Scotland’s offer to give abortions to Northern Irish women shames Stormont | Patrick Corrigan

Scotland and Northern Ireland are separated by just a few short miles of sea. But when it comes to access to abortion, they are divided by more than 150 years of history. While Scots women are able to access abortions on the same basis as their counterparts in England and Wales, Northern Irish women still face a near-total ban on the termination of pregnancy.

In 2014-15, only 16 women were able to have lawful abortions in Northern Ireland. By contrast, 833 Ulster women travelled to England or Wales and paid for terminations at private clinics. And despite being full and equal taxpayers, Northern Ireland-resident women have been barred from accessing free abortions in NHS hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland.

It was into this breach that Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, stepped last week when she told the Scottish parliament that she would explore the possibility of women and girls from Northern Ireland being able to access terminations through NHS Scotland. Her intervention has enraged the deeply conservative Democratic Unionist party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s largest party of government, but been welcomed by pro-choice and human rights campaigners in the region.

While healthcare has been a devolved matter in Scotland since the creation of the Scottish parliament, it was only in May this year that abortion law was handed over to Holyrood. It is against this backdrop that Sturgeon’s intervention has demonstrated leadership on behalf of Northern Irish women sorely lacking both at Stormont and Westminster. There is near unanimous support in the Holyrood parliament for keeping abortion provision for Scotland in line with the 1967 Abortion Act. The picture couldn’t be more different across the water.

As recently as February this year, the Northern Ireland assembly voted to keep the region’s abortion law as it is, refusing to legislate for abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or where the foetus has no chance of survival outside the womb. This was despite a Belfast high court finding, just two months previously, that Northern Ireland law breaches the European convention on human rights.

Meanwhile, the UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt has determined that the NHS in England must operate a residence-based system so that women who live in Northern Ireland are barred from accessing NHS abortion services in England, despite being UK citizens. This position is currently the subject of a legal challenge at the UK supreme court taken by a Northern Ireland teenager and her mother. They want women and girls from Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the NHS in England.

The young woman at the centre of the case was 15 in 2012 when she and her mother travelled from Northern Ireland to Manchester and were asked to pay for a private termination. It is estimated that, with private clinic charges as well as the cost of travel and accommodation, a Northern Ireland woman needs to find anything between £400 and £2,000 to obtain a lawful abortion across the water in Britain – NHS care available for free to women in every other part of the UK.

Northern Ireland’s politicians are being left behind by the people

Stephen Cragg, who is acting as QC for the mother and daughter, told the supreme court at a hearing earlier this month that women and girls like his client are “second-class citizens” who “live in the UK, but – unlike all other women and girls in the UK – they are at risk of the most serious criminal penalty if they procure an abortion in their own area”.

In Northern Ireland, any woman or girl who has an abortion deemed unlawful is liable for prosecution and could face a sentence of up to life imprisonment. Earlier this year a woman who had induced her own miscarriage by taking abortion pills obtained over the internet was found guilty under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and given a three-month suspended sentence. There are a number of other similar cases poised to come before the courts in Northern Ireland, including the prosecution of a mother who obtained the pills on behalf of her pregnant teenage daughter.

Despite all this, a majority of Northern Ireland’s politicians have set their face against reform. Comfortable in their self-designation as “pro-life”, they appear to be immune to criticism – even from the UN, whose human rights committee recently ruled that this part of the UK’s laws prohibiting and criminalising abortion constitute a human rights violation.

But, increasingly, Northern Ireland’s politicians are being left behind by the people. Independent polling published recently by Amnesty International showed that seven in 10 people want to see Northern Ireland’s harsh abortion laws changed, while more than half want to see abortion decriminalised altogether. The tens of thousands of people who are calling for abortion to be decriminalised also speak to that shift.

Sturgeon’s offer of possible help to Northern Irish women and girls should be a matter of deep embarrassment to ministers in Northern Ireland. Theresa May should match Sturgeon’s offer to stand up for Northern Irish women abandoned by their own politicians. When it comes to the human right to healthcare, lines on a map should be no barrier.

Scotland’s offer to give abortions to Northern Irish women shames Stormont | Patrick Corrigan

Female genital mutilation: Scotland"s government to request all schools to act

Scottish education secretary Michael Russell was praised by campaigners for taking a bold phase in the direction of tackling FGM. Photograph: Ken Jack/Demotix/Corbis

Scotland’s government said it would be creating to each headteacher in the nation asking them to train their employees and educate mothers and fathers about female genital mutilation.

