Former NHS director sues Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination

A former director of an NHS trust is suing Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination after he was effectively barred from applying for positions following his public opposition to gay adoption.

Richard Page has lodged a claim at the employment tribunal, saying his televised comments in 2015 that it was in the best interests of a child to have a mother and father stemmed from his Christian faith.

His remarks led to him being sacked as a magistrate in March for serious misconduct, after 15 years on the bench. Two years earlier, the lord chancellor and lord chief justice reprimanded Page after finding his religious beliefs, rather than evidence, had influenced his decisions during a family court hearing.

Page, 70, was also a non-executive director at the Kent and Medway NHS and social care partnership trust. In March, following a complaint by the trust’s LGBT staff network, Page was suspended for the final three months of his four-year term in office.

In August, the NHS Termination of Appointments Panel told Page “it was not in the interests of the health service for you to serve as a non-executive director in the NHS”, in effect barring him from applying for directorships in the future.

Page, a former NHS manager from Headcorn, Kent, is bringing a claim against the health secretary and NHS Improvement, which has the power to appoint non-executive directors. He is pursuing a similar case against the lord chancellor over his sacking as a magistrate.

In a TV debate on Christians in public life in March 2015, Page said: “My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and woman who were the adopted parents.”

In a video on the website of Christian Concern, which is backing his case, Page denied he was homophobic and claimed that more than 6,500 emails had been sent to the Kent NHS trust in his support against one complaint “from the LGBT people”.

He said: “This is the second public sector organisation that has got rid of me. This, I feel, is completely wrong because it’s discriminatory against my opinions and the fact I was doing what I considered to be right.

“The political correctness makes people be frightened, or makes them think they’re the only ones that believe this way, and yet they obviously are the majority … There are people standing up against the so-called politically correct views.”

Andrea Minichiello Williams, of Christian Concern, said freedoms in the UK were being “catastrophically eroded by political correctness and fear”.

“The comment that a child needs a mother and a father is a belief held by Christians, and many others around the world. Everything that Richard Page does, his whole belief system is rooted in his Christian faith. Beliefs arising from the Christian faith continue to be lawful beliefs in our country.”

She said government assurances that equality legislation would not lead to the removal of people who expressed Christian views while holding public positions had turned out to be baseless.

“If it is possible to suffer the detriment of losing your position at work for expressing lawful Christian views, the situation is crucial. There is, in effect, a religious bar to office for Christians solely; those politically correct institutions would not do the same to other faiths.”

A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said: “We are unable to comment on ongoing court cases.”

Former NHS director sues Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination

Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions: "I consider girls have had, as witnesses and victims, a raw deal"

Alison Saunders was on a train to Durham when she heard the guilty verdicts in the trial of Max Clifford.

“I usually travel in the quiet carriage, so I can’t get phonecalls, but I had a text telling me all about it.”

The director of public prosecutions is smiling. Did it truly feel like result in to celebrate?

“Yes and no. It’s never ever wonderful, is it? A guilty verdict signifies victims have been abused, and for them it is been a long journey. I was pleased they have been believed so from that point of view it’s a vindication.”

Two weeks ago, nonetheless, when the jury was sent residence the day just before Great Friday, it looked as if the sky might be about to fall in on Saunders’s head.

Six months earlier she had taken up her occupation as director of the Crown Prosecution Service’s 7,000 taxpayer-funded personnel with a pledge to make the organisation more sensitive to victims. Now it looked as if the selection to prosecute a clutch of public figures for sex offences dating back to the 1970s may well demonstrate disastrous – for Saunders and the CPS, for everyone who believes convicting rapists issues, but over all for the victims of sex crimes who may be discouraged from reporting them by the spectacle plastered across the media of so many substantial-profile failures.

Items acquired even worse when, following his acquittal for rape, Conservative MP and former deputy Commons speaker Nigel Evans attacked the CPS. His trial had been a “very public execution attempt”, he stated, and likened it to a “witch hunt”. He demanded the CPS repay his £130,000 legal fees, suggested a statute of limitations, and complained about the existing law, whereby accusers in sex circumstances – but not defendants – are granted anonymity.

