Politics

‘NHS vacancies tell story about pay’

BY the time this is published, we will have seen nurses in England strike for the first time in their history. Perhaps the Government will have seen sense and engaged in negotiations to bring this to an end, but I don’t hold out any hope. Recent polls have shown that most of the population support the strike action. Many of us have either recent personal contact with the NHS or know someone who has, and we appreciate the hard work nurses and doctors consistently produce. Most of us clapped during the pandemic for our emergency staff but clapping won’t pay the bills or fill empty posts.

Nursing as a profession has faced pay cuts for the past decade and under investment for longer, yet the workforce is seeing pressures never before experienced.

Nurses are worse off now than 10 years ago, after years of pay freezes and below inflation pay deals.

Between 2011-21, Agenda for Change bands fell in value by an average of 11 per cent in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Urgent action is needed to tackle staffing pressures, sickness, burn-out and a growing backlog of undelivered care, and Governments across the UK must invest properly in a permanent workforce that meets patient demand now and in the future.

This includes adequate education and training for permanent staff, and making the profession safe and attractive by paying fairly.

Yet in 2020, the Government spent more than £6 billion on agency and bank staff in

England, the same Government that bought billions of pounds of useless PPE but can’t find £10bn for nurses. Back 10 years or so, most trusts wouldn’t have paid more than 10 per cent of their staffing bill on temporary and locum staff, but now 20 to 25 per cent is becoming common. That is unsustainable and any organisation carrying a high level of unfilled vacancies would look at the pay it Nick Ireland was offering, but not this Government. The Government has also refused to negotiate on pay and continues to argue that it can’t interfere in the so-called independent pay review body. However, it isn’t independent because it has its hands tied, it’s given the envelope to work within by the Government. Yet the train bosses and the train workers agreed a deal that could’ve seen off the strikes on the trains at Christmas, but the Government intervened and blocked that deal.

I’ll end with a reflection from a healthcare professional who recently told me: “Our wellbeing is a sacrifice to deal with the inadequacies of the Government.

“They clap for us but don’t allow us to be considered for extra pay to repair the cuts of the last 10 years.

“They respect the work we do but stand outside, calling us liars for a situation not of our making.

“They are driving to sights beyond – if only their vision was adequate that they could actually see the consequences.”

NICK IRELAND On behalf of South Dorset Lib Dems

Food for thought as crisis continues

THE measure of a community is surely how it reaches out to those in need of support, to the vulnerable or those in need?

For so many now, just getting by is a struggle. The BBC reported recently that food prices are rising at their fastest rate for 45 years – by 16.2% in the year to October, up from 14.6% in September. The cost of basic food items, such as cheese, eggs and milk, were surging. Energy and fuel costs also rose sharply, pushing overall inflation to 11.1%, the highest figure for 41 years.

Rising prices are hitting poorer households hardest - the Office of National Statistics says that they spend about half of income on food and energy, compared to around a third for those in middle incomes.

No wonder Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, is reported saying “Winter looks increasingly bleak as pressure on prices continues unabated” – or Rachel Reeves, Labour Shadow Chancellor, that rising prices will “strike fear into the hearts of families across Britain”.

Yet, in Swanage, the initiative I mentioned in an earlier column (“We Must Ensure No Child Goes Hungry”, Edition 277) has shown our community is ready to stand up. Just six weeks after food campaigners and Cllr Debby Monkhouse, met at Java Coffee Shop to say something must be done, “Food for Thought Purbeck” has been set up under the umbrella of the Swanage and Purbeck Development Trust.

A steering group, composed of town councillors, community

organisations, churches and schools, has been set up to oversee the initiative. A grant has been obtained from Dorset Council, whose community engagement officer has welcomed the project. Research, confirmed by Dorset Council’s own analysis, clearly confirms the need for “Food for Thought” in Swanage and Purbeck. In order to ensure a Chris Bradey response which is timely and immediate, contact has been made with FareShare, a charity recycling good quality surplus supermarket food. From January 2023, a FareShare Mobile Larder will visit Swanage once a week. FareShare members will be able to buy good quality food at a low cost, for example a bag of 20 items for a family of 4 or more will cost £5. Initially membership of FareShare will be offered to families through schools. Food for Thought volunteers can signpost attendees to CAB for further support if needed.

Contact has been made with all four schools in Swanage, and also with schools in Langton and Corfe. Headteachers, keen to offer a good deal to their families, have already requested more memberships than one mobile Larder can accommodate. Many of our local schools already go the extra mile to pay for breakfast clubs out of shrinking budgets. Further contact with FareShare has indicated we may be able to secure a second mobile Larder.

As Anne Frank said, “No one has ever become poor by giving”.