Cuts to services will have a negative impact on young and old.

 

The Green Party candidate in the Penkhull and Stoke by election has criticized plans by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to close the city’s Meals on Wheels service and to axe 10 health visitors and school nurses.

 

Adam Colclough said, “at a time when people in our city are facing unprecedented challenges these cuts will have a negative impact on young and old alike”. He added that “if elected I will oppose these and all other cuts to services on which the most vulnerable members of our community depend”.

 

The Meals on Wheels service, which previously faced closure in 2015, has had its funding extended until the end of 2022 but its future beyond then is uncertain. Information from a report by the city council published in the Sentinel shows that the number of people using the service has gone down from 123 in March 2020 to 84 in February this year.

 

Council plans to cut £1 million in funding from children’s public health services currently provided by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust could see 3000 households adversely impacted.

 

Speaking to the Sentinel Frank Keogh regional officer for Unite said that years of ‘austerity and attacks on NHS and local government funding’ had already hit services hard, further cuts would put ‘the physical and mental health of thousands of the city’s families’ at risk.

 

In March 2020, the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) published a report into the health of children in the UK, one year on in the wake of the pandemic they updated their findings. They found that progress has stalled in some key areas and things have even started to go backwards. These include tackling obesity, named by the government as a priority, with 34% of children aged between 10 and 11 still overweight or obese. These are links, the report suggests, between this and a rise in child poverty among working families [1]

 

Writing in the Sentinel (Personally Speaking 18^th June) Andy Day coordinator of North Staffs Pensioners Convention says that the fall in users of the Meals on Wheels service is not the result of a reduction in need so much as the service not working properly. He emphasizes the importance of the service to the wellbeing of older people, writing that if it is withdrawn, they are at a higher risk of becoming isolated and depressed and may be less likely to eat properly.

 

Research published by Age UK highlights the impact of the pandemic on the physical and mental health of older people. The data collected in the report The Impact of COVID-19 to Date on Older People’s Physical and Mental Health shows that one in four feel less confident being active than they did previously; one in five felt their memory had declined during lockdown, and 24% of older people living with a long-term health condition felt less independent now than they did before the pandemic [2]

 

Stoke-on-Trent City Council reported, last week a ‘significant’ underspend of £16.4 million and that it would be spending £1.75 million on consultants to help ‘transform’ its services. In February the Conservative controlled council pushed through £6.4million in cuts and raised council tax by 4.99% [3]

 

In a letter to the councilors Lorraine Beardmore and Ally Simcock, the cabinet members for public health and adult social care Adam Colclough calls on the council to reconsider the proposed cuts considering its budget surplus.

 

[1] https://stateofchildhealth.rcpch.ac.uk/evidence/at-a-glance/#page-section-7

[2]https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/health--wellbeing/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-older-people_age-uk.pdf

[3] https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/stoke-trent-city-council-records-5538148

 

 

 

Candidate Backs Call For more Support for Young People’s Mental Health Services

 Green Party candidate in the Penkhull and Stoke by election Adam Colclough has joined mental health charity MIND in calling on the government to do more to help young people struggling with their mental health.

 

In a letter to Nadine Dorries MP Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Adam Colclough calls on the government to fund a network of support hubs for young people aged 11-25.

 

These would provide easy access to support services without the need for a referral and be in places that are easy for users to get to.

 

Adam Colclough said: “I have been a volunteer for local mental health charities for almost ten years and over that time have seen that difficulty accessing services is a major barrier experienced by people seeking help and one that has only been made worse by the pandemic”.

 

He added to this that things can be particularly challenging for young people saying “CAMHS services have been seriously underfunded for years, even though this is seriously counterproductive since people who get help with mental health issues early on tend to experience better long-term outcomes”

 

Data from a report published by the Centre for Mental Health based on 200 academic studies from around the world suggests 10,023,453 people, including 1.5 million young people, could need mental health support over the next three to five years [1].

 

Office for National Statistics data published in June 2020 show that 19.2% of adults polled said they had experienced feelings of depression due to the pandemic, many also reported feeling more stressed and 84.9% said their personal relationships had suffered as a result [3].

 

Young people have found the past year of restrictions and lockdowns particularly challenging, and this has had an impact on their mental health. Figures produced by NHS Digital in April show that rates of mental health problems in young people have risen from 10.8% in 2017 to 16.0% in 2020 [2].

 

Adam Colclough said: “supporting people who are struggling with their mental health due to the difficulties of the past year has to be an integral part of our national recovery plans. That is why I am backing MIND in their call for the opening of mental health hubs for young people”.

 

[1]https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication/download/CentreforMentalHealth_COVID_MH_Forecasting4_May21.pdf

[2]https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2020-wave-1-follow-up

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/coronavirusanddepressioninadultsgreatbritain/june2020

First Potteries Treatment of Drivers in Unacceptable and Will Make Building a Modern Transport System Harder.