Colleagues sympathised, with at least five MPs joining a chorus of complaints. At Evans’s request, Labour property affairs select committee chair Keith Vaz wrote to the CPS Inspectorate asking “no matter whether we need to make adjustments”. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg agreed there had been “queries to response”.

Coming on the back of not-guilty verdicts in the trials of DJ Dave Lee Travis and Coronation Street actors William Roache and Michael Le Vell, Evans’ trial was witnessed by some as proof that police and prosecutors had received carried away. Established to prove themselves after the scandalous failure to consider complaints about Jimmy Savile seriously, they had gone “fishing” for complaints and then “bundled” them with each other, top to the several fees laid towards Travis, Evans and Clifford. Following the evidence offered by some witnesses in earlier situations, Lord Macdonald, a single of Saunders’s predecessors as DPP and now a Liberal Democrat peer, advised a newspaper that prosecutors were in danger of treating a series of weak situations as amounting to a powerful 1.

Sitting in her leading-floor workplace, with a view dominated by the Shard, but stretching from the City of London to Crystal Palace, Saunders dismisses this notion. “We don’t believe 3 weak instances make a robust a single,” she says steadily. “This is not a new phenomenon. With any variety of offending – assault or shoplifting or theft – if there’s a series of offences, we’ll place them with each other. If there’s a pattern of offending across a time period of time, that provides the jury a context.”

She will overview the Nigel Evans situation, as a lot of this kind of high-profile instances are reviewed. Does she anticipate to be hauled over the coals at her subsequent meeting with Dominic Grieve, her boss and the attorney standard?

“No,” she says, and laughs for the first time since we began talking. “He understands. The attorney basic understands how we make decisions.”

As well as the nation’s chief prosecutor, Saunders is now head of a massive public-sector organisation, and seems to delight in this element of her occupation. She peppers her conversation with modern day management-talk, talks of constructing “resilience” and “flexibility” in her workforce, is proud of the CPS’s e-finding out university, of “joint improvement plans” with police, “personal finding out accounts” for staff, a new “management development programme” for managers and “victim liaison units” in which skills is shared.

She joined the organisation in 1986, is the initial DPP appointed from within the CPS’s personal ranks, and says her appointment last November was the highlight of her job – alongside the conviction in 2012 of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, following her selection to prosecute them for a second time. Rightly proud of her very own achievements, she also radiates loyalty to her organisation and sees herself as a manifestation of its achievement. “It truly is a reflection of in which the support is that it has grown 1 of its own. That is been a real boost, not just for me, but for the complete service.”

An expert in situations involving youthful and vulnerable witnesses, Saunders is now in a place to encourage this agenda, and has lobbied police and crime commissioners for a lot more expert support. “I feel ladies have had, as witnesses and victims, a raw deal,” she says. The new target on female victims, and difficult stereotypes by means of expert coaching in domestic violence instances, is welcome, but “lengthy overdue”.

Saunders is not the first female DPP. In the boardroom, exactly where portraits of all former DPPs hang, there is one female currently: Dame Barbara Mills. But she would like progress for girls to be portion of her legacy “from all kinds of perspectives. I give talks to college students about ladies in the law. That is the place I think the CPS is wonderful. We’re now more than 60% females, we have received a truly very good track record.”

When she took over the work she said that investing in education her employees was a priority, along with supporting victims. Born in Aberdeen, educated in south London, Saunders does not fit the posh, white, male mould of the legal elite in this nation, and obviously wants the CPS to supply an substitute profession path for girls. But with 28% cuts to the CPS budget, and lower scores in a recent employees satisfaction survey, is this probably?

“It’s really difficult. I’m not going to say it is simple,” she says, before listing efficiency cost savings like minimizing London premises from forty to two. In spite of cuts, she says with blue eyes gleaming, performance has improved. There are issues – this kind of as getting far better support from police forces and far more early guilty pleas – that cuts have “helped us to do, forced us to do”.

If cuts are so useful, would she like to see far more of them?

“No,” she says, and laughs. “I think there will come a time when we can not take any a lot more cuts with out sitting down and asking: ‘What does a prosecution service do? What can we do?’ We haven’t reached that level however. I’m not entirely sure when that point would be.”

