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    By Paul Bell in Austerity, Children, Food, Poverty in the UK, Professional opinion, Public Health

    Tory dependency argument and free school meals

    October 27, 2020

    Watching and reading the arguments Tory MPs put forward for voting against an extension of free school meals over the school holidays, there seems to be a common thread. Nearly all of them use the argument of dependency, that is relying on the state to provide for us rather than supporting ourselves through personal responsibility. These arguments are not new, “Booth and Rowntree found the greatest cause of poverty was not, as often believed, feckless shirking by the irresponsible lower classes, but low pay for full-time work, or inability to get regular work despite best efforts”. In other words dependency […]
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    By Jon Hyslop in Accountability, Care Sector, COVID-19, Deprivation of Liberty, Funding, Oxfordshire

    Human Rights Ignored During Pandemic

    October 19, 2020

    What happened during the first wave of Coronavirus and what can be done about it In the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, mortality rates for people in care homes were shockingly high. Many people living in residential care and nursing homes have cognitive impairments that make it hard for them to agree to their living conditions. In the spring and summer of this year, rights-based legal safeguards designed to protect people seem to have been ignored or set aside. The NHS and adult social care services are currently bracing themselves for a second wave. This article asks whether the […]
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    By Brian Fisher in Campaigns, Care Sector, KONP, Social Care, Socialist Health Association

    A great launch of the joint SHA/KONP social care campaign

    October 13, 2020

    A GREAT LAUNCH OF THE SHA/KONP CAMPAIGN TO END THE CRISIS IN SOCIAL CARE On 10th October, SHA joined forces with Keep Our NHS Public, with the support of WeOwnIt, to launch our campaign to transform social care. Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsDY7q-rVYM&feature=youtu.be With over 280 people registering, it was clearly a popular and vital issue. The day before, a poll conducted by Survation and commissioned by WeOwnIt showed that 64% of respondents said they wanted to see care homes run by public bodies. 61% believe that private care providers prioritise profit over delivering a high quality service. Participants heard excellent […]
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    By John Carlisle in COVID-19, Economics of healthcare, Professional opinion, SHA Yorkshire, Yorkshire

    Command and Control Management:

    October 9, 2020

    Yorkshire Socialist Health Association Command and Control Management: The Deadly Embodiment of Neo-Liberalism at work in the Public Sector John and Joe Carlisle, Mad Management[1] Although the Command and Control style of management is a fairly modern phenomenon, like all ideas, its roots go much further back, to a very dominant model of how to discipline and organise institutions. The philosopher Michael Foucault famously uses 18th Century Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon as a model for how a modern disciplinary society seeks to at all times to survey, or at least give the possibility of surveillance, its populace. The panopticon […]
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    By John Carlisle in Care Sector, Conservatives, NHS, Professional opinion, SHA Yorkshire, Social Care, Yorkshire

    Jeremy Hunt, the incompetent ideologue

    October 9, 2020

    Former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, probably Britain’s worst leader since General Percival surrendered an army of over 80,000 soldiers to 36,000 Japanese soldiers at Singapore in 1942. It was the worst ever British defeat and led directly to the dreadful Japanese concentration camps. Hunt was in charge of over a million highly committed NHS professionals with oversight of Social Care, looking after nearly a million people. He surrendered these to a succession of debilitating neo-liberal reorganisations, privatisations and defunding regimes. Like Percival he could have fought for his people, but chose not to, and England is paying a high price. […]
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    By Jim Gralton in Care Sector, Devolution, Social Care, Wales

    ASSESSING THE VIABILITY OF THE SOCIAL CARE SECTOR — Response to Welsh Government Proposals

    October 7, 2020

    The Welsh Government is proposing to use its legislative powers to require local authorities and Local Health Boards to  produce a market stability assessment report on the social care sector  in their Regional Partnership Board (RPB) area. The legislation will be supplemented by a code of practice on the exercise of relevant functions in relation to market stability reports and statutory guidance on taking a partnership approach to preparing and publishing market stability reports. This innovative piece of legislation is welcomed by the Social Health Association Cymru – Wales which has responded to the Welsh Government consultation document. ================================================================ Response […]
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    By Jackie Applebee in Campaigns, Doctors In Unite

    Doctors in Unite policy statement on a National Care Service.

