In many ways, the key point or bit of context from the Health Select Committee report on burnout. Good will from staff matters because in so many respects that’s what the NHS/social care runs on.
NB this is one of the reasons many criticised the government’s 1% NHS settlement for England.

Committee notes that even before the pandemic, in January 2020. There were shortages of around “one in 10 or one in 12 staff” in the NHS.
Committee notes picture is similar in social care. Was estimated 112,000 roles in adult social care had been vacant in 2019-20. Staff turnover in social care of 30.4%, equating to 430,000 people leaving their jobs in care over the course of that year, 149k leaving care altogether
56% of NHS staff work unpaid additional hours on top of their contract.

Committee says: “chronic excessive workload is a key driver [of burnout] and must be tackled as a priority. This will not happen until the service has the right number of people...across both NHS and care.”
Committee submissions reflect profound concern about recruitment post-Brexit with which ministers seem to have grappled little. Oonagh Smyth from Skills for Care told committee care employs 113k EU workers, 134k non-EU/non-UK. Care not listed as eligible occupation for...
... “skilled workers” to obtain a visa. Said that with increasing demand in that sector government needs to be clear about whence replacements might come.

Ministers have said UK workers should be able to take up the slack, something many in the sector doubt.
Others think longer term UK workers could plug the shortfall but only if government makes care a more attractive prospect and long term career, which would entail more money for training and actual long term plan for the sector, which has been promised but hasn’t yet materialised
Committee notes that lack of PPE at the start of the pandemic (reflecting an erosion of our national stockpile in the years before) affected staff morale. The Health Sec famously said there was no “national” shortage. Take a look at the figures cited here, judge for yourself.
And there’s the effect of now enormous waiting lists. Have said before, it’s one of the very biggest issues affecting public policy right now and it isn’t getting enough attention, not to mention a financial settlement to deal with it yet- nor a worked out strategy.
And here, the very “challenging” numbers which are at the heart of all this and which require, as the committee notes, very serious planning and strategy from ministers.
And an even bigger one. If the adult social care workforce grows at the same rate as projected number of 65+ in population then the number of social care jobs would need to rise by 32%, or *520,000* jobs by 2035.
Chris Hopson, Chief Exec NHS providers: “For the last 10 years we have had a mismatch between rapidly rising demand and capacity. Capacity has not risen in the same way. The way we tried to close that demand/capacity mismatch was by asking staff to work harder and harder.”

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More from @lewis_goodall

9 Jun
Yesterday I visited Transport House in Salford. The leaseholders there are part the next stage in the cladding crisis. But their problem isn't really what's on their building. It's what's in it. Their freeholder has told them it will cost £3m to make safe. Over £100k each.

🧵
First some backrgound.

You'll have heard about the cladding crisis. Post the catastrophe at Grenfell Tower, government regulations on cladding changed, requiring the removal of ACM cladding systems (flammable) on buildings over 18m

But cladding isn't the only issue...
...new regs require lots of other fire safety improvements, including changes on fire cavity barriers and insulation within walls.

This is the problem Transport House faces. The leaseholders were recently sent this letter by their freeholder outlining the cost of the works. £3m.
Read 26 tweets
9 Jun
The President is in the UK.
Biden says after he's done with the initial stages of his European trip he'll be going "to speak to Mr Putin to let him know what I want him to know."
Biden: "The US will respond in a robust and meaningful way when the Russian government engages in harmful activities...they'll be consequences for violating the sovereignty of democracies in the US, Europe and elsewhere."
Read 6 tweets
9 Jun
NEW: More than one million people booked a Covid vaccine yesterday through the NHS website- the most we've seen yet in a single day.

I'm old enough to remember when young people wouldn't want to get a jab.
Simon Stevens said young people had sent bookings to "blockbuster levels...the obvious enthusiasm of younger adults to get their jab has blown out of the water the suggestion that people in their 20s might not come forward to protect themselves and their loved ones."
Given what we know about the age profile of cases right now, this is really important news.

Works out at 45000 bookings an hour and around 750 a minute.
Read 4 tweets
8 Jun
An extraordinary and thoughtful letter to fans with clear political resonances: “I understand that on this island, we have a desire to protect our values and traditions — as we should — but that shouldn’t come at the expense of introspection and progress.” theplayerstribune.com/posts/dear-eng…
Key rebuttals from Southgate to those who say he and his players should “stick to football.” Says it’s his duty to take of his players and theirs to use their profile to interact with the public on matters such as “equality, inclusivity and racial justice.” ImageImage
“In a funny way, I see the same Englishness represented by the fans who protested against the Super League. We are independent thinkers. We speak out on the issues that matter to us and we are proud of that.”
Read 8 tweets
8 Jun
UK increasingly an outlier in this approach. Many other Europeans countries and the United States changing rules on travel for the vaccinated at the least. Also notable difference in last year’s approach which included travel corridors when no-one had been vaccinated.
Question ministers haven’t articulated is what is the advice about this and what is the end game? Ie at one point will it be “safe” to travel again? What are the metrics? Our vaccination? Theirs? Will travel advice continue to be restrictive as long as there are VOCs?
Also worth nothing the (counter-intuitive) significant cost that often comes with “staycations”- especially this year with so much demand.
Read 5 tweets
7 Jun
Getting an insight into how some of you feel about Glastonbury with my painful refreshing of the Boundary Commission website over the last half hour
First headline- BC proposes to abolish (though in reality substantively keep but rename) Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency. They propose to incorporate Tufnell Park and rename Kentish Town and Bloomsbury.
Starmer would also lose part of Camden and Regents Park to a new Camden Town and St John’s Wood constituency.
Read 9 tweets

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