Ministers under fire over bid to delay publication of air pollution plan

The government is facing renewed pressure after a last-minute attempt to delay the publication of its plan to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis.

Ministers were under a court direction to produce tougher draft measures to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which is largely caused by diesel traffic, by 4pm on Monday. The government’s original plans had been dismissed by judges as so poor as to be unlawful.

But following the announcement by Theresa May of a general election on 8 June, ministers lodged a lengthy application to the court late on Friday. It is understood it asked judges to allow them to breach the Monday deadline to “comply with pre-election propriety rules”.

The new draft would be submitted in June, after the election, with a full policy not produced until September.

Lawyers from environmental law group ClientEarth, which successfully took the government to court over its air quality plans, said the move was unacceptable, adding it was discussing its next move.

James Thornton, the group’s CEO, said: “The unacceptable last-minute nature of the government’s application late on Friday night, after the court had closed, has meant that we have spent the weekend considering our response.

“We are still examining our next steps. This is a question of public health and not of politics and for that reason we believe that the plans should be put in place without delay.”

The government lodged the lengthy application shortly before 7pm on Friday, which was too late for the court to accept. It was due to be considered by the court on Monday.

But ClientEarth said it was unlikely there would be a hearing on Monday as they would need time to respond to the government’s arguments, although the judge could order an emergency session.

The scale of the air pollution crisis was revealed in a joint Guardian-Greenpeace investigation this month showing hundreds of thousands of children were being educated within 150 metres of a road where levels of nitrogen dioxide from diesel traffic breached legal limits.

Last week figures obtained by Labour showed that more than 38 million people, representing 59.3% of the UK population, were living in areas where levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution were above legal limits.

Research consistently shows that exposure to traffic fumes is harmful to children and adults. Children are more vulnerable because their lungs are still developing and exposure to nitrogen dioxide reduces lung growth, causes long-term ill-health and can result it premature death.

Nitrogen dioxide emissions from diesel traffic cause 23,500 of the 40,000 premature deaths from air pollution each year, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In April last year, MPs said air pollution was a public health emergency.

Thorton said: “Whichever party ends up in power after 8 June will need this air quality plan to begin finally to tackle our illegal levels of pollution and prevent further illness and early deaths from poisonous toxins in the air we breathe. The government has had five months to draft this plan and it should be published.”

A Defra spokesman said: “We are seeking an extension to comply with pre-election propriety rules.”

Ministers under fire over bid to delay publication of air pollution plan

NHS data loss scandal has prompted five inquiries, ministers say

The NHS’s loss of more than half a million pieces of confidential medical correspondence is so serious that it has triggered five separate investigations, ministers have admitted.

The disclosure has prompted claims that the scale of the loss of 515,000 test results and doctors’ letters was hidden in “a huge cover-up”. It raises fresh questions for the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who has publicly championed openness in the NHS.

The National Audit Office (NAO) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are currently looking into the incident, which the Guardian revealed last month, according to parliamentary questions that the health minister Nicola Blackwood answered on Friday.

Their investigations follow three other inquiries already undertaken by the Department of Health (DH), NHS England and NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), Blackwood said.

SBS is the private firm, co-owned by the DH, which mislaid the highly sensitive correspondence between 2011 and 2016 by putting items in a warehouse and forgetting to send them on to 7,700 GP surgeries across England despite their importance for patients’ health and treatment.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have intensified their claims that the DH has been highly evasive about the scandal after Blackwood said the DH would not publish the results of any of the three investigations already completed.

“It is totally incredible that the secretary of state failed for so long to identify this catalogue of errors, and it beggars belief that Jeremy Hunt is refusing to publish the advice which he received,” said Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary. “This is a major scandal, and Jeremy Hunt needs to come clean with the public.”

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, criticised the DH for “really disturbing” secrecy. “The fact that five separate investigations have been launched shows that the government and NHS England both knew that this was a monumental blunder,” he said. “But Jeremy Hunt’s attempt to downplay the severity of it, when all this was happening, smacks of a huge cover-up.”

The Guardian’s disclosure forced Hunt to answer an urgent question in the Commons on 27 February, when he downplayed the seriousness of the incident. But the DH’s own permanent secretary, Chris Wormald, confirmed to MPs on the public accounts committee on the same day that doctors were still examining whether more than 500 patients may have come to harm as a result.

Medical investigators are also looking into the possibility that the incident contributed to some patient deaths.

Hunt’s behaviour is under scrutiny after he admitted to MPs that he was first told about the data loss on 23 March 2016, but did not acknowledge it publicly until 21 July. Even then he only did so in a 138-word statement on the last day of parliamentary business, and mentioned neither the huge number of documents involved or the possibility that patients may have been harmed.

The DH’s refusal to publish the results of any of the three inquiries means that Hunt is avoiding scrutiny of what he knew and when, and what he did or did not do as a result of the documents being mislaid..

In the parliamentary questions Blackwood defended the decision not publish. “Given that this national incident is currently subject to an investigation by both the NAO and the ICO, it is not appropriate to publish related documents until these investigations have concluded,” she said.

NHS data loss scandal has prompted five inquiries, ministers say

End UK tax incentives for diesel vehicles, ministers are urged

Ministers are coming under growing pressure to remove tax incentives for diesel cars and offer compensation to motorists so they can swap to more environmentally friendly vehicles.

