Police Recruitment in Staffordshire Purely On Merit Now

Fourteen new police officers jobs will be advertised today following the decision in December by Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, to remove the longstanding freeze on recruitment.

The Commissioner said it’s important that Staffordshire Police introduces new blood to ensure the best policing into the future.

“I want Staffordshire to have the best police service in the country by 2016 and we need fresh thinking, effective technology and the brightest and best people to help make that a reality.

“Importantly this, and future, recruitment of officers will be based entirely on the merit and quality of those applying. I’ve made the decision that traditional methods of random selection when applicant numbers are high will no longer be the way things are done in Staffordshire.

“The Police expect demand for these jobs to be high so it’s a real opportunity to bring in the very best and ensure merit is at the heart of who’s successful – not bureaucracy. I think Staffordshire people would expect the very best public servants and that’s what we’ll get.”

Conservative Controlled Council Pledges to Improve Public Health for Staffordshire People

New public health powers transferring to Conservative run Staffordshire County Council from 1st April offer a great opportunity to encourage more local people to lead active and healthy lives.

That was the view of Cabinet members this week, as they discussed a report on the formal transfer of public health responsibilities from the NHS to the County Council.

It means that from the start of April, the County Council will have overall responsibility for a wide range of services, including measures to encourage healthy eating, to stop people smoking and to exercise more.  Previously the services were provided by primary care trusts, which are being abolished in recent government reforms of national health care.  The County Council will continue to work with the local community, GPs, the NHS and district councils to improve public health.

Welcoming the new arrangements, Councillor Robbie Marshall, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Community Safety, said, “The transfer of public health responsibilities from the NHS to Staffordshire County Council offers a great opportunity to encourage more residents to be active, healthy and well.

“Preventing illness by promoting healthier lifestyles is a key priority for the County Council because treating people when they are ill is much more expensive than preventing them from getting ill in the first place and this new responsibility will enable us to do more to influence people’s behaviour, starting from birth right through to old age.

“We will ensure that public health services and the benefits they bring are equally spread across Staffordshire.  We will also deliver better value for money for the taxpayer by cutting the duplication that existed in the work of the council and health services in this area.

“Through closer partnership working with other public sector bodies and the voluntary sector we aim to provide a wide range of excellent services that contribute to improving the health and well-being of Staffordshire residents.”

Staffordshire’s PCC Urges People to Turn the Table on Criminals

The County’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Matthew Ellis, is urging Staffordshire people to turn the tables on criminals by contacting the Crimestoppers charity which has brought thousands of wrong-doers to justice.

The Commissioner’s call to action comes after he instigated the first ever direct promotion of the crime fighting charity as part of the 500,000 council tax bills which dropped through letterboxes across Staffordshire and Stoke last week.

Crimestoppers is the only charity that guarantees complete and total anonymity for anyone who contacts them with information about crime or criminals. And very often there’s a cash reward which can be claimed secretly by the person providing information.

Mr Ellis says it’s time to use the power of Staffordshire people to make life more ‘uncomfortable’ for criminals and wrong-doers than ever before.

He explained, “Criminality is anti-social to law abiding people. From the lowest level wrong-doing to the most serious crime, it affects us all either directly or through the cost to public services and ever increasing insurance premiums. Crime is comparatively low in most of Staffordshire but it’s time to turn the screw that bit further.

“Over the next few years I want society to play a bigger part in tackling crime than ever before. Doing that alongside the work of police and other agencies will mean criminals constantly looking over their shoulder and waiting for that knock at the door… or that door going in!

“Getting information about the Crimestoppers service through almost every letterbox in Staffordshire and Stoke at little extra cost because the council tax information was going out anyway seemed a powerful and cost effective thing to do.

“Using the population’s eyes and ears could be immensely powerful and see Staffordshire become as close to a no-go zone for crooks and criminality as is possible. It’s about galvanising community pressure and knowledge and making criminality an unwanted and antisocial thing to do. Crimestoppers provides anonymity so people can do their duty for Staffordshire in the fight against crime.”

Childcare Bills to be Cut by 20%

From 2015, the Conservative led Government will pay 20% of childcare bills for working families – up to £1,200 per child.

Conservatives have been clear that we’ll do everything we can to make life easier for families in Britain.

At the moment, too many parents get up early and work hard and but see their income swallowed in childcare costs. Others simply can’t afford to work because nurseries and child minders are too expensive.

That’s why the Government has announced plans to dramatically cut the cost of childcare.

The plan’s very simple and works like this:

From 2015, the Conservative led Government is going to pay 20% of a working family’s childcare bills every year – up to £1,200 per child. This effectively gives people their tax back for childcare costs.

