“I don’t see why decisions about £200bn of taxpayers money… on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an ALB, NHS England”
Excellent to hear the PM commit to abolishing NHS England… as we recommended last year.
And here is the Reform report from last year in which it called for this.
Conservatives at the next Holyrood election, Kemi Badenoch has told reporters in Glasgow.
After a visit to BAE Systems in Glasgow, the UK Tory leader, on her first visit north of the border since her election last November, said:
We are the most successful political party in the history of Western democracy. The idea that we’re suddenly going to disappear, just because there’s competition on the right is just not serious.
We have just been kicked out of government. Of course, people will go to protest parties until they are clear about where we’re going and until we have rebuilt trust.
Responding specifically to the claim by Reform’s Richard Tice, visiting Glasgow last week, that his party would do better than the Scottish Tories in next May’s Scottish parliament elections, she said:
It’s not a fait accompli, voting Reform just helps the SNP, so anyone who is a unionist, anyone who is on the right, voting Reform is just going to get more leftwing governments, and that’s what we saw at the last election.
She also denied that the debate about single sex spaces was toxic, saying:
There are some people who have decided to make it an issue of toxicity. I don’t think that it is a toxic debate. I think it is an honest debate. We can’t be afraid to tell the truth.
And she reprimanded reporters asking why it had taken her so long to visit Scotland since her election for trying to present her as an alien.
The constant trying to present the Conservative party leader, or the prime minister of the United Kingdom, as something alien to the country is quite wrong, and we should stop doing that.
its news release the DWP says: “1.8 million people on universal credit are getting no support to find work.”
But an alternative interpretation would be that 1.8 million people who have declared an illness or disability are getting top-up out-of-work benefit payments.
People who claim universal credit because they are not working as a result of a health condition or a disability are subject to a work capability assessment (WCA). People assessed as being capable of working at some point in the future are put in the limited capability for work (LCW) category and expected to take part in activities that will help them find a job in the future.
But people considered unable to prepare for work are categorised as limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) and it is this group where the caseload has risen up to 1.8m.
In its news release, published alongside a report setting out the latest quarterly statistics for these benefits, the DWP explains how a LCWRA assessment leads to higher benefits.
The current system, in which people 25 and over on the standard rate of UC get £393.45 a month and those with a health condition get an additional £416.19, gives an incentive for people to say they can’t work – and get locked out of help and support – simply to get by financially.
Over the past five years, 67% of people on universal credit who have been through a WCA were considered LCWRA – a symptom of the assessment system pushing people to prove their inability to work for a more generous payout.
The DWP also says young people are increasingly being assessed as LCWRA.
The number of young people aged 16 to 24 on LCWRA has risen by 249% from 46,000 to 160,000 since the pandemic – demonstrating a worrying increase in the number people becoming trapped in inactivity early in life, with almost one million young people not in education, employment, or training.
It also says these figures show the WCA process is “broken”.
In a statement Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, said these figures showed that people are being “locked out of work by a failing welfare system which abandons people – when we know there are at least 200,000 people who want to work, and are crying out for the right support and a fair chance”.
Next week the DWP is due to publish its plans to change the way sickness and disability benefits are paid.
figures.
It is the highest annual number since 77 arrests in 2017, the year of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing, which left 22 dead and more than a thousand injured, along with other terror attacks that claimed lives in Westminster, London Bridge, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green in London.
The data shows that of 71 under-21s arrested last year, 32 were aged 18-20, up from 26 in 2023, while 39 were under the age of 18, down slightly year-on-year from 43.
Political Currency, the podcast he co-hosts with George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, who said that when he was at the Treasury he ruled out freezing Pip (the personal independence payment – a disability benefit) because he thought that was not very fair.
Next week the government is due to announce major cuts to sickness and disability benefits. The details have not not been announced, but one ITV News report last week said the Treasury wants to save up to £6bn by freezing the level at which Pip is paid (instead of uprating it in line with inflation, which normally happens with benefits), and making it harder to claim. The government wants to get more people off benefits and into work, but ITV said “even those with extreme disabilities in the unfit to work category are likely to lose money”.
Balls said:
It’s one thing to say the economy is not doing well and we’ve got a fiscal challenge … but cutting the benefits of the most vulnerable in our society who can’t work to pay for that – is not going to work. And it’s not a Labour thing to do … It’s not what they’re for.
Balls was a major figure in the Blair/Brown government, as Gordon Brown’s chief adviser and then as a cabinet minister. But he lost his seat as an MP in 2015 and he now works as a TV presenter and podcaster. He is married to Yvette Cooper, the current home secretary.
In the same episode Osborne implied that, if Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, does decide to freeze Pip, she will be acting even more harshly than he did. He said:
I didn’t freeze Pip. I thought [it] would not be regarded as very fair.
Osborne said he did try to cut eligibility for Pip in his 2016 budget, hoping to save £4bn, “which I guess, adjusting for inflation, is roughly what Labour is looking for now”. But Iain Duncan Smith, the then welfare secretary, resigned in protest, “and I had to back down”, Osborne said.
NHS England performance figures out today, PA says:
Data released today shows 73.4% of patients in England urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in January.
