The week in public services — 03 April 2018
This week: making sense of NHS funding promises; high-profile moves in crime and justice; local government funding debates.
This is a non-comprehensive overview of what is going on in public services by the performance Tracker team at @instituteforgov. Did we miss something important? Let us know below.
Health and social care
Care minister Caroline Dinenage wrote about the adult social care workforce in The Guardian, acknowledging that the Government should improve data on “how many people are working in health and care, their career paths and how, when and why they might want to leave”. Do you have opinions? The Department of Health and Social Care is running a consultation on the topic closing next week.
What’s going on with the Green Paper on social care for older people, and what have ministers promised will be in it? The House of Commons Library has a handy summary — as ever — here. Current estimates indicate we should expect something before late July. On a related note, the HoC Library has a great briefing here on how the Conservative’s (abandoned) 2017 election proposals on social care would have actually worked.
The Nuffield Trust published a report on the interface between health and social care. Tensions are running high between the two sectors at a time when they need to work more closely together. The paper makes recommendations for improving links, including by increasing the workforce, and using the local voluntary and community sectors and services.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced £760 million capital funding for the NHS to modernize hospitals, wards and services. The Times reports that this is the first announcement of the £3.5bn that Hammond confirmed at the Autumn 2017 budget. The King’s Fund has published a timely comment piece on the unanswered questions from the Government’s plans to increase NHS funding. The Health Foundation responded positively to the Prime Minister’s long-term funding pledge for the NHS, but warned that we should pay attention to how much funding is promised, and how it will cover health and social care.
Data from 74 NHS trusts and nearly 200 town halls reveal a significant gender pay gap in councils and NHS trusts, with many having median hourly gender pay gaps above the national average. Nuffield Trust’s chief economist tells the Guardian that reporting these gaps only tells part of the story, and that data on actual pay could provide more insights.
As the 70th anniversary of the NHS is approaching, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Warwick are running a project on the people’s history of the NHS. You can find out more and contribute via this page.
Law and order
A new joint report from the Police and Probation Inspectorates about youth offending teams concludes that they are doing well at keeping children committing low-level offences out of the criminal justice system. They highlight that further improvement is possible through better engaging with victims; considering the views of the child offenders; and more systematic monitoring of the outcomes from out-of-court disposals.
The Police Foundation authored an insightful blog on community-based police work. It argued that engagement with the public and local knowledge have declined due to a fall in the number of officers. However, partial recovery of neighbourhood policing services is underway, judging by the recent report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service.
There have been several media reports that crime rates in London have overtaken those in New York in early 2018, which made for impactful headlines. Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan police, and Britain’s most senior police officer, highlighted the role of social media in stirring tensions online, potentially linking to an increase in knife crime among young people.
Finally, the week was peppered with high-profile moves in this sector. Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service, will be leaving at the end of this year after her contract ends. Underfunding and cuts to the CPS budget in the last few years, along with criticism arising from the collapse of rape prosecutions leave challenges for her successor. Further afield, but widely covered last week, the Chair of the Parole Board has resigned (see his letter here) following the controversy over the John Worboys case.
Local Government Finance
Last Wednesday, the Commons debated reductions in local government funding. The LGA have summarized the main issues — spending reductions, increasing demand, new burdens, reductions in reserves, and financial uncertainty — in a short briefing.
The Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee wrote to Sajid Javid to ask Government to do more to engage with local government on Brexit. The letter asked whether some Brexit preparation funding would be given to local authorities, and requested an update on progress in replacing EU structural funds.
The New Local Government Network has recently published the second part of its leadership survey, focusing on local leader’s confidence in the economy, society and the environment. Notable highlights include low confidence among council chiefs that local authorities have enough resources and powers to deliver statutory services. Unsurprisingly, there were differences between regions, with respondents from London and the East of England being most pessimistic about their power and resources to meet housing needs.
Schools, education and young people
The Department for Education published new data on educational outcomes for Looked After Children last week. Key highlights are that the (significant) gaps in educational outcomes between looked after and other children has slightly decreased at KS1, and slightly increased at KS2. There’s also been a slight uptick in percentage of Looked After Children absent from school.
Today, the Labour Party is launching a consultation on its plans for a National Education Service, a series of proposed reforms to school funding, free adult education and extending free childcare. The party’s analysis claims that funding in real term for children and young people has fallen by £1 billion since 2012 when inflation is taken into account.