Some individuals would say that in the wider legal context, that point is now. This week noticed a dramatic stand-off between government and judiciary when Alexander Cameron QC, elder brother of the prime minister, persuaded a judge to keep – or cancel – the trial of five males accused of fraud on grounds that it was not possible for them to secure the legal representation they needed to ensure a fair trial. Yesterday the Financial Perform Authority, prosecutor of the case, announced it would appeal.

Saunders will be viewing, not least since the CPS has three of its very own fraud circumstances in the pipeline. The situation arose simply because of cuts to legal help, and the refusal of barristers with the essential specailist encounter to work for fees which have been diminished by 30%.

Does Saunders feel barristers should agree to work for significantly less? She won’t say. Nor will she say what she thinks of the scenario in which justice secretary Chris Grayling will discover himself if this week’s choice is upheld.

She also refuses to comment on Britain’s above-total prisons – “that’s a matter for sentencing policy” – even though she does not get any pleasure from sending criminals there: “If that is what the law says has to occur, then it does. I get fulfillment from bringing instances to court and seeing justice being completed.”

Saunders’ predecessor, Keir Starmer, who was witnessed as an astute operator politically, is operating for Labour on a feasible “victims’ law” and may stand as an MP. Saunders insists her interest in the victims of crime is not political at all.

“The explanation I’m hunting at victims is because we have victims who seem every single single day. They’re the ones who allow us to deliver cases ahead of a court, and I consider we owe it to them to improve the operate we do and ask how we can assist.”

This consists of following up following trials have concluded, and Saunders has written to Max Clifford’s victims asking to meet them. She presumably would not meet the witnesses in a failed prosecution, such as these who accused Nigel Evans or Dave Lee Travis of abuse?

“I have,” she says speedily, before turning her answer into a generalisation: “Not automatically the ones in these cases, but I have met victims in other instances exactly where we have not succeeded.”

Saunders has the conviction of Roy Whiting for the abduction and murder of eight-yr-old Sarah Payne on her CV, and supports media campaigns on criminal justice problems. What did she think of Rebekah Brooks’ naming and shaming of paedophiles in the News of the Planet?

“Some of the campaigns run by papers, not just Rebekah Brooks, but other papers, have been extremely instrumental in changing factors and raising awareness of issues. I know Sarah’s law [making it possible for entry to the Sex Offenders Register] was campaigned for, which was a great point to do. With some issues, FGM [female genital mutilation] for illustration, the campaigns that papers have run have been really very good. The Evening Regular is undertaking some thing on asset recovery. I believe these campaigns are really essential and get issues to a wider audience than we can.”

Saunders’ decision to deliver the UK’s first prosecution for FGM against 31-12 months-outdated east London physician, Dhanuson Dharmasena, who is alleged to have committed the crime in the process of stitching a woman’s vagina soon after childbirth, has been criticised as properly as praised, due to the fact Dharmasena was not accountable for the first process, but Saunders is bullish.

“The situations in this situation do fit the legislation, otherwise we wouldn’t be prosecuting it. We are very keen to make certain that wherever attainable we are hunting at FGM situations. We’ve had extremely number of referred to us. We’re still in double figures.”

She says prevention is “far far better” than prosecution, and suggests a new strategy to the dilemma may well contain “more proactive perform by the police – police going to airports when they know there are times of 12 months individuals go for FGM ceremonies so they can talk to men and women on the way there or on the way back”.

She praises the awareness-raising amid teachers championed by the Guardian, which campaigned for education secretary Michael Gove to write to each and every college.

“There are some men and women in England and Wales who nevertheless do not know about FGM and may possibly not select up the signs. I think it’s significantly much better now, but five or 10 years in the past, if you had been a instructor, you may possibly not have thought, ‘Why is this woman currently being taken out of college to go to her home country at a certain time of year?’ Whereas now I feel teachers are extremely mindful, because of the campaigns that are going on, and we have had cases where teachers have contacted police or social solutions.”

Outside her constructing, the Guardian’s photographer asks Saunders to perch on the concrete barrier that divides the cycle lane from other targeted traffic with the dome of St Paul’s behind her – just as a picture of the cathedral sits behind the desk in her workplace.