The intervention by the Scottish schooling secretary comes in the wake of a Guardian campaign to raise awareness in schools which has gathered much more than 118,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.

Michael Russell stated he would be creating to each and every Scottish headteacher calling on them to train teachers and dad and mom about the warning indications and dangers of FGM.

“A important part of eradicating the practice entirely is education – which is why I, alongside equalities minister Shona Robison, will be writing to headteachers across Scotland in buy to reach out to teachers and mothers and fathers on this extremely hard issue.”

Asking the UK’s education ministers to create to colleges about female genital mutilation is the core demand of a campaign led by 17-year-old Fahma Mohamed to support stamp out the barbaric practice. Government figures say 20,000 British women are at danger of becoming minimize every year.

She praised Holyrood for taking a daring phase in the direction of tackling FGM.

Mohamed mentioned: “I want to congratulate Scotland for stepping up to the challenge and listening to us – it exhibits that it is amazing what you can obtain with commitment and passion.

“I’m overjoyed that women in Scotland will be safer and over all it will shield the following generation by breaking the cycle of abuse.”

The move was at odds with the Division for Schooling in Westminster, which remained silent on the situation and did not answer queries from the Guardian.

Mohamed, portion of a Somali household who moved to Britain when she was seven, explained: “I have a question for Michael Gove – is he frightened of me? I’m just a pupil who is passionate about this, and apparently he just would like to ignore this situation and hope it will go away.”

Norman Baker, the House Workplace minister and government lead on FGM, has said he would be creating to Gove to draw his focus to the Guardian’s campaign, even though the Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, and his party colleagues Julian Huppert and Greg Mulholland tabled an early day movement in parliament calling on the government and training department to do everything in their power to stop the practice.

On Friday evening the shadow wellness secretary, Andy Burnham, backed the Guardian’s campaign and praised the government for showing leadership on the situation right after it introduced a duty on hospitals to report new cases and funding for training and raising awareness.

“There are tons of places exactly where I would want to criticise the government but to be fair to them they have rightly prioritised this situation. Credit score to the Guardian too for the very same,” he said.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) joined campaigners and activists calling on Gove to present leadership on FGM. Its basic secretary, Russell Hobby, mentioned that the NAHT had called on the government to update tips on FGM in schools and that Gove must take the lead on the concern.

“For this explanation NAHT strongly endorses the Guardian’s petition calling on the secretary of state to take the lead in encouraging schools to deal with this problem critically,” he mentioned. “Colleges can make a big difference simply because of the trust in which they are held. NAHT believes that FGM exceeds the limits of tolerance in our society.”

Headteachers echoed the contact to action. Gladys Berry, the head of Highbury Fields college in London, which ran a programme of lessons with pupils final 12 months, explained: “Headteachers require a letter from the Division of Schooling some will be anxious about the response from distinct elements of the community so they need to have to feel that it is suitable and required to educate FGM in their school.

“Unless of course we can educate kids in the classroom, circumstances will not come to light and we will not know about people who are at threat.”

An additional London headteacher, Bavaani Nanthabalan, extra: “The Division of Schooling has by no means communicated with colleges right on FGM or provided us any tips. It is a hugely delicate concern.

“A supportive letter from Mr Gove encouraging us to increase awareness of this issue in schools would help schools handle this severe difficulty in a sensitive way. Schools can do much more to shield girls at chance of FGM with the right assistance from the government.”

Leyla Hussein, herself a victim of FGM and a single of Britain’s most large-profile campaigners, said she could not comprehend why the Department for Education was so reluctant to compose to colleges straight.

“It really is remarkable that Michael Gove can write a letter to headteachers telling them to enhance discipline in schools and not compose a letter about producing it necessary to teach FGM. I just never get it.” Hussein, who described Mohamed as “exceptionally brave”, additional: “Education has often been the missing link when it comes to fighting FGM.”

Ninko Ali, who founded the campaign group Daughters of Eve with Hussein, explained: “Each and every other minister has spoken out on this. Gove is the only a single that hasn’t. I just do not consider he cares about the social wellbeing of children it is only about academic achievement. He doesn’t want to speak about a child’s safety, but he will talk about Latin. It truly is like he isn’t going to care and that is very unhappy.”