This is down from 78.1% the previous month and is the lowest figure since April 2024, as well as being below the government target of 75%.
The government and NHS England have set a new target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%.
In addition, the proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in January from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 67.3%, down from 71.3%.
The government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%.
Elsewhere, the NHS England figures show the overall waiting list for planned hospital treatments has fallen for the fifth month in a row. (See 9.53am.)
A total of 198,868 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of January, down from 200,375 at the end of December and the lowest number since November 2020.
In addition, 73.4% of patients in A&E were seen within four hours in February, up from 73% in January.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted also stood at 47,623 in February, down from a record 61,529 in January.
In its own news release on today’s figures, NHS England presents a different take. It says:
NHS staff have more than halved the average wait for tests and checks since the height of the pandemic as the waiting list continues to fall, new data shows today.
Patients were waiting an average of 17 days for tests and checks in January – 43 days less than at the height of the pandemic (May 2020).
Average waits for tests are now the lowest since 2.1 weeks in February 2020.
3.02pm.) This is from Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at foundation.
There is some logic in bringing the workings of NHS England and the government more closely together – for example, to help provide clarity to the health service on priorities for improvement. And – in reality – it is impossible to take politics out of the NHS.
But history tells us that rejigging NHS organisations is hugely distracting and rarely delivers the benefits politicians expect. Scrapping NHS England completely will cause disruption and divert time and energy of senior leaders at a time when attention should be focused on improving care for patients. It will also eat up the time of ministers, with new legislation likely needed.
on Bluesky.
There’s a decent case for scrapping NHS England but doing so is a major change programme that will take up substantial ministerial and official time. Hard to see how govt can do this while also making good progress on meeting the 18 week target AND the three shifts ahead of the next election.
Less than six months ago, Streeting said top-down reorganisation was the ‘last thing’ he wanted to do. What’s changed since then?
All of the problems cited have been evident for years. Why has it taken 9 months in office for Labour to make such a monumental decision?
Streeting has just told the Commons that while much of this can be done without legislation, a bill is needed. And that the whole process of merging DHSC and NHSE is likely to take 2 years. Even if it’s the right long term decision this will be hugely disruptive in the short term
NHS England, the benefits for patients might be modest
In a statement, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said:
Today’s announcement lands on the same day that NHS stats show people continue to wait days in A&E and many patients remain stuck in hospital beds despite being well enough to leave. The most important question is how will the abolition of NHS England make it easier for people to get a GP appointment, shorten waits for planned care and improve people’s health? That hasn’t yet been set out – ministers will need to explain how the prize will be worth the price.
It is absolutely right that democratically elected politicians must have clear oversight of how the NHS delivers for patients and spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money. It is also reasonable to want to deliver better value by reducing duplication and waste between two national bodies where they are performing a similar role. It is true that over its just over a decade of existence, NHS England has been asked to take on a lot more additional power, functions and therefore staff, than it was originally designed to do.
Having now made the decision to abolish NHS England, and while we still wait for the publication of the NHS 10 Year Plan, the government must be clear why this significant structural change at this time is necessary, and how it fits into their wider plans. The potential cost savings would be minimal in the context of the entire NHS budget, and so they must ensure that the changes produce the improved effectiveness which is sought by making this change.
And Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said:
Today’s news will be devastating for staff at all levels of NHS England, and we must remain mindful of the human cost of this decision. With the public finances under extraordinary pressure it does, however, make sense to remove the duplication and bureaucracy that exists currently – and patients and the public are probably not going to shed many tears over the shifting of power from an arm’s-length body into central government.
But profound problems facing the NHS remain: how to meet growing patient need in the face of spiralling waiting lists and how to invest in care closer to home with the NHS’s wider finances already underwater and social care reform in the long grass. It is not immediately clear that rearranging the locus of the power at the top will make a huge and immediate difference to these issues, which ultimately will be how patients and the public judge the government.
NHS England means in practice.
1.08pm), Starmer said:
Well, firstly, keep our focus on a lasting and secure peace in Ukraine, which is what we all want.
It doesn’t entirely surprise me that Russia is taking this stance. They’ve made it pretty clear. They put it in lights a number of times over.
I think progress was made on Tuesday, and I always felt that and hoped that out of Tuesday that would put the ball in the Russian court, if you like, where the pressure would come on Russia. That has now happened.
That is a good thing, because Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the country that where there had been previous deals and agreements, [it] has not honoured those.
We know that Putin has ambitions that are barely disguised.
The News Agents have posted the clip online. The full interview will be available later.
Jakub Krupa has more on what Starmer said on Ukraine in his Europe live blog, which today is largely focused on the Ukraine story.
Unison, which describes itself as the largest healthcare union in the UK, has described the announcement about the abolition of NHS England as “shambolic”. Christina McAnea, its general secretary, said:
The health service needs thousands more staff and to be able to hold on to experienced employees. At the moment, it’s struggling to do that. Giving staff a decent pay rise would help no end.
But this announcement will have left NHS England staff reeling. Just days ago they learned their numbers were to be slashed by half, now they discover their employer will cease to exist.
The way the news of the axing has been handled is nothing short of shambolic. It could surely have been managed in a more sympathetic way.
Source: theguardian.com