Good-natured and jokey as she waits for the photographer to set up, Saunders says: “I really feel like performing this.” She flexes the muscle groups in both arms, strongman-design.

“You can do that,” I say eagerly, for the camera, being aware of she will not.

The director of public prosecutions drops her hands, and presses her brightly painted fingernails together in front of her.

Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions: "I consider girls have had, as witnesses and victims, a raw deal"

Interview with Lucy Bennett, artistic director, Stopgap Dance Company | Arts head

Lucy Bennett is artistic director of Stopgap Dance Organization. Photograph: Stopgap Dance Business

Hi Lucy, what can you tell me about Stopgap Dance Company?

Stopgap Dance Firm helps make evocative dance productions with exceptional disabled and non-disabled artists. We nurture and operate with expressive artists who have sturdy personalities and stories to tell. When they get with each other to devise authentic operates, the end result has a genuine emotional punch, which pushes you to look at the globe in a diverse way.

A sense of pioneering spirit and collaboration are really important in our company and we are continually creating discoveries about what kind of productions disabled and non-disabled artists can make. Some of our dancers have been doing work with each other for more than a decade and have large experience in integrated dance. We just lately stepped away from currently being a repertoire organization so that we can actually search at our own choreographic practice in detail and make our distinct artistic voice heard.

What are the implications of integrated dance and how do you approach it as artistic director?

Integrated dance for us is about finding new and unusual dance vocabularies. We use our various physicalities, experiences and studying styles to discover innovative and different methods of expression and motion. We typically convey this by saying: “distinction is our implies and our strategy.”

The approach of innovation at times reveals exciting social dynamics inside of the crew, and I consider to find ways to knit these into the production. Now that we are producing our own perform, we can use our creation approach to reconstruct some established tips about integrated dance – our new perform Artificial Things is total of new and uncommon dance sequences that came from looking at things in a lot more detail.

I think we have gone a small bit additional in questioning the normal shapes and accepted principles of dance. By taking complete control of the inventive approach, a much deeper exploration was achievable. I’m lucky to have a collective of dancers who are inquisitive.

Does this variety of integrated perform present any issues?

We want longer creation periods than most other businesses since we are doing work with various bodies and varying paces of learning. The diversity does make creation of new materials a lot more complicated. Even when we locate new tips, it requires longer to uncover consistency with a varied cast simply because there are so several overall performance variables for wheelchair or learning disabled dancers, but experience has taught us that the material ultimately will tighten with practice.

It truly is frequently tough for new business dancers to adjust to our tempo, so we seek out people who could get utilized to it. But this slower pace and mishaps are not all unfavorable it can motivate a supportive surroundings, which assists to build a great team spirit. The dancers realise they want each and every other to do what they do, and their co-dependence is quite much reflected in our work.

Dance is frequently noticed as a really image and entire body-led artform – how much is integrated dance demanding that?

Dancers like Dave Toole, who had a starring role in the London 2012 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony, had a large affect in modifying standard suggestions about who can dance. London 2012 raised so significantly awareness of inclusive and integrated functionality. It was quite emotional seeing so a lot of wonderful disabled and non-disabled performers putting on such an amazing spectacle.

Where we need to have to make far better progress is how we involve understanding disabled artists and recognise the contribution they can make. Chris Pavia, who has been operating with Stopgap for 15 many years, devised one particular of my central characters in Artificial Factors by means of a direct dialogue with me. His raw imagination and the potential to be “in the second” is fascinating and I hope that his performance will change perceptions about finding out disabled artists.

What makes for a good artistic director in dance?

For me it really is about the big and little. You have to come up with the big vision, but you also have to be on hand with the tiny concepts that can fix the everyday issues. I have constantly admired artistic directors who are speaking at a conference one particular minute but are pleased to make tea for their colleagues the subsequent. It really is healthier to see factors from various perspectives and be adaptive to circumstances. As artistic director, I practice generating myself large when I require to be heard, and small when I want to quietly observe.

With no what could you not do your task?

A tea break with my dancers. That’s where I get some of my best tips.