Female genital mutilation: Scotland"s government to request all schools to act

Scotland"s prescription for wellness: ditch the PFI | SA Mathieson

The space resembles a properly-equipped commercial health club, except that the floor to ceiling windows are frosted for users’ privacy. The health club, employed for rehabilitative workout, is component of Aberdeen’s new health village. The state of the art building delivers a range of services underneath a single roof such as physiotherapy, podiatry and sexual overall health clinics. It is replacing a century-outdated hospital and other run-down web sites across the city that are in the procedure of closing.

“We now have changing services for our individuals,” explains Catriona Cameron, the village’s lead physiotherapist. This permits sufferers attending an early morning session to shower and go on to operate afterwards. The constructing is in the city centre, a single bus journey from any component of Aberdeen, one thing that sufferers stated was essential to them.

Dr Ambreen Butt, support lead for sexual well being, says Woolmanhill hospital, the place the services employed to be based mostly, was “crumbling close to our ears”. Her workers played music loudly in the old unit’s reception to quit consulting space discussions getting overheard via the thin walls. There was a glass display among reception employees and visitors: “We were striving to remove the stigma of functioning in a services like sexual well being. Our outdated waiting room perpetuated this,” says Butt. The new reception – signed as “yellow zone” so that no-a single has to stick to indicators to sexual overall health – has an open reception desk. Butt says morale amongst workers ” is genuinely excellent now, since [the wellness village] is a pretty fresh new constructing”.

Podiatry educator, Rachel Tiny, says the village permits staff to function far more effectively, as men and women spread across different internet sites are now in 1 building. It is great for individuals too: “It was adapted amenities we were in just before. This is a function-built developing. They [individuals] are a lot happier when they come in.”

Aberdeen well being village, which opened final month, also homes other components of the public sector: Police Scotland’s nearby sexual forensic unit a branch of Carerspoint, run by NHS Grampian overall health board, Aberdeen city council and voluntary organisations, to support unpaid carers and a healthier living guidance service.

This joint operating extends to the way in which the village has been financed. It is the very first healthcare task to open with the assistance of the Scottish Futures Believe in, a firm set up and owned by the Scottish government to offer public sector infrastructure projects with an option to the controversial private finance initiative (PFI).

Below traditional PFI, the private sector provides the finance, building and management for huge-scale projects this kind of as hospitals and schools. The primary issue has been the personal sector finding ways to make extra profit out of the taxpayer. “One of the feelings about PFI was that all the revenue was going into the pocket of the personal sector,” says task manager Jackie Bremner.

Though 90% of the health village’s £15m value has been met by insurance coverage and pension firm Aviva, crucially it is managed by Hub North Scotland, an organisation jointly owned by the public and private sector. Alba Partnerships, (formed by development firm Miller and Sweett Investment Providers) owns 60%, local public sector bodies including NHS Grampian, the council and the police force, own an additional 30%, and Scottish Futures Believe in the remaining ten%.

Hub North is overseen by a board, chaired by Alan Gray, who is NHS Grampian’s director of finance. He says: “The finance expenses on this are considerably much less than on PFI offers”. He adds that not like PFI discounts, the threat is a lot more evenly spread in this model in between the personal and public sectors.

Scotland has been running its NHS independently since 1999 under devolution it has ended competition between companies, preferring integrated acute, principal and social care in geographical overall health boards. So Scottish NHS boards have benefits more than the English wellness support when generating the case for this type of venture.

NHS Grampian runs all health solutions in its spot of north-east Scotland, rather than England’s industry-design division amongst providers and commissioners, which has permitted it to move assets internally from acute to primary care.

This is a crucial justification for the wellness village, which has no in-patient beds, and fits with the strategy to deal with older folks in their personal properties when possible, rather than in hospitals, despite the fact that Aberdeen nevertheless retains a single acute hospital.

In some respects, tasks funded through the Scottish Futures Trust – which presented NHS Grampian with comprehensive tips on the wellness village and contributed a share of the remaining costs of the scheme – are related to PFI discounts. “It is like a mortgage with a services contract attached to it,” says Bremner NHS Grampian will pay out a charge covering the interest and solutions over 25 years then will very own the creating outright.