 

Last week First Potteries, the company operating public transport in Stoke-on-Trent, told its drivers, many of whom had worked throughout lockdown, that their contracts are to be changed.

 

First Potteries claim the changes are due to fewer passengers being likely to use busses as the country emerges from the pandemic and are necessary to ‘secure a sustainable business and protect jobs’.

 

The changes could see drivers lose part of their holiday entitlement and their right to a free lift home after a night shift, they will also have to take a 90-minute unpaid break during every shift.

 

First Potteries managing director Nigel Eggleton told the Sentinel “As we move out of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we like many other businesses are looking towards the future and ensuring we have a sustainable business that can secure jobs and continue to deliver a network of bus services to people in the Potteries” [1].

 

Drivers for First Potteries are represented by the UNITE trades union and Regional Organiser Stephen Blakemore told the Sentinel they were “currently engaged in constructive dialogue” with the company and were “confident that we can get a resolution that works for our members, the company and for the people of Stoke-on-Trent (our passengers)”.

 

Far be it from me to cast a bad spell over the negotiations at this early stage, but my experience of having any kind of ‘dialogue’ with First Potteries has seldom been anything like ‘constructive’.

 

Public transport in Stoke-on-Trent is, as anyone who has tried to use it will attest, a bad joke. This has very little to do with the impact of the pandemic, it was a shambles before Covid arrived; and everything to with decades of underinvestment.

 

I find myself in the unlikely position of agreeing with Stoke South MP Jack Brereton when he says, as he did in parliament in January 2020 “bus services are too few, too slow and too infrequent [2]”.

 

The debate maunders on from there with contributions from Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme), Karen Bradley (Staffs Moorlands) and Jo Gideon (Stoke Central) among others. Grand plans to link busses and trains, convert the busses to electric power and revamp Stoke Station to rival Grand Central in New York are floated in almost every intervention.

 

This is rounded off by a cheery, if lengthy, homily from Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Transport Nusrat Ghani, about busses Ms Ghani says “we are all agreed that bus services matter. They are the best way for people to travel, being the cleanest and the cheapest, whether for getting to work or for accessing social services. We are all agreed that buses are our most vital form of public transport system”.

 

She might want to check that last statement, I am certain that quite a few of her fellow Tories have never been on a bus in their lives, Jacob Rees-Mogg running for the number 22 to Hanley is something I would pay to see.

 

Leaving stereotypes aside the real flaw in this debate and most of the conversations about public transport in Stoke-on-Trent held in parliament or the council chamber is that elected representatives have their heads in the clouds. Meanwhile First Potteries are down in the pantry paring the cheese for all they are worth.

 

In this instance they have decided that the pandemic is a crisis too good to waste since it allows them to engage in their favourite hobby of cutting things. Services have been cut to the bone, a process that began long before March last year, so staff terms and conditions are in the frame.

 

I am not sure which is worse, the predictability or the crushing myopia, either way it is a disaster for the environment and the economy of the city. Stoke is a city plagued by poor air quality, getting traffic off the roads is the best way of improving things, cutting congestion would also make the city more attractive to outside investors.

 

If I and pretty much anyone standing at their local bus stop can see that; why can’t First Potteries? Because nobody pushes them to do so, the city council and the MPs are too busy building castles in the air.

 

Building a decent, affordable, and modern transport system is fundamental to making Stoke-on-Trent into a city with vibrant economy and addressing its deep-seated social problems. To do so First need to park their outdated business practices and our elected representatives need to roll up the grand plans and focus instead on unexciting, but vital realities.

 

A twenty-first century public transport system is one that engages all its stakeholders equally. The council must be more than a cash cow to be ignored when it fails to fill the provider’s pail with enough in the way of subsidies and passengers must be engaged with meaningfully, ideally by giving them a stake in owning the network through something like a cooperative society.

 

Treating the drivers and other staff who keep the network running must be an integral part of this, if they are dissatisfied and demotivated neither this nor the grand plans debated in parliament will get off the ground. More to the point we the people who use busses in this city will be left standing at the stop for even longer.

 

 

[1]https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/bus-drivers-face-losing-one-5460335

[2]https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-01-23/debates/52E01B50-00FE-4FDA-9950-AB69B5D45019/PublicTransportNorthStaffordshire?highlight=enhanced%20partnership%20stoke#contribution-0DC7A29D-9D07-4FBA-AFA7-EDB13396B994

 

 

 

The Number of People Needing Mental Health Care Could Top Ten Million.

 

A leading mental health campaign group has given a stark warning that the number of people needing support for mental health problems in the UK after the pandemic could reach ten million.

 

In a report Cocid-19 and the nation’s mental health [1] published this month The Centre for Mental Health predict that demand for NHS mental health services will three times the capacity with which they can cope within the next three to five years.