A group of medical professionals, environmental campaigners and lawyers has written to the chancellor ahead of the budget to demand a change to the vehicle excise duty that they say subsidises diesel cars.

Separately, senior Labour and Tory politicians have called for a comprehensive vehicle scrappage scheme to help people with diesel cars change to greener alternatives.

The letter from campaigners, including the British Lung Foundation, Greenpeace and doctors’ groups, says toxic air poses a daily risk to people’s health – particularly the young and those suffering from lung problems.

“Air pollution has … been shown to stunt children’s lung growth, which could leave them with health problems in later life,” it states. “We all deserve to breathe clean air.”

On Saturday the Guardian revealed that thousands of children and young people at more than 800 nurseries, schools and colleges in London faced dangerous and illegal levels of toxic air, much of it from diesel cars.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, indicated the government may bow to pressure, saying motorists should be wary of buying diesel cars, adding: “We’re going to have to really migrate our car fleet, and our vehicle fleet more generally, to cleaner technology.” However, he said that diesel “was not going to disappear”.

Air pollution causes 40,000 early deaths in the UK and costs the country £27.5bn a year, according to a government estimate. MPs have called it a public health emergency.

The letter adds: “We know diesel vehicles, in particular diesel cars, are a major source of pollution in towns and cities … yet vehicle excise duty (VED) not only fails to recognise this, but is still incentivising them. We are therefore asking for a revision of the VED first-year rate in your upcoming budget statement.”

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has added his voice to calls for a change in vehicle excise duty for diesel cars. He also said the government should introduce a comprehensive clean air act and a diesel scrappage scheme to compensate those motorists who bought diesel cars after being told they were more environmentally friendly.

“A number of years ago Londoners and others around the country were encouraged to buy diesel cars, businessmen and women, charities, families were all encouraged to buy diesel.

“We are saying to the government you need to choose a national diesel scrappage fund to help people move away from diesel … and we would target this to the poorest families.”

Judges told ministers last November they must cut the illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in dozens of towns and cities in the shortest possible time after ruling that their plans to improve air quality were so poor they were unlawful.

The government has until April to come up with proposals to bring before the court.

Last year the environment, food and rural affairs select committee described the situation as a public health emergency and recommended the government introduce a diesel scrappage scheme.

Its chair, Neil Parish, told the Guardian he was disappointed that the advice had been ignored and called on the government to change course.

Parish said: “Defra has lost again in the courts on its failure to tackle air pollution. The option of a scrappage scheme should be back on the table to help get the dirtiest diesels off our roads quickly.”

He said it was vital any scrappage scheme was “focused and does not merely become a subsidy for the middle classes. Cash from the scheme should either promote ULEVs [ultra-low-emission vehicle] or incentivise public transport use.”

Legal NGO ClientEarth brought the case against the government and was one of the groups to sign Sunday’s letter to the chancellor.

Its chief executive, James Thornton, said: “The high court has ordered the government to take immediate action now to deal with illegal levels of pollution and prevent tens of thousands of additional early deaths in the UK.

“The government needs to recognise that diesel is the primary cause of the problem, and to promote a shift to alternatives. It’s perverse that our tax system encourages people to buy dirty vehicles.”

End UK tax incentives for diesel vehicles, ministers are urged

Ministers lose fight to stop payouts over swine flu jab narcolepsy cases

Dozens of children who developed narcolepsy as a result of a swine flu vaccine could be compensated after the high court rejected a government appeal to withhold payments.

Six million people in Britain, and more across Europe, were given the Pandemrix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic, but the jab was withdrawn after doctors noticed a sharp rise in narcolepsy among those who received it.

The sleep disorder is permanent and can cause people to fall asleep dozens of times a day. Some narcoleptics have night terrors and a muscular condition called cataplexy that can lead them to collapse on the spot.

In 2015, a 12-year-old boy, known as John for the proceedings, was awarded £120,000 by a court that ruled he had been left severely disabled by narcolepsy caused by the vaccine. He was seven when he had the jab and developed symptoms within months.

Because of his tiredness, John became disruptive at school and found it almost impossible to make friends. He takes several naps a day, cannot shower or take a bus on his own, and may never be allowed to drive a car.

Despite paying out, the Department for Work and Pensions argued John’s disability was not serious enough to warrant compensation and said the court was wrong to take into account how the illness would affect him in the future. But the high court on Thursday rejected the government’s appeal that only the boy’s disability at the time should have been considered.

The ruling paves the way for more than 60 other people to claim compensation.

“This important decision brings clarity to anyone who brings claims under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act in future,” said Peter Todd, the family’s solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen. “It will in particular bring welcome relief to those who developed narcolepsy as a result of taking the swine flu vaccination and who have been awaiting payment from the DWP scheme but also has implications for anyone affected by other vaccines covered by the scheme.”

The judgment means the DWP has to take into account the impact disability has on a person’s entire life, and not just the impact it has on the individual at the time their claim is made.

“Sadly, those who developed narcolepsy as a result of the swine flu vaccination have had their lives changed forever. The condition will affect many aspects of their lives including working, driving, personal and family relationships – the very things most of us take for granted,” Todd said.

