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Newsletter June 2011

Posted by Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, at 15:40, Wed 1 June 2011:

Dear Subscriber,

The Southern Cross Care Home crisis is concerning on a number of fronts. First, as the pause in the health bill comes to an end, it is a timely reminder that just as publicly provided services are particularly susceptible to beaurocracy, waste and management that is geared to the interests of the producers rather than the taxpayer and patient; so the private sector is susceptible to reckless profiteering that can result in a business model that is unsustainable.

US private equity business Blackstone trebled the value of its investment in Southern Cross when it floated the company on the stock market in 2006. But Blackstone had saddled Southern Cross with impossibly high rental costs by selling all the homes and renting them back on terms that have proved unsustainable. Southern Cross are the largest independent operator of care homes, in Dudley Borough alone they manage six homes.

What has not helped Southern Cross is the real terms decrease in the fees Local Authorities will pay for residents. Local Authorities rely on the fact that they are the single largest customer by a mile for any independent care home. On average, across the country, just 33% of residents fund their own care. This means two thirds of people in care homes are funded by their Local Authority (people with assets of less than £23,000) and the fees rarely cover the costs of the care required.

I have received angry letters from the families of people who have to fund their own care and find that they are paying far more per week than the Local Authority is paying for someone else to have precisely the same service. The legal position is interesting. There is nothing illegal about a company generating greater profit from one customer than from another. But ‘cross subsidy’ is open to challenge; if you are charging one customer more in order to be able to sell to another customer at less than the cost of the service provided the legal situation is less clear. I hope that where these cross subsidies are in operation there will be a judicial review in the near future.

The Dilnot Commission in to the funding of long term care is due to report next month; so the debate over what has led to the situation at Southern Cross and the acute funding problems in the sector as a whole is very timely.

- Representing Stourbridge in Parliament -

The visit by President Obama to Parliament was the best moment of the many high points of my time in Parliament so far. Obama is an inspirational orator and I have never heard a US President speak before. So I got to Westminster Hall early and managed to get a seat just ten rows back from the stage. I am rather sceptical about the ‘special relationship’ but Obama’s speech was a powerful reminder of what our countries do have in common, in spite of the changing world order.

--- Questions, Debates and Letters to Ministers ---

• Home Secretary: I asked what progress had been made by the enquiry in to the grooming of young girls for sexual exploitation by, in many cases, Asian gangs. http://www.margotjames.com/10052011_protection_for_vulnerable_girls

• Prime Minister: I urged him to use all his influence to roll back the frontiers of the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights, both bodies are encroaching far too much in to areas which should be the domain of national judicial systems. http://www.margotjames.com/18052011_european_court

• Minister for Prisons: I urged the Government to give more support to Victim Support. http://www.margotjames.com/17052011_victim_support

• Foreign Secretary: I asked William Hague what the Government is doing to support trade links with Japan. http://www.margotjames.com/11092011_overseas_trade

• I led a debate in Westminster Hall on shortages of prescription medicines in pharmacies (http://www.margotjames.com/04052011_nhs_prescribed_medicines), as well as my own debate I spoke in and contributed to several other debates:

- Improving the quality of secondary education. http://www.margotjames.com/12052011_education_performance

- Minimising Britain’s exposure to European bail outs. http://www.margotjames.com/24052011_eurozone_financial_assistance

- Justice Dept sentencing proposals and prison overcrowding. http://www.margotjames.com/23052011_sentencing

- EU Directive on Trafficking. http://www.margotjames.com/18052011_human_trafficking

• I wrote to the following ministers:

- Jonathan Djanogly, Ministry of Justice: to continue to place pressure on ministers regarding the Luke Walker case.

- Anne Milton, Department of Health: to ask about support for students who plan to work in the NHS.

--- Meetings and Briefings ---

• I took part in several meetings of the Business, Innovation & Skills Committee on Higher Education.

