Tories wary about plugging Trump gap in family planning funding

The hastily convened global gathering of governments in Brussels to pledge tens of millions of euros to family planning charities who had their US funding pulled by Donald Trump’s so-called “global gag” has been a tightrope to walk for the British government.

Trump reinstated the rule by executive order in his first few days in the White House, meaning US government funding cannot be provided to charities whose work includes offering abortion services.

Perhaps more than any other country, the UK has been keen to demonstrate that, whatever the concerns about the Trump administration, the answer is engagement rather than isolation. In January, Theresa May became the first foreign leader to meet the US president on a trip criticised by some as overly hasty. Given the UK’s need for new and fast free trade partners after the exit from the EU, such a position is perhaps unavoidable.

Viewed through this prism, its decision to send Rory Stewart, a junior minister, rather than Priti Patel, the secretary of state for international development, could be interpreted as a mild snub to the She Decides conference, an event intended by its organisers to be a symbol of solidarity against Trump. Ditto the UK decision not to pledge any additional money, when countries from Norway to the Netherlands are stumping up millions.

But that is not how ministers at the Department for International Development see it. They say they have been planning to host their own major global summit on family planning over the summer with the UN and that – far from ignoring the issue – the department has intensified UK aid efforts on family planning.

Observers might detect a sense of irritation that the UK will now be put in a position where it is a follower, rather than a leader, given that this week’s conference has been convened by the Dutch, Belgian and other northern European nations.

However, critics have warned that the determination of the department to forge its own path, rather than be perceived as embarrassing Trump, could leave charities in limbo, without specific pledges that their loss of support from the US will be matched elsewhere.

That uncertainty could have long-term consequences for reproductive health in developing countries. About half of all abortion procedures worldwide – more than 20m – are unsafe, with the vast majority in developing countries. About 68,000 women die annually after backstreet abortions, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, according to the World Health Organization.

Five Labour MPs wrote in January to Patel to urge her to commit emergency funding to the She Decides effort, arguing that policymaking needed to be reactive to a volatile political climate. “We would implore you to take urgent steps on funding and policy as the Dutch government has, and as the UK government has done so previously, to mitigate the impact of this decision,” they wrote.

At least one of the MPs is speaking from experience. Gareth Thomas was a minister at DfID in 2006 when the Labour government publicly defied George W Bush’s own reinstatement of the global gag rule to pledge money for safe abortion services where US funding had been cut off.

At the time, the International Planned Parenthood Federation praised the bravery of the UK, saying they were “deeply grateful for the gesture not only financially but politically”.

Any kind of similar statement of thanks from charities in 2017 would be deeply unhelpful to the Conservative government in the post-Brexit era, connecting international aid spending to diplomacy.

Sources at the department see the decision by European and other governments to make immediate pledges to match the support as too hasty and say the scale of the funding gap from Trump’s order has not yet been fully calibrated. The UK’s 2006 funding pledge came five years after Bush’s order, and in a very different political climate.

Tories wary about plugging Trump gap in family planning funding

Grey army of five million volunteers "plugging gaps in social care"

RVS spokesman Steve Smith stated: “Local authorities have lower back on social care in the final few years and we know that austerity is here for a couple of many years to come.

“When you add to that the reality that the number of in excess of-80s is going to rise from three million nowadays to eight million by 2030, there is going to be an increasing role for the voluntary sector to step in and plug the gaps.

“Older men and women are going to be an escalating component of that, by delivering meals on wheels, day centres or other providers that would have been offered by the welfare state in the past.”

Local authorities minimize paying on adult social care by two per cent in real terms between 2012 and 2013, according to the Wellness and Social Care Data Centre. Nevertheless the need to have for social care continues to rise sharply.

When the NHS was set up in 1948 practically half of Britons did not reach retirement age. In contrast a little one born nowadays has a one particular in three chance of residing to be 100.

In addition, the informal “social glue” of households and neighbours seeking after OAPs has fragmented, with relatives more and more moving away from their parents and grandparents to find work and a million pensioners feeling unable to contact on neighbours for help, in accordance to a latest survey.

But the RVS is keen to get across the message that pensioners are not a burden on society: a current report advised that above-65s created a net contribution of £40 billion to the economic system via taxes and investing, a figure expected to rise to £77bn by 2030.

The figure is far larger if the hidden worth of volunteering is additional. More than-60s contribute the equivalent of £10bn in unpaid operate each and every yr, the RVS says.

They include Alan Alford, 74, from Bristol, who will be 1 of 12 Diamond Champions presented with awards by the Duchess of Cornwall at Thursday’s reception.

He clocks up an average of 25 hrs unpaid operate per week by pushing a snacks trolley around Frenchay Hospital, driving pensioners to day centres and volunteering at a regional hospice.

Since he offered his burglar alarm business and took early retirement in 1997, he has contributed much more than 22,000 hrs of unpaid work.

He stated: “When I was 21 I had a significant motorbike accident that left me in hospital for 9 months, and I received this kind of fantastic care I usually stated I desired to give something back a single day.

“Volunteering gives me such fulfillment, simply because you see the big difference if helps make to people’s lives.

“Just the other day a lady in hospital asked if I could arrange for her phone to be topped up, and when I had finished undertaking the trolley I received her a new card and took it to her. She hugged me and burst into tears, just for undertaking one thing as straightforward as that.

“I also drive a chap who is blind and has Parkinson’s to a day centre once a week, and he’s a distinct man or woman when he will get there. It’s fantastic.”

Scientific studies have proven that as well as benefiting people who are getting assisted, volunteering improves the psychological and physical health of volunteers.

It can also decrease the charge of hospital admissions. “We discovered final 12 months that 150,000 older men and women got no help when they returned property from hospital,” stated Mr Smith. “Nationally there is a 15 per cent re-admission charge within 28 days of discharge amid in excess of-75s.

“We carried out a task in Leicester and made positive men and women had support when they acquired back residence, like producing confident there was food in the cupboards and the heating worked, and the rate of hospital readmissions halved in six weeks.”

Grey army of five million volunteers "plugging gaps in social care"