In 2014, a 23-year-old nursery assistant who developed narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine took her own life, telling her family that living with the sleep disorder had become unbearable. In a note written on the day she died, Katie Clack, urged her family to pursue her legal case, saying she had been left with “no quality of life”. Her sister, Emma Sutton, told the Guardian at the time: “We feel she was let down by the defective vaccine, which caused her narcolepsy, and by the insufficient intervention and support, which ultimately led to this tragedy.”

The Pandemrix compensation case was the first that the court of appeal considered under the Ul statutory compensation scheme, which was set up in 1979 for rare occasions when vaccines cause severe damage. The decision to consider the impact of the disability over the person’s entire life is now binding on all future cases brought under the act.

Todd said there are about 100 people in the UK with narcolepsy caused by Pandemrix. A further 100 applications a year are made for compensation under the scheme due to harm caused by other vaccines. “Today’s judgment brings a welcome relief to the many people affected by the DWP’s continued refusal of applications for compensation,” Todd said. He is acting for 88 claimants, mostly children, who developed narcolepsy as a result of the swine flu vaccine, and in a civil case against GSK, which manufactured the vaccine.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We are aware of the judgment of the court and are carefully studying the court’s reasons.”

Ministers lose fight to stop payouts over swine flu jab narcolepsy cases

By ignoring sex education, ministers are risking children’s safety | Joan Smith

It’s a long time since Theresa May and most of her cabinet were at school. When she was doing her O-levels, no one was sexting and teenage boys weren’t goggling at violent porn on smartphones. I think it’s unlikely that the future prime minister had to wear shorts under her school skirt to protect herself from being groped, as some teenage girls have taken to doing. But that doesn’t mean May and her colleagues have any excuse for ignoring what’s going on in schools today, from sexual harassment to homophobic bullying.

They’ve been warned by MPs on the women and equalities committee, in an excoriating report that revealed the “shocking scale” of sexual harassment in schools. They’ve been told by the campaigning organisation Stonewall, which published a survey three years ago in which 86% of secondary teachers said they had encountered bullying of gay pupils. They follow the news, like the rest of us, and they must know about dreadful cases in which girls and boys have been tricked into meeting paedophiles who disguised themselves as teenagers online.

They have also been told by just about everyone that the best way to keep children safe is to insist that every school in the country teaches high-quality sex and relationships education (SRE) and the broader subject of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education – no ifs, no buts, and no exemptions for faith schools. Teachers’ or parents’ embarrassment is not a reason to deny children absolutely essential information about how to avoid sexual predators, online or in real life.

After the “grooming” scandals in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and other cities, you might think this was a no-brainer. Yet ministers have done everything but stand on their heads to avoid it. Last week Conservatives in the House of Commons were accused of filibustering a bill sponsored by Green co-leader Caroline Lucas, calling for PSHE to be made compulsory in all state-funded schools, by making lengthy speeches about the bill that preceded it. A change in the law isn’t necessary, ministers have claimed, because Ofsted is checking that the subject is being covered and will pick up any inadequacies during inspections. Just over a year ago a Home Office minister, Lord Bates, said: “We expect sex and relationships education to be taught in all schools. In fact, it is inspected by Ofsted as such.” A similar point was made last year by Lady Evans, then a government whip and now leader of the House of Lords.

Presumably they had in mind Ofsted’s latest inspection framework, introduced in 2015, which made considering the effectiveness of PSHE “more crucial than ever” to the judgments made by inspectors. Now, though, that argument (like all previous ones) has been blown out of the water. It turns out that Ofsted is barely looking at SRE when it inspects schools, according to a detailed analysis by the British Humanist Association.

The headline finding, from a study of more than 2,000 primary and secondary school inspection reports for 2015-16, is that sexual health, safe sex and related subjects were almost entirely absent. Sexual harassment and sexual violence were not mentioned at all, while sexting appeared in just 17 reports, despite having been identified as an area of major concern by the government. Porn was mentioned in a single report, as was HIV/Aids, which appeared in relation to “emerging economies” in a geography lesson. Only one in seven reports referred to LGBT issues.

Back in 2013, Ofsted said that the provision of PSHE was “not yet good enough” in 40% of schools. It is hard to believe there has been a massive improvement in the meantime, yet fewer than 1% of the inspection reports examined by the BHA made any criticism of schools’ coverage of the subject. To be fair to Ofsted, it should never have been given the job of making up for the government’s failure in this area. If SRE isn’t compulsory, some schools will say they don’t want to divert scarce resources from other subjects or that they can’t find room in the timetable. Others will use it as an excuse to avoid topics, such as homosexuality and safe sex, that they find uncomfortable for religious or ideological reasons.

What all this means, in blunt terms, is that the government is coming up with one excuse after another to avoid doing one of its most basic jobs: protecting the next generation. We know girls are being sexually harassed at school, pressured into posing for photos that may be used to threaten or humiliate them, and suffering abuse from boyfriends whose expectations have been warped by online porn. We know that gay kids are being bullied, and children of both sexes are vulnerable to predatory sex offenders.

