money. The DfE describes this as an ‘efficiency saving’”.

Mental Health plan doesn’t go far enough

Health organisations and the Liberal Democrats have criticised the Government’s announcement on mental health NHS staffing shortages as inadequate.

The Government announced plans yesterday to recruit an extra 5,000 staff into mental health services by 2020-21, but many have critised the existing crisis in filling jobs, and the lack of any new funding to pay for these posts.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said: “This is a government that is all bark and no bite. We need to be serious about mental health but all this government has done is pluck a number out of thin air. This government has built a reputation for big announcements which then fail to materialise, this has all the markings of another one. Time and again we see bold announcements while services continue to struggle to cope.

Jeremy Hunt called for thousands of extra GPs to be in place by 2020, yet so far he has overseen a shrinking of the workforce. They then quietly dropped the commitment in their manifesto. And now he has already been forced to admit that he hasn’t got the money for his latest plans.”

 


Prof Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said 570 extra consultants had been promised in the plans.
“You would expect to see a consultant if you had cancer and the same applies for mental health. The biggest challenge to creating robust mental health services is the workforce. I am very supportive of this strategy which starts to tackle that problem.

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “There is already a dangerous lack of workforce planning and accountability and this report is unable to provide detail on how the ambitions will be met. It is clear the government will need to work hard just to get back to the number of specialist staff working in mental health services in 2010. Under this government, there are 5,000 fewer mental health nurses and that goes some way to explaining why patients are being failed.”

Ambitious for our country; Ambitious for our party. Vince Cable’s Leadership Letter

I want to lead the Liberal Democrats because I am ambitious about our future.

I believe we are the only party that can represent the millions of liberal-minded people alarmed by the direction this country is taking: people, whether they voted remain or leave, who hate the intolerance, xenophobia and division that the Brexit vote unleashed.

I want the Liberal Democrats to be at the centre of political life: a credible, effective party of national and local government, and a voice of sanity on Europe.

To achieve this, we will have to fight for every vote and every seat.

It can be done: we have a record membership and the enormous energy that thousands of new members have brought to the party.

I believe I have the ability to give that energy a lead, to hit the headlines and to put our party at the centre of political debate.

Vince

Vince Cable

Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Reporting Back: Extraordinary Council Meeting

Last week Bury’s Councillors met together for an important extraordinary meeting. This was to consider the outcome of an investigation in to senior staff, which had resulted in the resignation of the Council’s Chief Executive and Executive Director of Children’s Services.

This is an important and serious issue, and one which you will probably have seen reported in the media.

Background
An investigation was initiated by the Council at the start of this year around an incident which took place in April 2015. The Council commissioned an independent report into the incident, which resulted in the suspension of senior staff. This was followed by a formal Human Resources Panel and legal investigation which has resulted in the two members of staff mentioned above resigning from the Council.

The details of the case have been reported extensively in the press. Essentially they relate to how senior people in the Council did not follow proper procedures when informed of a criminal investigation of a then Labour councillor for possession of child sexual images. The incident occurred in the run up to the 2015 General Election, and the information was incorrectly kept out of the public domain until after that General Election.

Outcome
Two very senior members of staff (Chief Executive and Executive Director of Children’s Services) have resigned and are no longer employed by the Council.

It is important to stress that the Council, at the start of this process, put in place strong interim management arrangements to ensure that the important functions of the Council are working as they should be.

The Future
Councillors met to consider a joint motion agreed by all three political parties on how we need to move forward from this very serious incident. This has now been agreed by all councillors.

For us there were three things we particularly wanted to ensure happen:

1 – Learn from what has happened
The external experts have made recommendations on how some of the rules that determine how the Council operates are strengthened (particularly the Members Code of Conduct), and there are a number of actions that are recommended coming from the report. We are very keen to make sure that any changes, actions or improvements are taken, and as quickly as possible.

2 – Investigate Elected Member involvement
The investigations so far have been into the paid staff of the Council. There remain questions which are unanswered about whether or not any elected Councillors knew, or were involved, in this process. It has been agreed that there will be an independent investigation into these councillors which we fully support. You may have seen in the press that the former Leader of the Council has been suspended by the Labour Party, pending these investigations.

3 – Review the Culture of the Council
At a senior level it is very important that the different roles of councillors, and the professional paid staff we employ to run the Council are understood. They need to work closely together, but there also need to be clear boundaries in place. We have asked for an all-party review of the culture of the Council at a senior level, which has now been agreed.

This is a very serious issue so if you have any questions you want to ask the Liberal Democrat group at the Council please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Group Leader tim@burylibdems.net.

The papers for the Council meeting are here.

 

 

School funding announcement is attempt to “pull wool over people’s eyes”

Justine Greening has announced £1.3bn of additional funding for schools that she has said will come from “efficiencies” from within the education budget.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary Layla Moran said: “This is a desperate attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Instead of providing the £4bn of extra funding promised in their manifesto, the Conservatives are recycling cash from the education budget. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Schools are still facing cuts to their budgets once inflation and increasing class sizes are taken into account. Children only get one go at education. We need to invest more in our schools to ensure that no child is left behind.”

The money includes cutting £280m cut from the free schools budget and £315m from “healthy pupils” projects. The DFE is promising £416m extra for schools from `savings” in 2018-19 and a further £884m in 2019-20.

A joint statement from the NUT and ATL teachers’ unions accused the government of “smoke and mirrors”. “Whilst any extra money is welcome this isn’t enough to stop the huge cuts that schools are making,” said the teachers’ unions.

