Whittington A&E and Fair Funding for Schools
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, at 10:21, Wed 14 July 2010:
Dear neighbour,
Now that the dust has settled after the election, top of my priorities has been to continue to press for two important local issues - the Whittington A&E and Fair Funding for our schools.
As your local MP, I secured a meeting with the new Health Minister, Simon Burns, to make the case for the Whittington Hospital, together with our local Lib Dem Health Spokesperson, Cllr Dave Winskill. The most important thing I wanted Mr Burns to understand, was the anger in our community over how the last Government had mismanaged the review. But most importantly, how precious the Whittington is to us locally and how feeble is the clinical case for change.
The good news is that the coalition Government health team has put a stop to the review that put the Whittington A&E's future at risk. I was very much heartened by the new approach. One of the failures of the previous review, seemed to be that it was being imposed from on high, but with no-one really willing to take responsibility or control of the process.
The new Minister was absolutely clear - any decisions about changing the way health is provided must involve local people, every step of the way. So, watch this space...
The second meeting was with Lord Hill, the new Schools Minister (and third I've lobbied on this issue!), with a delegation from Haringey. Thank you so much to the hundreds of local parents, governors and teachers who responded to the consultation on school funding. I think officials were slightly overwhelmed by Haringey's response - clearly the highest level of response from any area that they had received. No decision has been made, but the message seems to have got through, loud and clear, about which option we want.
If we get our way, Haringey's schools will benefit from a fairer deal, instead of the £1,300 less-per-pupil they receive, compared to neighbouring boroughs. And this is before you add the Liberal Democrat pledge on pupil funding (second budget) - which is now coalition Government policy - where extra money will be passported directly to schools. The money will follow children with free school meals and those with statements. The impact for all Haringey's schools has the potential to be huge.
Again, thank you, to the thousands of people who have taken part in various petitions and campaigns on these important issues. Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and we await the next stages, but I hope you will share my optimism over a sense of real progress.
Please do get in touch if you want to discuss these issues further, or if I can help with any other concerns that you might have.
Best regards,
Lynne
Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green.
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Posted by Simon Fuchs, 16:39, Wed 14 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
The last governments review of the NHS could have made real improvements and was not top down - I attended one of their very inclusive consultation exercises - the idea of giving our overworked GP's huge spending responsibility when they should be proving primary care is bonkers - the management of budgets should be carried out by professionals. GPs are still private contractors - how can that be right or sensible. I say eat some humble pie and reinstate the last governments plans for the NHS. PS it was the last government who saved the Whittington.
As for the the current governments plans for schools - what a disaster already - how many times has the list of schools who lose capital funding been changed!
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, 08:06, Fri 16 July 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
Simon - we are going to have to disagree. It was the last government that tried to close the Whittington A&E - and the campaigners against closure (including me) who together with the pressure of a general election forced them to u-turn. You are re-writing history to suit. And obviously it isn't GPs who will be doing the management side of the new plans in the white paper. ANything that gets rid of the arrogant, over-beaurocratic PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities making paper decisions about real lives - has to be a step in right direction.
As for schools - at least our coalition government will be funding Haringey properly and the £1300 less per child that we have had to suffer under Labour for years hurting our education will be corrected.