For several years now, senior police officers in London have been telling me that compulsory sex education is vital to keep children safe. A few months ago, I heard a senior civil servant talk about the staggering number of crimes against children that are being facilitated by the internet. This is not the cosy world May grew up in, when sex and reproduction were covered in biology lessons and mobile phones didn’t exist.

It is not even the world of 17 years ago, when the government published its outdated official guidance on SRE. Children are encountering sex at a much younger age than in earlier generations, but a head-in-the-sand government is refusing to make sure they are well-informed and safe.

By ignoring sex education, ministers are risking children’s safety | Joan Smith

Stop asking us to deliver the impossible, NHS trusts urge ministers

Ministers and NHS bosses are being urged to stop asking the health service to “deliver the impossible” of higher standards of care when it is being denied the money it needs to do its job properly.

The plea from the organisation that represents NHS trusts in England was accompanied by a blunt warning that care for patients is already deteriorating and that even a flu outbreak could “destabilise” some hospitals this winter.

NHS Providers, whose member trusts receive £65bn of the NHS’s £100bn annual budget, says the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens, are making unrealistic demands of the service.

“The government has said there will be no more money. The government and our system leaders have said that the NHS still has to deliver everything that is currently being asked for,” Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, will say on Tuesday.

He will dismiss the idea that the NHS could hit its tough financial targets this year while also transforming how it delivers care, giving every patient high-quality care, meeting a host of waiting time targets, implementing the government’s “seven-day NHS” pledge and also improving patient safety.

Ministers and NHS bosses should scale back their expectations of what the NHS can do in all those areas given its parlous finances and the government’s refusal to boost its budget, Hopson argues.

Three-quarters (73%) of NHS trust bosses believe they do not have enough staff to function properly, according to a new NHS Providers report on the state of the NHS in England. More than half (55%) say they are worried or very worried by their organisation’s lack of staff. Many trust chairs and chief executives now say the difficulty in recruiting personnel is as onerous as balancing their books.

In a survey of 172 bosses from 136 of England’s 238 trusts, one said: “There are simply not enough high-quality clinical staff in the country to cover some specialities.” Another said: “Brexit has caused drying up of recruitment from the rest of Europe.” Widespread worry about the NHS’s workforce “concerns me more than the money”, said a third boss.

Just 10% are confident or very confident that they can maintain the level and quality of services they currently provide over the next six months because money is so tight. Nearly half (49%) expect their financial position to worsen over that time.

Hopson will tell his organisation’s annual conference that the government’s decision not to put more money into a cash-strapped NHS raises “four main risks. The first is that the service the NHS provides is now starting to deteriorate”, and that the deterioration will accelerate because of the “crisis” in social care services.

The NHS is also becoming less resilient, he will add. “When you run a system under as much pressure for as long as we have been running the NHS, it becomes much less able to absorb the shocks that any health system has to absorb – the winter flu outbreak [or] closure of a couple of care homes [or] a few experienced GPs retiring and being replaced by more risk-averse locums”.

In addition, Hopson will say, “pressure on staff and leaders becomes intolerable, which erodes morale”. Hopson is also worried that pressures are so great that “the invisible bond of mutual trust and faith between the government and NHS system leaders, on one hand, and frontline leaders, on the other, is starting to fray”.

NHS Providers’ warnings on staffing come as an audit of NHS stroke services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland found that patients who have suffered a stroke do not always receive optimum care because many units have too few nurses and doctors, especially at weekends.

Nearly half (49%) of stroke units do not have the recognised minimum number of nurses needed to ensure good care, according to the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme. At weekends as many as 80% of units do not have the three nurses per 10 beds that is recommended. In addition, 40% of units have at least one vacancy for a consultant and 28% do not provide consultant-led ward rounds every day of the week.

Staff shortages were a concern, the experts behind the audit said. A lack of nurses in stroke units has been shown to increase the risk of patients dying.

The Department of Health welcomed NHS Providers’ acknowledgement that trusts were treating record numbers of patients and also making good progress at reducing its collective deficit, which hit a record £2.45bn in 2015-16.

Stop asking us to deliver the impossible, NHS trusts urge ministers

Brexit means "only major crisis will focus ministers on to NHS"

The NHS and social care are at risk of being downgraded as a priority by a government distracted by Brexit unless there is a major public health crisis, the former chief executive of the NHS has warned.

Nigel Crisp, who ran the NHS and Department of Health for six years, said the government’s need to concentrate on the economics of leaving the EU would be one of the three biggest risks to health and social care posed by the referendum vote, along with loss of staff who are EU citizens and a brain drain from medical research.

The crossbench peer issued the warning in evidence to the House of Commons health committee inquiry into the impact of Brexit on health and social care, at a time when senior politicians and medical leaders have been sounding the alarm that care for the elderly is close to collapse.

Last week, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, refused to bow to pressure to give more funding to social care or NHS at the autumn statement, prompting anger from Labour MPs and even some Conservatives.

In his evidence to the new inquiry, Crisp said the NHS and social care were already “dealing with major problems and facing an uncertain future” but the uncertainty of Brexit only makes it even more important that the government sets out a clear direction and strategy.

Listing the possible risks of Brexit in his evidence, he said: “Pressures on the economy will bring pressures on all public services, adding to existing ones. Moreover, the emphasis in government policy will of necessity be on addressing economic rather than social issues with the result that health and social care will become a lower priority – unless, of course, there is a major public crisis.”