 

The report has been based on analysis of 200 high-quality academic studies from around the world by clinicians, researchers and economists working for the NHS and the Centre for Mental Health.

 

The report identifies several key groups who are at a greater risk of experiencing poor mental health due to the pandemic. These include those who have been treated for Covid-19 in intensive care, the bereaved, healthcare staff and people who have been impacted economically by the pandemic.

 

In a statement on their website the Centre for Mental Health welcome the investment made by the government in mental health services but go onto say that it is ‘clear that Government and the NHS must take action now to meet a very steep increase in demand for mental health support. It is also vital to develop services to meet the specific needs arising from the pandemic – for example, specialist bereavement support and evidence-based help for those with trauma symptoms’.

 

Among the predictions made in the report, which is the fourth in a series published by the charity are that 8068 adults who have been treated for covid in intensive care may need mental health support; 40% of NHS critical care staff could suffer post-traumatic stress due to their experiences over the past year and a half and that many of the people forced to claim benefits when the economy closed down may suffer mental health problems.

 

In total the report suggests some 10,023,453, including 1.5 million children, may need support with their mental health over the next three to five years.

 

Anyone who has tried to seek help for themselves or a relative from NHS mental health services knows it can be a complicated and sometimes confrontational business. This was true before the pandemic; in its wake things could get much worse.

 

Huge backlogs caused by services being closed as the NHS focussed on dealing with coronavirus cases will stretch services and budgets to their limit. Even with the promise of extra money from government there is a strong possibility mental health, always a Cinderella when it comes to attention and funding, could still miss out.

 

That, as this report shows, could create a devastating social and economic catastrophe. One that dwarfs the pandemic in its long-term impact.

 

[1]https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication/download/CentreforMentalHealth_COVID_MH_Forecasting4_May21.pdf

 

 

 

 

Woodland in the UK is Under Threat Like Never Before.

 

The difficulties of the past year and a half have thrown into sharp relief the value of woodland and other green spaces in helping us to maintain our physical and mental wellbeing.

 

A report published by the Woodland Trust highlights the perilous state of much of the country’s woodland.

 

Amongst its findings are that only 7% of the UK’s natural woodland in is a healthy condition and despite the amount of woodland cover slowly increasing, there is less wildlife to be found there.

 

A copy The State of the UK’s Woods and Trees report [1] has been sent to the government and the campaign group will us it to inform their future activities.

 

In a press statement chief executive of the Woodland Trust Darren Moorcroft said “The challenges UK woods and trees face are not unsurmountable. But overcoming them will take urgent action from government and continuing work from charities like us”.

 

Earlier this week the government unveiled its England Trees Action Plan [2], included in which is an ‘aim’ to achieve 12% woodland cover by ‘mid-century’. The Plan also includes aims to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,0000 hectares a year and to spend £500 million of the £640million Nature for Climate fund on woodlands in England by 2025.

 

Writing in the forward to the plan Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice says the government’s pledge is to not only to stem the tide of nature loss, but to turn it around – to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. The England Trees Action Plan is central to this. It sets out our long-term plan for the whole treescape - trees, woodlands and forests. It includes our vision for trees in 2050 and the economic, environmental, and social benefits that we will realise through our new trees and woodlands”.

 

Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth have criticised the plan as “inadequate” and “frankly not worth the paper its written on”. They went on to describe the proposal to hold a public consultation on setting a binding target for increasing woodland cover next year as a “ridiculous” delay “given the urgency of the nature and climate emergencies”. Friends of the Earth have also criticised the plan for leaving the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales to do much of the “heavy lifting” when it comes to restoring woodland cover.

 

The need to protect woodland in the UK and elsewhere is emphasised by the findings of a research project by the University of Wisconsin-Madison published in the Journal Science [3].

 

Scientists found that Earth’s vegetation is changing at a faster rate than at any other time in the past 18,000 years and human actions may be to blame. Intensive land use for agriculture and climate change have been cited as probable causes all of which began as humans became the dominant species some 4000 years ago.

 

In the face of a climate crisis that has the potential to be massively destructive there is a need for governments to act quickly and decisively. A tepid plan for a limited increase for tree cover in England with no firm target or timetable for acting, just a lot of Westminster waffle about working with stakeholders and holding yet another consultation from the UK government shows neither quality.

 

Until the words stop and the action starts and there is a clear benchmark for measuring how effective any policy has been delivered change and recovery for our woodlands looks sadly unlikely.

 

[1] https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/49731/state-of-the-uks-woods-and-trees-2021-the-woodland-trust.pdf

[2]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987432/england-trees-action-plan.pdf

[3]https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/climate-crisis-is-driving-fastest-change-in-global-vegetation-in-18000-years/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Spaces are Vital to Our Wellbeing and Now is the Time to Protect them from Development.

