22 Oct 2013
I visited Basildon Hospital last week for an update from the Chief Executive, Clare Panniker, on measures being taken to improve services
after the Trust was one of eleven put into put into ‘special measures’ by the Secretary of State for Health earlier this year.
Clare Panniker joined the Trust last year and had already identified the issues raised in the Keogh report into the hospital. I met with
her in July to discuss what action she was going to take to improve what the hospital was doing. Last week’s meeting was a follow up, and I was pleased to hear two hundred nurses have been recruited, and a special unit for ‘frail elderly’ people has been set up to ensure older people are better served by the Trust.
I am assured the right number of staff with “the right training, the right values and the right expectations” are now in position and, although there is much work still to do, key factors, including waiting times in A and E and in-hospital mortality rates, are improving.
The work being done to help the ‘frail elderly’ patients ties in with work being done by my Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health to reform how health and social care are delivered. It is vital that more care is moved out of hospitals and into the community, so that we can intervene earlier to prevent people from reaching crisis points. There also need to be much better integration between health and social care, so that care is centred around the person rather than the service, reducing the amount of money that is wasted when services do not work together effectively.
That is why the Government is creating a is creating a three point eight billion pounds pooled budget for health and social care in 2015/16. To access this funding, all areas will need to produce local plans, signed off by the NHS and local authorities, for how the money will be used across health and social care. These plans must demonstrate that social care services will be protected.
15 Oct 2013
Consultations on the Local Development Plans put forward by Brentwood Borough Council and Epping Forest District Council have raised local interest in planning matters, and queries to my office about the Government's new planning practice guidance website.
Planning shouldn't just be the preserve of technocrats, lawyers and council officers. Our new online national planning guidance will give much needed simplicity and clarity to the planning system and will support greater community involvement. The user-friendly format will make planning guidance more accessible and will make it easier to keep up to date.
The existing technical guidance, often complex and repetitive, is catalogued in 230 separate documents and at 7,000 pages is almost impossible for residents and businesses to use effectively. Lord Taylor of Goss Moor led an external review of planning practice guidance and, as a result of this, ministers have proposed a new streamlined planning practice guidance web-based resource that will provide the support for growth and creation of jobs and homes that the country needs. It will also provide clearer protections for our natural and historic environment by giving power back to communities who are generally best placed to make local decisions.
The new on-line planning guidance follows the National Planning Policy Framework, which distilled around 1,000 pages of planning policy into a streamlined, easy to understand 47-page document. The new guidance will not involve any changes to national policy set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
The National Planning Policy Framework is explicit that key protections like the Green Belt cannot be overridden by the presumption in favour of sustainable development, and that once established Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional circumstances.
None of the current planning practice guidance will be cancelled until the final online guidance is in place. The new draft guidance suite was open from 28 August 2013 for informal comment until 14 October 2013; all contributions made during this time will be taken into consideration in finalising the guidance.
08 Oct 2013
My comments at last week’s Conservative Party Conference about Brentwood nonagenarian Florrie Bourne being robbed of her final years of life by the London Borough of Newham’s demand for forty nine thousand pounds to bring her two bedroom flat up to Decent Homes Standard hit a nerve.
The Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, told the newspapers I was scoring a “cheap political point” but also admitted, for the first time, that he was “appalled” by the way the management organisation set up by Labour-controlled Newham Council had been run. I’ve been writing to Newham about Mrs Bourne for more than four years, and this is the first time anyone has admitted the Council got their home “improvement” project massively and painfully wrong for leaseholders. Thank you, Sir Robin.
While in Manchester for the Conference I visited an inner city Scout troop, which is doing marvellous things for disenfranchised children. The Scouting movement is one to be much admired for the dedication of its volunteers and supporters. Back home in Brentwood this weekend, I popped in to visit the 1st Warley Scouts Autumn Fair. The tea and cakes were excellent, and I was impressed to see funds being raised through car washing, crockery smashing and air-rifle shooting. 1st Warley is one of the largest Scout troops in Brentwood, and has a dedicated team of leaders who give many young people the chance to try new things and challenge themselves. I was impressed by what I saw.
Brentwood County High School held its first Open Day for former students at the weekend and I was pleased to see lots of people taking the chance to revisit this hidden jewel in Brentwood’s educational crown. Ex-pupils, staff and parents flocked to the Centenary celebrations on Saturday bearing gifts of hat badges, school reports and BCHS literature dating back to when the school building first opened. The Centenary celebrations have only just begun, but I feel this will be a good year for the school.