Aug22017

Quarter of care homes must improve, figures show

Scottish Conservatives
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2 Aug 2017

Old woman gets help with walking from a nurse

Hundreds of care homes in Scotland must improve standards after missing out on good or excellent ratings by inspectors.

Figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives have revealed one in four facilities were rated unsatisfactory, weak or adequate by the Care Inspectorate as of March this year.

According to the analysis, it means 275 care homes have work to do to bring themselves up to standard.

Shadow health secretary Miles Briggs urged the Scottish Government to work more closely with the care home sector and local authorities to ensure improvements were made.

He said, with an ageing population and a shortage of care home spaces leading to bed-blocking in Scotland’s hospitals, it was essential more was done to raise standards.

Care homes in Scotland can receive five possible grades which take in a range of themes.

The figures show 75.5 per cent received good or excellent results.

The others were deemed unsatisfactory, weak, or adequate – where bosses say the service “should address areas of weakness”.

The 24.5 per cent receiving below-par ratings compares to 26.2 per cent in 2016, and 28.8 per cent the year before.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs said:

“While it’s welcome to see so many care homes being given good ratings, there are still hundreds which are falling below expectation.

“That’s not good enough, and the residents and staff of these under-pressure facilities deserve better.

“Scotland has a well-documented ageing population and, as time goes on, these care homes are only going to become busier and more important.

“The SNP should make moves to sort this out now.

“For one in four Scottish care homes to either be failing, or have improvements to make, is simply not good enough.”

Aug22017

Tory cancellation of promised electrification works will lengthen journey times, increase carbon emissions and raise the cost of the rail network

Labour

Tory cancellation of promised
electrification works will lengthen journey times, increase carbon emissions
and raise the cost of the rail network

By scrapping the electrification of the
TransPennine route, the Tories are essentially pulling the plug on the proposed
Crossrail for the Northern Powerhouse project, which could no longer be a fully
electrified network.

Cancelling electrification
projects around the country will add significantly to journey times:

  • Journeys between Manchester
    and Liverpool will add nearly 30 minutes

  •  Journeys between Leeds
    and Newcastle will add over 20 minutes.

  • Cancelling the
    electrification of the Cardiff to Swansea section of the Great Western Mainline
    puts at risk the estimated journey time saving between Swansea and London with
    Super Express trains of 19 minutes.

Labour has made a £10
billion commitment to “Crossrail for the North” to reverse decades of
underinvestment in Northern transport infrastructure that has undermined the
economic potential of the north of England and help deliver 850,000 new jobs by
2050.


Network Rail estimates that electrification and the
running of electric vehicles can help to reduce CO2 emissions by an average of
20 to 30 per cent compared to their diesel counterparts and the maintenance
costs for electric trains are 33 per cent lower than for diesel.

Network Rail also estimates that electric passenger
vehicles fuel savings are between 19 and 26 pence per vehicle mile.

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s
Shadow Transport Secretary, commenting on the
findings, said:

“The Government’s disgraceful U-turn on
their promise to deliver electrification on the Midland Mainline, Trans-Pennine
and Great Western routes will threaten economic growth in areas of England and
Wales already suffering from poor connectivity and underinvestment.

“Pulling the plug on electrification
shows the Tories’ disregard for Wales and Yorkshire, which will continue to
suffer from underinvestment, and proves the ‘Midlands Engine’ and the ‘Northern
Powerhouse’ are just more empty slogans from this Government.

“The Tories are trying to pull the wool over people’s
eyes by claiming that diesel bi-mode trains will deliver the same benefits as
electrification, despite saying for years that failure to electrify the network
costs more in the long run, causes more pollution, worsens air quality, lessens
capacity and makes services slower and less reliable.

“Not only will Labour deliver the promised
electrification, we will address the imbalance in transport infrastructure
spending, committing to building a Crossrail for the North and enhancing and
expanding the rail network in order to drive economic growth and rebalance our
economy for the many not the few”.

Ends

Aug22017

Press release: Multi-million fund reaches record number of adoptive families

HM Government

A fund launched to help struggling families who adopt some of the country’s most vulnerable children has reached almost 18,000 homes, providing much-needed emotional support.

Announcing the success of the Adoption Support Fund on Wednesday (2 August), Minister for Children and Families Robert Goodwill also confirmed that a further £5 million will be invested in a number of innovative projects across the country, designed to improve families’ experiences of adoption.

It is part of a government drive to deliver the best possible services for vulnerable children.