But NHS Grampian has negotiated what Bremner believes to be a lot much better arrangements than numerous PFIs, which normally consist of “soft” amenities management this kind of as grounds maintenance, cleansing, laundry and decorating. “If it was in the contract, we would have to say, paint walls each and every seven many years and replace floors each 10 many years,” she says. But the wellness board has retained this operate for itself, which signifies the walls will be painted when essential. It also signifies the creating will be maintained to an equivalent – rather than a much better – regular to the board’s other folks: “We’ve received equity of situation,” says Bremner. Hub North will give only “hard’” facilities management, such as repairs.

Stan Mathieson, the project’s commercial lead, says they have discovered from some of the problems of conventional PFI in which personal organizations acquired all the earnings and contracts have been non-negotiable, locking the public sector into paying over the odds for small jobs such as shifting light bulbs.

Scottish Futures Trust is functioning on a additional 5 major NHS projects, like a £203m deal for a new hospital in Dumfries and £155m for a hospital extension in Edinburgh that will property the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and the neurosciences division of the city’s Royal Infirmary. It is also procuring two major street improvement schemes and 30 tasks in education as of November, the believe in had 47 tasks with a capital worth of £2.46bn at various phases of advancement.

That remains relatively minor in contrast with the UK’s 725 PFI projects at the finish of March 2013, with a total capital worth of £54.2bn – and an estimated remaining cost to taxpayers, from April 2014 till March 2050 – when the final a single expires – of £227bn. In accordance to an analysis of Treasury information released in December, NHS organisations’ share of this is £74.6bn – such as £1bn for 5 tasks in Scotland, all agreed far more than a decade in the past.

Some English NHS trusts have been severely broken by PFI. A 2012 Nationwide Audit Workplace report blamed PFI for substantial fiscal difficulties at Peterborough and Stamford NHS believe in. “The believe in board’s poor fiscal management and procurement of an unaffordable PFI scheme have left it in a critical economic place,” mentioned the public investing watchdog.

Westminster has been working to change what George Osborne has described as the “discredited PFI” with PF2, underneath which the state will act as a minority investor in discounts. Last month, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen university hospitals trust announced that just £126.5m of the £429m necessary to build its new Royal Liverpool hospital and BioCampus science park will come from the private sector, with the Department of Well being, European Investment Financial institution and the trust’s reserves offering the rest. But the Scottish view is that England has tweaked PFI rather than identified an different, which it claims its public sector shareholding model is.

Back at the Aberdeen overall health village, staff are expecting to see up to 700 patients a day when all departments are working fully. NHS Grampian believes that the new creating will assistance its policy of making an attempt to preserve people’s overall health, rather than deal with sickness. “It’s not a wellness centre, as there are no GPs doing work in the developing. It truly is not a hospital both, as a hospital is a area you go when you are sick,” says Bremner. “Its target is wellness, rather than illness.”

Scotland"s prescription for wellness: ditch the PFI | SA Mathieson

Scotland"s dentists increase by a third below SNP

The amounts of registration with an NHS dentist have also improved considering that the party took office in Might 2007. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

The number of dentists in Scotland has risen by practically a third in the past seven many years, according to most current figures.

In between September 2006 and September 2013, Scotland has gained 793 additional dentists – an improve of 32.6%, the SNP stated.

The levels of registration with an NHS dentist have also improved since the party took office, in May possibly 2007.

In March that 12 months, 67% of youngsters and 46% of adults have been registered with an NHS dentist.

As of 30 September 2013, 91% of youngsters and 82% of grownups have been registered.

A lot more than four.four million individuals are now registered – an improve of one.8 million considering that March 2007, the SNP explained.

The Scottish Nationwide celebration MSP Bob Doris, who is also deputy convener of the Scottish parliament’s wellness and sport committee, mentioned: “These figures are actually one thing to smile about. In certain it is vitally essential that kids find out excellent oral wellness early as they are considerably more likely to continue these habits later in lifestyle.

“The new 12 months is the perfect time to register at a dentist and get your teeth checked.

“These figures demonstrate that, soon after years of neglect underneath earlier administrations, real inroads have been created in making certain the provision of very first-rate dental services for the people of Scotland.”

Scotland"s dentists increase by a third below SNP