He added: “My most immediate concern is that we haven’t yet seen any adequate mitigating strategy or actions being taken by the government. NHS England and local employers have attempted to reassure staff but we need to see a government-led comprehensive and well supported risk mitigation approach adopted and publicised.”

Whitehall sources have told the Guardian that Downing Street is well aware of the funding difficulties in the NHS and social care but believes the government’s position on funding can hold at least until after the major hurdle of triggering article 50 is out of the way at the end of March.

However, there are already warnings about the risk of a winter crisis in the NHS as cuts to social care places mean many elderly people are not being discharged from their hospital beds.

Senior figures in the medical profession, together with Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders in local government, wrote to the Observer this weekend demanding a reversal of Philip Hammond’s decision not to offer more funding for social care in last week’s autumn statement.

They argued that the safety of millions of elderly people was at risk because of an acute financial shortfall in adult social care, which is in turn putting pressure on the NHS.

On Sunday, Stephen Dorrell, the former Conservative health secretary and chair of the NHS Confederation, also said that Hammond made a mistake in failing to give more funding to social care in the autumn statement.

His voice adds to other senior Tories, including fellow former health secretary Andrew Lansley and Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health select committee, in expressing fears that social care cuts are having a worrying effect on the NHS.

Responding to the warnings, a Treasury spokeswoman said: “The government has committed to increase NHS funding by £10bn above inflation by 2020/21, going beyond what the NHS requested.

“In addition, we have given local councils £3.5bn extra funding by 2020 for social care. Many councils are already providing high-quality social care services within existing budgets.”

Labour MPs expressed anger after Hammond did not mention social care once during his autumn statement speech to the Commons.

It prompted Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, to launch a national “Care for the NHS” campaign on Saturday.

Brexit means "only major crisis will focus ministers on to NHS"

Theresa May should not have downgraded care minister"s role

There’s no doubt that our new prime minister has some considerable challenges ahead, not least managing Britain’s exit from the EU and fostering new trade agreements across the globe.

This focus, however, is neglecting some urgent issues closer to home. Disappointingly, for the first time in eight years, the responsibilities of the minister for care have been downgraded and are now the remit of a parliamentary under-secretary.

Related: Cameron should appoint a minister for older people

This downgrade comes at a time when there is acceptance that social care is in crisis and there is unprecedented demand on care services. As we live longer and have more complex needs in later life, it is crucial that social care remains high on the political agenda; but this appointment suggests otherwise.

One in three women and one in four men will need care at some point in their life – a staggering figure that the country is not equipped for. According to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, to maintain care at the same level as last year would require more than an extra £1.1bn. But the National Audit Office has previously reported that councils increasingly pay less than the actual cost of the care provided. This is not financially viable, a situation that is detrimental to older people’s wellbeing is only going to get worse.

In addition to this, many care providers face increasing pressure on their budgets due to the living wage although Anchor has already paid the majority of care staff above the government’s “national living wage” for several years.

And the demand for care is only going to increase. With a rising population and longer life expectancy, the number of people over 65 is set to rise by more than 40% in the next 17 years. This will take the number of older people in the UK from 11.4 million to more than 16 million. This demographic change is welcome; it signals improving living conditions and advances in medicine. But if the funding of services is not updated for these new demands, we are undoubtedly heading towards an age of suffering and loneliness for older people.

As someone working in social care, I feel that managing this kind of major challenge demands the attention and influence of a minister of state – someone with the power to make real change.

And as Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, has acknowledged, social care plays a key role in ensuring that healthcare is delivered with quality outcomes and within budget. Adequate social care reduces pressure on the NHS through decreasing the number of people needing to visit hospital or their GP. This integration between the NHS and social care as well as other issues, such as delayed transfers of care, which cost the taxpayer £820m a year, need the input of a minister to resolve.

Related: Social care is in desperate need of a champion | David Brindle

Anchor has previously led calls for the government to appoint a dedicated minister for older people at cabinet, someone to ensure all aspects of a growing older generation – including housing, health, care – are prioritised and aligned. The downgrading of the adult social care portfolio is a huge step in the wrong direction.

I hope my disappointment is unfounded and the downgrading of the role does not mean social care funding has been relegated to the “on hold” list. The prime minister, the health secretary and David Mowat – the new post holder – have the chance to turn social care around and help those in need of care to lead the best lives possible and ensure the best use of public funds. I hope it’s a challenge they address as the lack of adequate social care funding is a serious issue and the clock is ticking.

Jane Ashcroft is chief executive of Anchor, England’s largest not-for-profit provider of care and housing for older people

Join the Social Care Network to read more pieces like this. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest social care news and views.

Theresa May should not have downgraded care minister"s role

Ministers buy inquiry into NHS whistleblowing

The information displays 29 hospitals have been rated “poor” for their general openness and honesty of reporting, although 35 websites acquired the worst rating for infection manage.

Hospitals will also be encouraged to introduce “airline-style” safety briefings for sufferers, using video clips setting out what to anticipate during their visit, and urging them to communicate up if they have issues.

Sir Robert has been asked by ministers to lead the inquiry which will examine how to defend whistleblowers from reprisals, and how to adjust the culture of the NHS so personnel truly feel in a position to communicate up.