They pointed to evidence from the National Audit Office and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which warned of £3bn funding gap and schools facing an 8% real-terms budget cut.
During the election, the Conservatives had promised an extra £1bn per year, which on top of planned increases, would have meant the core schools budget rising by about £4bn in 2021-22.
Most of this extra funding was going to come from scrapping free meals for all infants, a policy which was subsequently ditched.

Jo Swinson’s message for Pride 2017: Love Happens Here

Jo Swinson’s message for Pride 2017: Love Happens Here

Pride is a colourful, energetic celebration of freedom, love and acceptance. Each year I am amazed as thousands of people of all sexualities take to the streets in the name of freedom and equality.

I am proud to stand with the LGBT community in the continuous fight for a more open, tolerant and united society.

This year’s theme “Love Happens Here”, reminds us that we ought to celebrate love wherever we find it and defiantly oppose the forces of bigotry, hate and division.

This is an historic year, as it marks 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK and I’m thrilled that in that time we have managed to secure more LGBT rights – such as the introduction of same-sex marriage, championed by Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone.

Let us celebrate our triumphs and remind the word of the courage, strength and vibrancy of this incredible community.

Thank you to everyone that has made this year’s celebrations possible.

Prestwich and Bury Walk-In Centres to stay open till March 2018

Our two local NHS walk-in centres will remain open for at least eight more months. NHS Bury CCG has confirmed that the centres, at Prestwich and within Moorgate Primary Care Centre in Bury, will remain operational until at least March 31 2018.

The CCG says that: “The CCG remains committed to the redesign of urgent care services in Bury in order to ensure the best possible care for the GP registered population of Bury. We will communicate further updates on the next steps in this process following the release of further national and Greater Manchester guidance.”

The public consultation on the future of urgent care services in Bury was paused in March to allow for the release of further national guidance. Since then it has been confirmed that the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership is also considering the composition of urgent care services across Greater Manchester. Current indications are that it is likely to be September 2017 at the earliest before this further guidance is released.

The consultation will remain paused until the further guidance is received.

Earlier this year the Liberal Democrats collected a significant number of petition signatures, handed into the CCG before it considered the closure. Thank you to everyone who supported this campaign – this was the only petition received by the CCG.

Our view is that it is great that the centres get a reprive for another 8 months, but the fight to keep them open is far from over.

Full story Bury Times.

Standing Up for Public Sector Pay

Liberal Democrats MPs have supported plans to end the public sector pay cap in amendments on the Queens Speech being considered by Parliament. This follows a clear Manifesto Commitment to end the 1% pay cap by the Party.

After the Conservatives were elected as a majority government in 2015, then chancellor George Osborne said that he would continue with the 1% limit until 2020 as part of the government’s deficit reduction plan. Representatives of civil service employees have said that there was now “an emerging consensus that the 1% pay cap is damaging the capacity of our public services to respond to the challenges facing the UK – public services have seen their living standards cut by 15% or more since 2010 with further cuts still to come under current government plans”

Around a quarter of people in Bury work in the public sector (stats from 2011). Figures were announced this week that more midwives and nurses are leaving the profession in the UK than joining for the first time on record, with the number departing having risen by 51% in just four years. The figures, which will add to concerns about NHS staff shortages, show that 20% more people left the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register than joined it in 2016/17.

Vince Cable MP, who is hoping to be the Party’s next Leader said that “public sector workers faced a double blow under the Conservative government, with years of “pitiful” increases to pay combined with higher inflation”.

“Our NHS and schools are already struggling to recruit the staff they need. A better future is available. We will stand up for our schools and hospitals and give hard-working nurses, teachers and police the pay rise they deserve.”

 

Reporting Back: 10 Libraries to Close

Bury Council’s Cabinet met last week to consider the future of Bury’s 14 Libraries. The meeting was the end of a nearly year-long process to review the library provision across Bury.

The outcome is that TEN libraries will close. Ainsworth, Brandlesholme, Castle Leisure, Coronation Road, Dumers Lane, Moorside, Topping Fold, Tottington, Unsworth and Whitefield.

FOUR Libraries will stay open: Bury central library, Ramsbottom, Radcliffe and Prestwich. Radcliffe had been threatened with possible closure, but the conclusion of the review is that this should stay open.

Opposition Leaders are no longer allowed to vote on the Cabinet (we had our votes taken off us in May), but if we had been able to vote we would have voted against as we have at previous stages in the process.

We would be the first to agree that libraries are not for everyone. Changes in society have meant that the function libraries provided 40 years ago can be met in other ways for many people. But, for some other people, those needs are still there. Crucially libraries are also community spaces and we have precious few of these left. Age UK research shows at 1.6 million older people in the UK are chronically lonely (e.g. no contact at all with friends, neighbours or family in an average week). The outcome of Bury Council’s conclusion is that whole areas of Bury (e.g. Whitefield, Unsworth and Tottington) will have no library at all in their community.

Secondly, we believe Bury hasn’t done enough to see whether there are other ways of keeping places open using community groups and/or volunteers. Other places in the country haven’t closed a single library, by using volunteers and community groups to keep smaller libraries open (the books and the systems are already in place for the bigger libraries). Although the Council says that it is open to community groups coming forward to take on the 10 libraries that are open BUT we believe that the timescale now makes this highly unlikely in almost all cases (the 10 libraries will shut their doors in less than 3 months now).

Thirdly, we believe that the Council’s consultation process didn’t provide a real chance for people to say what they wanted for their local libraries. The first stage of the Library consultation asked people what they through of a number of ‘principles’ for libraries – it was difficult to disagree with any of them and not many people did! The second stage asked people whether then wanted to CLOSE 10 libraries, or close 11 libraries. Hardly much of a choice!