Lucy Bennett is artistic director of Stopgap Dance Firm – adhere to the business on Twitter @Stopgapdance

Join our neighborhood of arts, culture and inventive professionals by signing up cost-free to the Guardian Culture Pros Network.

Interview with Lucy Bennett, artistic director, Stopgap Dance Company | Arts head

Wellness service is "unsustainable", NHS director warns

He mentioned about 18 per cent of sufferers admitted they had gone to A&ampE for non-urgent care when they did not require to.

He added: “The majority of individuals do look to recognise that A&ampE is below pressure, but one particular in four mentioned they would go once again if they couldn’t access their GP.

“In the extended term we will run into difficulties again.”

Prof Willett said the difficulty dealing with A&ampE departments now was not the quantity of men and women attending but the volume who now need to be admitted due to the fact care outside hospital is not good adequate.

His feedback follow criticisms by MPs of the lack of strategy by ministers to tackle the chrnonic shortage of dictors functioning in emergency departments, which left one in 5 advisor posts unfilled.

The Public Account Commitee’s (PAC) report on urgent care which says more should be done to entice medical professionals to perform at struggling hospitals.

They said that emergency admissions to hospitals have enhanced by 47 per cent in the last 15 many years.

Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the PAC, explained: “Any attempt to improve emergency admissions companies in the NHS is currently being completely stymied by the persistent shortage of professional A&ampE consultants.

“Practically 1 fifth of consultant posts in emergency departments had been either vacant or filled by locums in 2012. There are also key issues in training ample doctors in emergency medication.

“What we found remarkable is that neither the Department nor NHS England has a clear approach to tackle the shortage of A&ampE consultants.”

She explained they have recommended having to pay consultants far more to perform at struggling hospitals, specifically individuals positioned in unique measures which struggle to retain and recruit employees.

Wellness service is "unsustainable", NHS director warns

NHS Healthcare Director to meet loved ones of heart death boy

An NHS spokesman confirmed that the Tweet was genuine and Prof Sir Bruce’s office would arrange a meeting “at the earliest opportunity” with households concerned over the care they acquired at the Bristol hospital.

“Sir Bruce has offered to meet with the families at their convenience,” mentioned the spokesman. “Ultimately the aim of the meeting is to recognize their considerations but I can’t comment on what Sir Bruce is arranging to say to them.”

His offer you came as it emerged that another youngster had died at the scandal-hit hospital following his heart operation was cancelled 5 instances in a week.

Danielle Gatehouse and Lee Pascoe were told their son Harley, born with half a heart, was not ill enough for an operation last October. It was only after the twelve-day-outdated kid became an emergency that he was operated on, but by then he could not be revived.

Bookkeeper Danielle, 23, of Fraddon, Cornwall, explained she is contemplating joining other dad and mom who are taking legal action over the 13 kids who have died or suffered significant harm since 2008 on Ward 32 – the children’s cardiac unit at the Bristol hospital.

They include the Turners, who are convinced their son Sean died prematurely due to the fact of a series of pointless and avoidable errors by hospital personnel and managers.

Medical employees were accused of “missing opportunities” whilst caring for Sean, who was so dehydrated that he sucked moisture from a wet wipe.

The Turners are preparing, along with several other households, to sue University Hospitals Bristol Foundation Believe in over its remedy of their young children.

Responding to the exchange with Professor Sir Bruce, Yolanda Turner, 45, said: “We had been a bit shocked to see a response from him, to be trustworthy. He doesn’t generally react to folks on Twitter.

“We’re pleased that anything lastly got via but we’ll wait to hear from the NHS about the details. We’re very interested in hearing what he’s acquired to say but we’ve had to get pretty used to waiting.

“In 2012 Dr Bruce promised us a assessment and that never took place. Our believe in in these people now is not fantastic. One of the items we want to discover out is why that overview never ever took location and what he’s doing to tackle the more substantial difficulties.

“We’ve sent him enough evidence on Sean’s situation and expected him to do something about it. He hasn’t completed something about Bristol, we felt he didn’t listen to us. We’ll be talking to our attorneys prior to we go into any meeting with Dr Bruce.”