Throughout the public inquiry into Mid-Staffs, nurses informed how the had been bullied into silence following making an attempt to alert managers that patients were being put in danger from appalling failings in care.

On Tuesday Sir Robert mentioned that he feared that the scenario was even worse than he had imagined, with increasing numbers of whistleblowers contacting him because his landmark report to Government final year.

He stated: “Since the inquiry I have had a whole lot of folks talk to me about the culture of fear that prevents men and women speaking out – and maybe it really is a reflection [of that culture] that not as much of that came out at the inquiry as may well have done.”

Sir Robert stated the inquiry would examine why it was that NHS staff felt afraid to communicate up, warning that each time the health services handled a whistleblower badly numerous more workers were deterred from “doing the right thing”.

He explained the Mid Staffs inquiry had proven “the appalling consequences for individuals when there is a ‘closed ranks’ culture.”

In April, a cardiologist who was hounded out of his job following warning that individuals have been dying simply because of expense-cutting practices won a landmark legal victory in the longest-working case in NHS whistleblowing historical past.

Last week Jeremy Hunt, the Wellness Secretary met 6 NHS whistleblowers who pleaded for a lot more to be accomplished to support individuals who get rid of houses and careers because they attempted to talk up for sufferers.

He stated on Tuesday that the NHS “has a prolonged way to go” in the way it responds to staff who consider to increase concerns.”

He said the new campaign would aim to save six,000 lives in three years, halving the 12,000 avoidable deaths estimated annually.

The safety website launched yesterday measures every hospital towards seven measures infection management meeting regulators requirements staffing levels in contrast with people planned patients becoming assessed for blood clots proportion of staff who would suggest their workplace to pals and loved ones no matter whether the hospital responds swiftly to alerts of safety dangers and an all round measure, examining how “open and honest” the reporting culture is.

The new indicator on infection manage brings together existing information on cleanliness, levels of bugs this kind of as MRSA, and patient inspections, to type ratings.

In total, 35 NHS hospital websites were rated as bad, with 33 identified to be great and 228 okay.

For all round ranges of “open and honest” reporting, 29 acute hospital trusts have been rated as bad, even though 25 were rated as great and 87 as okay.

The measure was based mostly on their overall performance in 5 classes, like reporting ranges of small and main incidents.

Under the ratings, trusts fared better for becoming open about their problems, and worse if they had suspiciously minimal ranges of reporting.

http://www.nhs.uk/security/search/

Hospitals rated as “poor” for open and honest reporting of safety hazards:

Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

St Helens And Knowsley Hospitals NHS Believe in

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Believe in

Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Believe in

Basildon And Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Believe in

The Rotherham NHS Basis Believe in

West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Believe in

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Believe in

Croydon Overall health Providers NHS Trust

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Burton Hospitals NHS Basis Believe in

Countess of Chester Hospitals NHS Basis Trust

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Basis Trust

Bolton NHS Basis Trust

North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Believe in

Doncaster And Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Basis Believe in

Royal Liverpool And Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust

Chelsea And Westminster Hospital NHS Basis Trust

Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Basis Believe in

North West London Hospitals NHS Trust

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Brighton And Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

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Ministers buy inquiry into NHS whistleblowing

Ministers inform GPs to open all hours

The Government hopes that the bundle of measures will finish the “treadmill” of rigid 10-minute appointments and permit medical doctors to spend more time on sufferers who need the most aid.

People will also be ready to guide more handy appointments after office hours and at weekends. They could acquire faster suggestions by emailing their physicians, the Government hopes.

Networks of surgeries could offer you shared clinics in the evenings and at weekends, beneath the reforms.

The plans are intended to ease the pressure on hospital accident and emergency departments, which have been swamped by millions more sufferers in recent many years who do not know the place else to go when surgeries are closed.

A lot of GPs’ surgeries are open only from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, forcing operating patients to take time off to see a medical professional.

Millions of individuals wait a week or a lot more for an appointment with their GPs, NHS figures demonstrate.

Ministers want to restore “the ideal traditions of loved ones doctors”, especially to increase providers for elderly individuals. The Government has also set a target to increase the number of health care college students who go into general practice.

Norman Lamb, the Wellness Minister, informed The Telegraph it would be crucial for medical professionals to make far more use of new engineering alongside the new extended opening hours to supply sufferers with the service they need to have.

“It’s very challenging for people with hectic lives to get appointments with GPs so let’s just get smarter with the use of engineering,” he said.

“In every single other element of our lives we are making use of engineering to talk. We have acquired to get into this in a large way in overall health and care.

“It has transformed the efficiency of numerous other industries and sectors and I consider it can do the exact same and offer more responsive care for occupied folks.” Developments in mobile technology have “enormous” likely to help maintain elderly patients and those with long-phrase situations residing independently, he said.

A new wave of health “apps” is currently being designed to allow individuals to keep track of their conditions on smartphones and feed data back to physicians.

“There are enormous possibilities right here to give better care and assistance but also to reduce out price in a rather bureaucratic system,” Mr Lamb mentioned.

“If we have acquired something that we just want checked out, we don’t want to take time off function or go through the nightmare of striving to get an appointment that fits our doing work lives. We just want to be capable to e-mail our GP to get a rapid answer.”