• We’ll begin by helping those with children under five – but year by year we’ll extend it until all children under twelve are covered
• It’s for families where all parents work – so of course it applies to working single mums and dads too
• This offer is only for families where no parent earns over £150k, nor receives tax credits, Universal Credit or Employer Supported Childcare

This is real money that will help 2.5 million families – the average family with 2 children will be up to £2,400 a year better off.

The scheme will be delivered through an online account which parents set up. For every 80p parents put in, the Government will put in 20p.  The new scheme will help 5 times as many families as the current system of Employer Supported Childcare vouchers, which are only offered by 5% of businesses.

This additional support for families follows several other steps that Conservatives in Government have taken to help with the cost of living. We’ve cut tax for 24 million people, stopped Labour’s fuel duty rises, frozen council tax for 3 years and are forcing energy companies to put their customers on the lowest available tariff.

Make no mistake – tough choices need to be made as we clear up Labour’s mess. But we’ll always back people who work hard and want a better life for themselves and their children.

Christopher Pincher Calls for Debate on Hospital Car Parking Charges

Yesterday in the House of Commons, Tamworth’s MP Christopher Pincher called for a debate on the proposed car parking charges at the Sir Robert Peel hospital in Mile Oak, Tamworth.

Mr Pincher said, “Following the Chancellor’s welcome help yesterday for the least well-off to keep more of their own money, could we have a debate on hospital parking charges, and especially on the decision by Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to levy up to £6 a day on users of the Sir Robert Peel hospital car park?

“The proposals were made without consultation, contrary to the trust’s previous assurances, and will hit the very people whom the Chancellor set out to help yesterday.”

The Leader of the House, Andrew Lansley, replied, “I know how important this issue can be for many constituents, particularly if they are frequent users of hospital services. A code of practice has been established through the NHS Confederation and that should ensure that those frequent users are able to access discounts and the like.

“I encourage my hon. Friend to talk to the Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust about that, while recognising that these are decisions for NHS organisations. As a Government we have not sought to impose a structure on hospitals. Indeed, we have not chosen to divert money that should be available to support patient care to the subsidising of car parking.”

Chancellor Extends Home-Buying Schemes

Chancellor George Osborne has announced new plans to help people to buy their own homes.

The Help to Buy scheme expands a previous scheme, FirstBuy, which was aimed solely at first-time buyers.  It enables all purchasers to put down a 5% deposit on a newly built home, much less than some banks now demand.

Up to 20% of the cost of the home will be funded by a shared equity loan, which will be interest-free for the first five years.  This will in effect see the government taking a stake in the value of borrowers’ homes. It plans to invest £3.5bn in these loans.

The value of the shared equity loan is linked to the property’s value. So, for example, if the value the property has doubled by the time the shared equity loan is repaid, the amount the borrower has to repay will have doubled, too.

In year six, borrowers will have to pay a 1.75% annual fee, which will rise by 1% above the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation every year after that.  The remainder of the value of the property is paid for with a standard mortgage, to cover up to 75% of the loan.

Whereas the previous scheme FirstBuy was only open to first-time buyers, this one will be available to all buyers of newly built homes. Previously there was also an income limit of £60,000 a year, but this will no longer apply.

It will cover newly built homes up to the value of £600,000 and borrowers will be able to apply from 1 April 2013.

National Insurance Cut to Boost Jobs

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced companies in the UK are to get up to £2,000 off their National Insurance Contributions (NIC) in an attempt to boost job creation.

Aimed at small firms, George Osborne said that when the change starts next April, “one third of all employers” will not have to make any NI payments.  He described it as “the largest tax cut in the Budget”.

NI payments go towards a number of benefits, including the state pension.  The change is being called the Employment Allowance, which the chancellor described as “taking a tax off jobs”.

To take advance of the allowance, firms will simply have to inform HM Revenue & Customs, and the Treasury says it will be “delivered through standard payroll software”.

Mr Osborne added, “For the person who’s set up their own business, and is thinking about taking on their first employee – a huge barrier will be removed.  They can hire someone on £22,000, or four people on the minimum wage, and pay no jobs tax.”

Fuel Duty Rise Cancelled by Chancellor

A rise in fuel duty scheduled for introduction in September has been cancelled, Chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget speech.

Petrol would now be 13 pence per litre cheaper than it would have been had the duty not been frozen over the last two years.  He said, “for a Vauxhall Astra or a Ford Focus, that’s £7 less every time you fill up.”

Fuel duty has not gone up since January 2011, when it was raised by 0.76p per litre.  It was then cut by 1p in March 2011 and, ever since, planned increases have been postponed repeatedly.