    October 5, 2020

    We do not wish to reinvent the wheel. Keep Our NHS Public and the Socialist Health Association are launching National Care Support and Independent Living Service on 10th October, The TUC and the Labour Party, through Reclaim Social Care, have good policy on how social care should be organised which Doctors in Unite would be able to broadly align with. Doctors in Unite believe that the current model for social care is not working and that this has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Care homes bore a huge burden of deaths during the first wave, […]
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    By Brian Fisher in Internal governance

    Suggestions For Improving Communication Between Branches And Central Council

    October 1, 2020

    INTRODUCTION Branch chairs in England were phoned by BF and asked to help with two related issues: A longstanding problem that branches have felt distant from CC with poor communication The recent problems as a result of branches elected unconstitutionally no longer being represented on CC.  What follows are the main themes people discussed. They include results from SHA London’s formal vote on the issue.  INFORMATION FLOW THROUGH NATIONAL MEMBERS. Oxford: There is a channel to and from CC through national members. However, they are not delegated by the branch to vote on the national CC so cannot be a […]
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    By Brian Fisher in Campaigns, KONP, Social Care, Socialist Health Association

    Launch of the joint SHA/KONP campaign to reshape social care in England

    September 24, 2020

    I am pleased to circulate the details of the launch of the joint SHA/KONP campaign to reshape social care in England. The launch will be at 1100 – 1300 on 10th October Register for the event here This is a major national campaign with a wide ranging support. Your support and involvement will be vital. More details are attached, including a MOTION that we would like you to discuss at wards and CLPs. We look forward to seeing you there. Yours, Brian and Jean A SUMMARY OF THE SOCIAL CARE CAMPAIGN

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    By Jim Gralton in Care Sector, Devolution, Social Care, Wales

    WALES — HOW SUSTAINABLE IS OUR CARE SERVICE ??

    September 24, 2020

    The current business model for social care in Wales, like the rest of the UK, is under extreme pressure. This vulnerability has predated the present Covid-19 pandemic. Care Forum Wales, the main representative body for the private care sector, has claimed that Wales could lose half its care homes within a year unless urgent action is taken. A Care Forum Wales survey also reported that 84% of respondents said low pay made it difficult for the recruitment of staff. Responding to these long standing concerns the Welsh Government commissioned the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care to study the […]
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    By Joe Karp-Savey in Accountability, FBU

    Grenfell Inquiry: Industry exploited lax building regulations to sell flammable cladding

    September 23, 2020

    News Release 23 September 2020 Evidence shows failure of consecutive governments to properly regulate, FBU says Emails seen by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry reveal “just how lax” ministers allowed UK building regulations to become, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says. The correspondence revealed that housing and construction industry salespeople knew that, without government intervention, high-rise buildings would continue to be constructed with flammable cladding. The Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding on Grenfell had a flammble polyethylene (PE) core, but was also available with a less combustible fire rated (FR) core. In an email seen by the inquiry, a salesperson said […]
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    By Shaun Noble in Accountability, Competition and markets, COVID-19, Unite the Union

    Stop private sector outsourcing, as NHS laboratories ‘sidelined’ for Covid-19 testing, says Unite

    September 16, 2020

    There has been too much reliance on the private sector when it comes to laboratory testing for coronavirus and not enough investment in long-established NHS facilities, Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union, said today (Wednesday 16 September). Unite’s stance is underpinned by its Biomedical Scientist Covid-19 survey, launched today, which highlights the under-use of NHS science facilities and resources as the crisis over the nationwide gaps in the Covid-19 testing regime escalates. The survey reveals Unite members’ unhappiness at the government’s reliance and priority given to the seven Lighthouse Laboratories, with private sector involvement, while long-established NHS facilities are being […]
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