An inquest final month heard how Sean Turner had suffered from cardiac problems given that getting born with his heart on the correct side of his entire body and blocked arteries amongst his heart and lungs.

He underwent surgery designed to aid his heart function far more efficiently on January 24, 2012, at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. Afterwards he spent only 18 hrs on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit despite physicians telling his mother and father he would spend about 5 days there.

When his mother and father asked why he was being moved they have been informed his bed was required. Within hours of the move Sean started vomiting and fluid started to build up around his heart. He was returned to the PICU but later on went back to Ward 32.

On February 16, Sean suffered a heart attack, which he survived. He was rushed into surgical treatment where physicians drained fluid from his right lung and heart. But Sean died a month later on from a brain haemorrhage, following struggling numerous blood clots.

Mr and Mrs Turner gave harrowing accounts of their son’s care and treatment during his six-week keep at the hospital.

They explained medics did not listen to their considerations and Sean became reliant on his oxygen mask once more. He also became much more and more dehydrated – even sucking moisture from wet wipes utilized to awesome his forehead due to the fact he was so thirsty.

Throughout the inquest, Mrs Turner said: ‘We will never ever overlook the days on Ward 32 and can never understand how a little one can be left to endure for so lengthy.

“How was this supposed to be a specialist cardiac unit in a centre of excellence, however no a single recognised Sean’s deterioration?

“His [cardiac] arrest was preventable simply because all the indicators had been there. Occasions on Ward 32 dashed Sean’s probabilities of survival.”

Delivering a narrative verdict at the inquest in Flax Bourton, close to Bristol, Avon Coroner Maria Voisin mentioned there were “lost opportunities” in Sean’s care but additional that she had not heard evidence of any “gross failures”.

Family solicitor Laurence Vick mentioned there had been “parallels” with the scandal at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the 1990s when 35 babies died and dozens were left brain damaged soon after cardiac surgical treatment.

He mentioned the families he represents – which includes the Turners – have been thinking about civil action at the conclusion of four pending inquests into care at the hospital.

Commenting on news of the latest horror story from Bristol, Mrs Turner mentioned: “To study that it is happened yet again is so upsetting. How poorly has a kid to be ahead of they operate? It is unforgivable.”

NHS Healthcare Director to meet loved ones of heart death boy

Observe reside: NHS England healthcare director Sir Bruce Keogh quizzed by MPs

This livestream begins at 2.30pm

MPs from the Well being Choose Committee will quiz Sir Bruce Keogh this afternoon to investigate the latest performance of Accident and Emergency units following the recent cold weather and the announcement of planned closures of some emergency departments.

The visual appeal follows Sir Bruce’s emergency care evaluation published in November which recommended an overhaul of the system in England to treat far more men and women in their personal properties and preserve them out of A&ampE.

It also recommended that for those who do want to go to hospital for emergency treatment method, two kinds of A&ampE need to be produced – emergency centres for assessing sufferers and beginning remedy, and key emergency centres supplying professional care, such as for strokes or heart attacks.

Observe reside: NHS England healthcare director Sir Bruce Keogh quizzed by MPs

Britain is reaching "a tipping level in its use of antibiotics", says Wellcome Trust director

“This will not be the contagion like occasion of someone landing from Hong Kong in London with a pneumonia that we’ve all feared. This will creep on us insidiously and that is in many approaches much more tough to deal with.”

In a lot of components of the world, this kind of as India and China, low-cost antibiotics are offered over the counter.

Not only does this lead to overuse but many men and women get medicines incorrectly or fail to full their course of treatment method, allowing infections to develop resistance.

Prof Farrar urged the Government to incentivise drug firms to come up with new antibiotics by means of patents or sophisticated buying and to loosen up regulations surrounding clinical trials.

It comes months following the Government’s Chief Healthcare Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said the threat posed by antibiotic resistance was a “ticking time-bomb”, which ought to be place on the Nationwide Danger Register- which also includes “catastrophic terrorist attacks” and other civil emergencies.

Program operations this kind of as hip replacements could grow to be fatal in just 20 many years time if we get rid of the capacity to battle infection, she explained.

Britain is reaching "a tipping level in its use of antibiotics", says Wellcome Trust director