Robert Goodwill, Minister for Children and Families, said:

Every parent wants their child to grow up feeling loved and understood, and anyone with the commitment and compassion to adopt a child should have the backing of a strong support network. We know that caring for these young people, particularly those with more complex needs, can be a struggle at times.

With the right therapeutic support, children and families will be able to embrace the new life ahead of them, and I’m delighted that the Adoption Support Fund has supported so many thousands of people already, as part of our plan for a fairer society.

The Adoption Support Fund, launched across England in May 2015, pays for care that helps children to settle in with their adoptive families. This support can include:

  • cognitive therapy;
  • play and music therapy; and
  • parenting skills training.

In total, £52 million has been released through the fund so far, reaching 22,000 children and 18,000 families. Many more families stand to benefit, as the government has increased the fund to £28 million in 2017/18.

The announcement comes as an independent report shows that parents believe access to the fund has improved their lives, including through improved child behaviour and mental health.

Lorna Sandbach, along with her family, is one of those to benefit from the fund. When Lorna and her husband adopted siblings, they were 14-months and two-years-old respectively, and had experienced extreme trauma in their early lives that they still remember clearly. When Lorna’s eldest began reception last year he struggled to settle in.

The family found out about the fund and after initial assessments with a child psychiatrist, they began a year of therapy.

Lorna Sandbach, Adoption Support Fund recipient, said:

It has been life-changing. My daughter is letting us love her in a way she never did. At first, she was terrified, and now she trusts that we will come back for her at the end of the school day. Before, my son would not talk because he didn’t feel confident – but now that’s started to change. He is forming friendships and fitting in.

The 16 projects funded through the Practice and Improvement Fund include three Regional Adoption Agencies, which will develop new Centres of Excellence for adoption support. They will bring together social care, health and education experts to provide a co-ordinated assessment and support offer for families.

These Centres of Excellence will be based in:

  • Hertfordshire;
  • Stockport; and
  • North East Lincolnshire.

The Government is continuing to implement Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) across the country, to bring about long-term improvement to the adoption system. There are now three RAAs operating in England – One Adoption West Yorkshire, Aspire Adoption and Adoption Counts.

Notes to editors

  • Read more about the Adoption Support Fund here.
  • Read more about the Practice and Improvement Fund here.
  • Link to the Adoption Support Fund evaluation publication.
  • In 2016 a fair access limit was introduced to enable the Adoption Support Fund to be distributed more fairly, and allow more families to benefit. In April this year the Government began providing an additional £2,500 to go towards specialist assessments, in addition to the fair access limit of £5,000 for therapy.
  • For more information and interview requests contact the Department for Education on 020 7783 8300.

Aug22017

£400,000 to support use of Welsh within small businesses

Welsh Government

The objective of this funding is to increase visibility of the Welsh language in the community. The project will also increase understanding and maximise opportunities to strengthen bilingual customer services. The money will be allocated to establish a network of local practitioners to provide Welsh language support to businesses.

This is a commitment outlined in our recently published Welsh language strategy— Cymraeg 2050—which aims to increase the number of Welsh speakers to a million, as well as increase the use of Welsh.

The Welsh Language Commissioner currently works with large businesses and national companies to promote and facilitate Welsh language services, including the finance sector and large supermarkets. This new network of practitioners will ensure that support is available to local SMEs and micro businesses to become more bilingual.

Alun Davies said:

“Last year the Welsh Government undertook a project in partnership with the Mentrau Iaith to trial a small scale support service for SMEs.

“The pilot scheme showed promising signs in terms of raising awareness of the benefits of using the Welsh language by providing practical, face to face support and ongoing advice to businesses.

“We are now in a position to expand the pilot work, in partnership with Mentrau Iaith Cymru, and to work with a larger number of SMEs to provide tailored support to support an increase in the Welsh language services.”

Owain Gruffudd, Chair of Mentrau Iaith Cymru said:

“The Mentrau Iaith welcome the opportunity to cooperate with the Welsh Government to promote the Welsh language amongst small and medium businesses. The Mentrau Iaith already work at grass root level across Wales – engaging with businesses will complement our work to promote the use of Welsh in our communities.”

Aug22017

Shri Piyush Goyal to launch TAMRA Portal and Mobile Application to ensure transparent award of Statutory Clearances for Mining Operations

India

With an objective to enhance transparency and accountability as a part of the Ease of Doing Business in the Mining sector, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal will launch TAMRA (Transparency, Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation) portal and Mobile Application here on 10th February, 2017.