Day: January 7, 2019

New Year, New Career?

Considering a career in Childcare?

Why not come along to our Childcare Academy information session? This will last approx. 1 hour and will give you the opportunity to find out what is involved in our Academy programme, ask any questions and take away an application pack.

·         Wednesday 9th January @1pm

·         Wednesday 23rd January @10am

·         Thursday 7th February @1pm

·         Wednesday 20th February @10am.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Audrey O’Neill (our Communications & Compliance Officer) on 0131 311 693, email audrey.oneill@northedinburghchildcare.co.uk

or:

Liam Moffat, Training Administrator on 0131 311 6929 email Liam.moffat@northedinburghchildcare.co.uk

Letters: Taking Back Control

Dear Editor

When the banks collapsed through financial mismanagement and corruption in 2008 the people of the UK had to pay for this massive example of this failure of capitalism.

Wages were frozen, prices soared, thousands of jobs were lost, and both local and national services were decimated.

All this continued from 2008 to 2016 non-stop – and it is still going on today. People had had enough and were demanding that the banks should be under public control and stricter controls over the financial institutions should be introduced.

Danger signals from the banks and financial sector were very quickly raised: the demands of the people of the UK for control over these sectors must somehow be headed off.

It took a few years for the media to convince the people to blame others for the troubles, but they succeeded in splitting the nation practically down the middle, a classic example of the ‘divide and rule’ tactic.

The consequences of the phoney arguments in support of the EU referendum are yet to be felt.

Taking back control was advanced as an objective of the referendum, but in whose hands would control be? People had decided that in 2008 and will do so again.

A. Delahoy

Silverknowes Gardens 

Transforming patient care? UK Government to launch NHS Long Term Plan

The UK Government today launches a long term plan to ‘transform’ the NHS. The plan, to be backed by government investment of £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24, will ‘transform patient care and make sure every penny of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely’.

Now in its 70th year, the NHS has unprecedented certainty to plan for the next decade, ensuring that patients will be supported with world-class care at every stage of their life.

From birth, through the challenges that life brings and into old age, the government says the plan will ensure that the NHS is:

  • Providing the best maternity care in the world – We will ensure every baby gets the best start in life by continuing to improve maternity safety, and providing greater mental health support to new parents.
  • Supporting ageing and increasing independence – We will support people to age well by bringing different health and care teams together to make sure older people are getting the support they need to remain independent, avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions. We will make sure people have more say and control over the healthcare and support they are receiving, including by expanding the use of personal health budgets.
  • Improving outcomes for all major conditions – Through better prevention, detection, treatment and recovery from serious diseases, we will improve health outcomes so people live longer and healthier. For mental health services, greater support will be provided to almost 350,000 more children and young people, and at least an extra 380,000 adults over the next five years.
  • Increasing the NHS workforce – We are improving access to mental health, primary care and community services, with tens of thousands more doctors, nurses and other health professionals – a full workforce plan is expected later this year.
  • Bringing the NHS into digital age – We are rolling out new digital technologies to deliver improved access to NHS services. This will mean everyone in the country will have digital access to their GP, including being able to make appointments, manage prescriptions and view their health records online.
  • Cutting waste across the NHS – We will continue to make sure we are using taxpayers’ money efficiently, including through introducing new digital techniques and making back office savings of more than £700 million across the NHS.

With NHS spending in England increasing, extra money will also go to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the Barnett formula, which ensures every part of the UK gets a fair share of public spending. The devolved administrations will be able to use this money to improve their own services and develop their own long-term plans.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: “The NHS has always been the country’s most beloved public service – there to provide outstanding care to us all whenever it is needed.

“The launch of the NHS Long Term Plan marks an historic step to secure its future and offers a vision for the service for the next ten years, with a focus on ensuring that every pound is spent in a way that will most benefit patients. This will help relieve pressure on the NHS while providing the basis to transform care with world-class treatments.

“Backed by our record investment of £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24, this shows what we can achieve with a strong economy and a focus on people’s priorities.”