“We’ve now frozen fuel duty for two years,” Mr Osborne said. “This has not been easy. The government has foregone £6bn in revenues to date.”

Fuel duty has risen from 45.82p per litre in March 2001 to the current 57.95p per litre.  Hence, about 42% of the pump price ends up in the government coffers as duty. This rises to 59% once value added tax (VAT) has been added, according to the RAC Foundation.

As such, petrol and diesel are amongst the main drivers of overall transport costs, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Tamworth’s MP Demands More Accountability in the NHS

Christopher Pincher, Member of Parliament for Tamworth, spoke up in favour of transparency and accountability in a House of Commons debate on the NHS last week.

In the debate Mr Pincher called for the Government to examine closely the Francis Report into the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal and extend the provisions on criminal liability so that “Ministers and former Ministers [can be called] to the witness box to give evidence in defence of those public officials who were claiming that they were only obeying orders and pursuing the policies of their political masters”.

Mr Pincher went on to say that more needs to be done to deliver a deeper “change in culture” within Staffordshire NHS if a real difference is to be seen in care.

Mr Pincher said, “If we are to restore the battered credibility of care in my county, we need to ensure that we put patients, and not the godhead of targets, front and centre. We need to ensure that we recruit, recognise and reward the best people and sack the worst people… We cycle too many bad people through our public services. We need to make sure that when there is wrongdoing; people are punished not in the court of public opinion but in a court of law. If we do that, we can rebuild and restore confidence in our health service in Staffordshire, and we will have a system about which we are prepared to blow the trumpet, not blow the whistle.”

Mr Pincher also raised the specific issue of his constituent Thomas Berry who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy and the failure of the Staffordshire NHS Cluster to address his care package concerns.

Click here to read Mr Pinchers full speech

Text of full speech extracted from Hansard:

I would like to make two brief points.

First, will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, when he comes to review the Francis report, heed the cause of Robert Francis, and indeed the passionate appeal of my hon. Friend Steve Baker, by extending the provisions on criminal liability so that in the final analysis charges of wilful obstruction of complaints and wilful neglect can be preferred? Had such sanctions been in place 10 years ago, we would have seen charges preferred at Mid Staffordshire, and then we might have seen the interesting spectacle of Ministers and former Ministers being called to the witness box to give evidence in defence of those public officials who were claiming that they were only obeying orders and pursuing the policies of their political masters. I think that sort of sanction would be enough to focus the minds of any Minister, past and present, even those who wriggle and twist to try to avoid their responsibilities.

Secondly, I wish to make a point about culture change. We have had the report and the debate, but it would be foolish to assume that there have been any great strides forward as part of a culture change in Staffordshire. I will give one example. After the Francis report was published on 6 February, South Staffordshire PCT issued a press release which said:

“Much has been learnt”— that word again— “since 2009 and the PCT now operates with quality at the centre of all that we do.”

My constituent Tom Berry might take issue with that statement. Tom is a gifted young man who is pursuing a degree at Wolverhampton University but suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, which means that he can barely move. He has round-the-clock care from a team of carers. When he needs to cough, those carers have to compress his torso—that is the kind of help that he needs. However, those at the Staffordshire NHS cluster seem to have forgotten his needs and want to change his care package, against his wishes, against the wishes of his family and carers, and against the advice of his GP. I have tried to help him, but the head of continuing care in Staffordshire refuses to answer my letters and hides behind lawyers in refusing to acknowledge my calls to heed the advice of Tom’s GP.

When I threatened to blow the whistle on that conduct in this House, I secured a conference call from the chief executive of the Staffordshire NHS cluster, Graham Irwin. He did not bring to that conference call the head of continuing care, or a clinician, or a carer—he brought his press officer, which suggests to me that, in Staffordshire, medical care runs second to media management. Although he was very insistent that Tom’s care package should still be changed, he said that he did not even know whether a proper impact assessment had been done on the effect of that change on Tom’s health. He said that he would go away and look into it, but three weeks later, after another phone call and another letter, we still do not know what is happening.

If Francis is right when he said that our “comfortable set of assumptions about the NHS have been misplaced”, he is certainly talking about what is going on in Staffordshire now. We still have a culture of complacency allied to determined obfuscation. I say to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that if we are to restore the battered credibility of care in my county, we need to ensure that we put patients, and not the godhead of targets, front and centre. We need to ensure that we recruit, recognise and reward the best people and sack the worst people. As my right hon. Friend Nicholas Soames said, we cycle too many bad people through our public services. We need to make sure that when there is wrongdoing; people are punished not in the court of public opinion but in a court of law. If we do that, we can rebuild and restore confidence in our health service in Staffordshire, and we will have a system about which we are prepared to blow the trumpet, not blow the whistle.