Ministers have modelled some of the strategies on an progressive doctors’ centre in Seattle, America. The not-for-profit Group Overall health healthcare centre permits many patients to make contact with medical professionals for advice above secure email.

The outcomes have been striking, Mr Lamb mentioned.

“What they discovered is that by undertaking a considerable quantity of consultations by secure e-mail they freed up GPs’ time to concentrate on these older men and women who want a lot more than the 10-minute consultation.

“The fascinating point they say is that it has improved GPs’ effectively-currently being, it supplies a lot much better care and it’s a lot far more practical for very hectic folks who really don’t want to have to go to a face-to-encounter appointment if they really don’t think it’s essential.”

Numerous individuals in England who do make time to check out a medical professional then locate that they are limited to a fixed 10-minute slot, which may possibly not be enough, Mr Lamb stated.

“We have got to break away from this treadmill of the 10-minute appointment which drives GPs crazy and which leaves individuals usually frustrated,” he mentioned.

“I had an appointment final yr and I had three or four items I desired to raise. We received to the third problem and I was advised the time had run out. I couldn’t raise the fourth problem. Typically, psychologically, it is probably the last concern that is the actually essential 1, but my time had run out.”

Mr Lamb mentioned more older men and women had been getting to be “IT-savvy” and would be capable to benefit from the program to make greater use of technology.

“The infant boom generation as they get older, their daily life will revolve around the iPad,” he predicted. “Then there is the possible for Skype so you can speak to an individual, or e mail. This will turn out to be much more and a lot more relevant to older folks as properly as young active folks.”

David Cameron initial announced programs to lengthen surgical treatment opening hours at last October’s Conservative Celebration conference. Below alterations to GPs’ contracts, which came into force this month, all individuals older than 75 will have a medical doctor accountable for their care.

Medics have warned that A&ampE departments have been inundated by men and women with minor ailments at weekends due to the fact out-of-hours health providers are inadequate. Four million more patients visited A&ampE last 12 months than in 2004.

Caroline Abrahams, from the elderly people’s charity Age United kingdom, explained: “These new measures mark an essential and very welcome stage towards equipping the NHS to care much better for some of its most vulnerable end users.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of the British Healthcare Association’s General Practitioner Committee, mentioned the projects funded by the £50 million scheme must be “independently evaluated” and warned that a lack of income could undermine lasting reform.

“Provided that this funding is only for one 12 months, there is no assurance of these modifications becoming cost-effective in potential many years,” he stated.

“If we are to meet the rising patient demand from an ageing population, all GP surgeries nationally want to be much far better resourced.”

Ministers inform GPs to open all hours

1000"s of NHS staff rehired following becoming produced redundant, ministers admit

Andy Burnham: ‘It will be utterly galling for nurses who’ve just had a pay reduce from David Cameron to see he’s been handing out cheques like confetti to people who have now been rehired.’ Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Almost 4,000 NHS employees who have been created redundant in the past four years have since been re-employed by the well being service.

Labour accused the government of “handing out cheques like confetti” soon after ministers admitted that, between May possibly 2010 and last November, 3,950 personnel have been produced redundant and have because been employed back.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Labour’s Julie Hilling, the MP for Bolton West, health minister Dan Poulter stated: “By reducing managers and administrators by over 21,100, we are freeing up further assets for patient care – £5.5bn in this parliament and £1.5bn every single year thereafter.

“The amount of Nationwide Overall health Services personnel estimated to have been produced redundant since May 2010 and subsequently, up until finally November 2013, re-employed by an NHS organisation on (a) a permanent basis is 2,570 and (b) a fixed-term contract basis is 1,380.”

Poulter cautioned that the figures, taken from the NHS’s electronic personnel record, had been “unvalidated”.

The shadow overall health secretary, Andy Burnham, explained: “It will be utterly galling for nurses who’ve just had a pay lower from David Cameron to see he is been handing out cheques like confetti to folks who have now been rehired. On his observe, we have witnessed payoffs for managers and spend cuts for nurses.

“It really is clear that people who obtained payoffs are now coming back to the NHS in ever better numbers. We want to know no matter whether the prime minister has honoured his promise to recover redundancy payments from men and women who have been re-employed by his new organisations.

“The sickening scale of the waste triggered by Cameron’s reorganisation is last but not least turning into clear. It will infuriate individuals who cannot get a GP appointment or nurses who are struggling to pay out the payments.”

1000"s of NHS staff rehired following becoming produced redundant, ministers admit

Ministers accused of showing contempt with fresh squeeze on public sector spend

Unison says it is a disgrace that 70% of nurses will get no spend rise this 12 months. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Photos

All around 600,000 NHS staff will acquire a reduce-than-anticipated pay rise soon after the government rejected a get in touch with for them to be awarded a 1% rise on prime of automated “progression spend” that averages around three%.

The government has also determined that 400 “very senior managers” in the NHS, who are no longer on progression pay will acquire no pay rise at all.

Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, explained the government necessary to press ahead with “public sector pay restraint” as he stated that the selections would conserve a complete of £200m in the NHS budget in 2014-15 and £400m in 2015-sixteen.