 

Green Party activists in Stoke-on-Trent have written to the council calling for parks and green spaces in the city to be protected from development.

 

The letter states that the ‘experience of the past year has taught us the value of our home environment and its impact on our physical and mental wellbeing’ and goes on to say this is that having ‘green space within close walking distance of home is hugely beneficial, particularly for individuals and households who do not have access to a private garden’.

 

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 12% of UK households have no access to a private or shared garden, in London this rises to 21%. Access to public parks is more evenly distributed with 86% of households having access to one within ‘easy walking distance’ of their home [1].

 

The letter cites research produced by academics from Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University and published in the journal Landscape & Urban Planning that examines the experience of people living in the UK during the first peak of the pandemic [2].

 

The research shows that access to public or private green spaces is a key protective factor for health and wellbeing. Private gardens and public green spaces such as parks are, the article concludes, areas deserving consideration as an ‘essential health resource in times of crisis’.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “we all know how valuable parks and green spaces are to our health and wellbeing”, adding that “what we want is to make sure that those in our city are protected in perpetuity”.

 

The latter calls on the city council to work with the charity Fields in Trust to create a Deed of Protection covering the city’s parks and other green spaces. This would put in place robust protection for these sites whilst they would continue to be managed by the council [3].

 

The letter has been written as a response to the public consultation on the Local Plan being prepared by the council that will inform development in Stoke-on-Trent for the next two decades.

 

The spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “any local plan that does not place adequate value on green spaces will not be fit for purpose”, adding that there is a “need to build communities not just housing and access to nature is integral to doing so”.

 

Research produced by Fields in Trust shows that parks and green spaces in the UK have a ‘wellbeing value’ equivalent to £ 34.2 billion and that being able to easily access green spaces saves the NHS £111 million in reduced GP visits alone [4]. The potential savings to the NHS could be even greater as the service struggles with a backlog caused by the pandemic that could see 10% of patients having to wait more than a year for treatment [5]

 

The North Staffs Green Party spokesperson said, “it is more than clear that protecting our parks and green spaces is vitally important and that is why we are calling on the council to take this opportunity to act”.

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/oneineightbritishhouseholdshasnogarden/2020-05-14

[2]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204621000554?via%3Dihub

[3]http://www.fieldsintrust.org/what-is-protection

[4] http://www.fieldsintrust.org/Upload/file/research/Revaluing-Parks-and-Green-Spaces-Summary.pdf

[5] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57092797

 

Now is the Time to Act for a Wilder Future.

 

Activists and candidates from North Staffs Green Party have given their support to a manifesto for giving the county a wilder future published by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.

 

A spokesperson said: “the crisis facing humanity due to our neglect of the environment is growing more serious every year, we need to act now before it is too late”.

 

The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust manifesto calls on candidates to support five pledges during the campaign and to follow up on them if elected.

 

These are: creating a Nature Recovery Network with adequate funding to address issues such as species loss and the destruction of natural habitats; developing local solutions to the climate crisis; supporting access to nature as a way of boosting health and wellbeing; protecting wild places from destruction and promoting sustainable development and supporting innovative approaches to developing the green economy.

 

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust write in their manifesto that the next decade will be ‘crucial’ to the future of nature in the county, going on to say it could be a time of ‘renewal, of rewilding our lives’, but only ‘if we act now and act together’.

 

North Staffs Green Party have been actively engaged with protecting wild spaces across the county, including taking a leading role in the campaign to protect Cannock Chase.

 

In a statement launching the party’s campaign for the Staffordshire County Council elections Coordinator Jade Taylor said the party would be speaking out on: “the threat of loss to our local green spaces like Keele Golf Course, the increase of regular flooding, poorly built and maintained houses, the expected troubles HS2 will bring to our rural villages”.

 

Included in the actions Staffordshire Wildlife Trust recommend as necessary for nature in the county to recover by 2030 are, protecting 30% of the land in Staffordshire for nature; using local woodland to capture carbon and ensuring all new housing, commercial and infrastructure developments are designed to promote biodiversity and create nature rich spaces.

 

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust write: “people and communities benefit from thriving, accessible nature on their doorsteps as part of a Natural Health Service. Reconnecting with wild, green places improves the wellbeing and resilience of all”.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said: “protecting the environment is at the heart of everything our party stands for, as is making access to nature something that everybody is able to enjoy as a right,” adding that “we are determined to support the things Staffordshire Wildlife Trust are calling for at the election and long afterwards”.

 

Read about the policies Green councillors in Staffordshire would campaign for in the manifesto for the county [1] and what they say about protecting green spaces in their personal statements [2]

 

[1] : https://northstaffordshiregreenparty.blogspot.com/2021/04/manifesto-2021.html

[2] https://northstaffordshiregreenparty.blogspot.com/2021/04/election-candidates-2021.html