• I hosted two events in Parliament: a reception for the Black Country Reinvestment Society and a dinner on partnerships between industry and the NHS for Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

• Diabetes UK held a debate on the Health and Social Care bill and I was a panellist. Interesting fact; 86% of type 2 diabetic patients who have undergone stomach bypass surgery experience no further diabetic symptoms. http://www.margotjames.com/16052011_diabetes_question_time

• I attended a briefing with Prof Steve Field who has been tasked with identifying concerns and making recommendations about the Health and Social Care bill.

• I invited the new director of Barnardos, Anne-Marie Carey, to brief the All Party Group (APG) on Trafficking on the situation within the UK. She stated ominously that the greatest threat facing children above the age of ten is sexual exploitation.

• I also attended APGs on Ageing and Older People and the Dairy Industry – the next enquiry for my BIS Committee will be what is known as “pre-legislative scrutiny” of the bill to establish an adjudicator for farmers in their dealings with Supermarkets. I am very keen to promote alternatives to intensive dairy farming.

• I’d like to thank Age UK for nominating me for the Dod’s Parliamentary Awards for my work on health and older people. The ceremony was held in the wonderful Speaker’s Rooms. The worthy winner was David Anderson MP but it was an honour to have been nominated in my first year. http://www.margotjames.com/18052011_dods_charity_champion_awards

• Radio 4 Week in Westminster interviewed me with BIS committee chairman Adrian Bailey MP on the fallout from Kraft’s takeover of Cadburys.

- Out and about in Stourbridge -

At the beginning of May we had the local elections and the referendum on the voting system. The Conservative Party did well in both. Congratulations to Councillors Heather Rogers, Margaret Cowell, Pat Martin and Ian Kettle on their re-election to Dudley Council and to Cllr Les Jones who has become leader of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

Staying with the Council I was pleased to hold a workshop on ‘Starting your own business’ for council employees who are taking redundancy and are interested in working for themselves. This might be the start of a series of such workshops. http://www.margotjames.com/24052011_business_seminar

I visited and/or met with the following groups last month:

• Redhill School, I met the headmaster followed by the teacher responsible for Special Needs.

• Ridgewood School. http://www.margotjames.com/11052011_ridgewood_high_school

• The Local Medical Committee of the British Medical Association.

• Shadow members and Chairman (Dr Hegarty) of the GP Commissioning group.

• The principals of Stourbridge, Halesowen and Sandwell Colleges.

• The Rosemary Residential Home in Wollaston

I organised a meeting of Disability Charities and representatives of Dudley Council to meet with Sense, an excellent organisation for people who suffer both sight and hearing loss. Thanks to the Beacon Centre in Wolverhampton for hosting our meeting.

Birmingham Gay Pride was very well attended (better than Manchester the organisers were proud to report). I am a patron so I got the chance to ride on Britain’s oldest licensed bus from the 1920s, considering the bank holiday weather this was preferable to marching along.

I enjoyed my monthly chat with Al Jackson on Bridge Radio.

Finally I would like to welcome Cllr. Karen Shakespeare-Jones to my team. Karen will be running our constituency office in Norton and has got off to a great start already. A big thank you to Tom Reynolds who has done a wonderful job in that role to date and has now transferred to my office in Westminster.

- It wasn’t all work -

We had some good parties in Stourbridge. Thanks to the Birch Tree in Amblecote for hosting a lovely carvery to mark our success in the Local Elections and the referendum. Later in the month I organised a small dinner to celebrate Stourbridge Councillor Les Jones becoming leader of Dudley Council at the Windsor Castle in Lye.

Friends visited me in Parliament, Ron and Heather Pritchard and Gary Carter came up for Treasury Questions, Ron was also a great friend of my Dad’s and we have been talking politics together for well over thirty years. Cllr Liz Walker and President of Stourbridge Conservatives, Margaret Fraser, came up for Education Questions.

I was really thrilled to meet Prince Charles at a reception he gave at Clarence House. Up close the Prince is charismatic and totally charming, a man of many talents.

I visited Rupert and his family and enjoyed a lovely walk with him and Poppy in the fabulous bluebell woods near Great Missendon; we walked for well over a mile, not bad for the little one who is only three years old.

Best wishes

Margot www.margotjames.com