Christina McAnea, head of well being at Unison, mentioned: “This coalition government has taken a scalpel to the pay body’s report and will not escape the anger of NHS personnel. It’s a disgrace that 70% of nurses will not even get a shell out rise this yr – what sort of message does this give to the value this government spots on focused NHS workers?”

Unison criticised the government right after it set out how it would implement pay out rises for 2014-15 following it asked the pay assessment bodies to examine how a one% enhance could be applied to the pertinent public sector workforces.

In addition to the NHS selection the government announced a 1% boost for members of the armed forces, contractor medical doctors and nurses and members of the judiciary. Departments will award a 1% boost to senior civil servants on a discretionary basis and a one% rise will be awarded to the bulk of prison officers. Police and crime commissioners will acquire no enhance.

Alexander also announced that £1bn in employer public pension contributions will have to be paid by person government departments rather than from the treasury’s central “annually managed expenditure” pot. This will give Osborne an extra £1bn in up coming week’s spending budget, which he could invest in infrastructure. But it means that personal departments will have to make a higher contribution to pensions.

The training division will have to pay out an further 2.3%, working out at £330m in 2015-sixteen and £560m in 2016-17. For the civil services it will mean an additional two.2%, doing work out £275m a yr from 2015-16 and onwards. For the NHS it will be a .3% improve, functioning out at £125m a 12 months from 2015-sixteen.

The Treasury chief secretary mentioned of the 1% spend rises: “Public sector workers make a crucial contribution to the effective delivery of public services. We need to have to continue with public sector pay out restraint in order to place the nation’s finances back on a sustainable footing. We are delivering on our commitment to a one particular percent shell out rise for all except some of the most senior public sector employees.”

The determination on the NHS marks a rejection of the recommendation by the NHS Spend Assessment Entire body for all around 600,000 workers – around fifty five% of the complete.

Christina McAnea extra: “The government has proven complete contempt for the NHS, contempt for workers and contempt for individuals and will pay the cost at the ballot box. Even a straight 1% improve would be nowhere near adequate to meet the massive price-of-living increases that NHS workers have had to cope with given that 2010. Employees are on average 10% worse off than when the coalition came to power.”

Ministers accused of showing contempt with fresh squeeze on public sector spend

Smoking in automobiles: two Tory cabinet ministers program to vote towards ban

Speaking to BBC One’s Query Time, Mr Clarke, who has worked in the tobacco market, mentioned: “I was smoking on the way right here in my vehicle. It’s possibly extremely wise to advise individuals will not do it when you have got kids in the automobile.

“We do preserve generating new visitors offences. I never consider our traffic police are going to be concentrating massive efforts on racing up and down the motorway peering into vehicles, trying to see whether or not there is a child in.

“We do generate too a lot of visitors offences, I really do believe it’s gesture politics. We’ll most likely locate two or three people fined a 12 months. It tends to make the lobbyists feel better.”

Eric Pickles told BBC Radio 4′s Any Concerns: “It is 35 years given that I was last in automobile that any individual smoked a cigarette. To me it’s anathema for any person to smoke a cigarette in a vehicle with a youngster. It’s 11 occasions a lot more likely to influence the little one than in a house.

“The government has been running a quite powerful advertising campaign about the effect of smoke on kids in the automobile.

“If we end the automobile, and a man or woman is smoking, what transpires following? Do we fine them? Are their young children place on the at chance register? Do we need to have to involve social companies? Is this one thing considerably diverse from smoking at residence? Should we be dealing with that?

“We need to make issues criminal if we come to feel that they are enforceable. If there are other techniques to get rid of this dreadful, anti-social and damaging issue we must do so. For as soon as my vote is open to persuasion. My initial intention is to vote towards it.”

David Cameron has stated he will “pay attention very carefully” to the debate just before determining on no matter whether to vote in favour of the ban. Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, is anticipated to adhere to Mr Hunt’s lead on the problem.

Smoking in automobiles: two Tory cabinet ministers program to vote towards ban

Ministers treating middle class elderly like "second class citizens"

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age United kingdom, mentioned: “Under the current program, two older folks in the very same care residence can acquire really various ranges of safety underneath the Human Rights Act based mostly solely on how their care has been arranged and paid for.

“This is not only fundamentally wrong, it indicates that if an older individual who pays for their care is abused or suffers from neglect and poor care they have much less legal redress than an individual in the exact same unfortunate place whose care is funded by the State.

“We are disappointed and amazed that the Government desires to preserve this loophole intact simply because they have said they want to enhance the place of older individuals who spend for their personal care by means of this legislation.

“There is no greater way to attain this than by granting every older man or woman equal accessibility to legal redress if their care goes badly incorrect.”

Care houses can be taken care of as “public bodies” beneath the Human Rights Act, meaning that they could be sued for failing to treat elderly folks with respect.

But this applies only to state – funded residents, which means that the forty per cent who pay out their personal way are not protected. Even so, the amendment could be blocked when the care bill passes via the Property of Commons.

A spokesman for the Division of Well being said: “Extending the Human Rights Act in this way would not make individuals or companies deal with individuals they care for with any a lot more dignity and respect than they need to. Men and women with personal care will even now have rights and protections underneath recent law.”

Ministers treating middle class elderly like "second class citizens"