Tag: austerity

Governments ‘failed citizens’ with flawed pandemic planning

Inquiry publishes first report and 10 recommendations focused on pandemic resilience and preparedness

The Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, is urging the new UK government and the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to implement promptly her 10 key recommendations following publication of the Inquiry’s report of its first investigation into the nation’s resilience and preparedness for the pandemic.

These recommendations, made public on Thursday 18 July 2024, include a major overhaul of how the UK government prepares for civil emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key recommendations include a radical simplification of civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems, holding a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years and the creation of a single, independent statutory body responsible for whole system preparedness and response.

It is the first of several reports setting out the Inquiry’s recommendations and findings.

Today the Inquiry has published its first report after examining the resilience and preparedness of the United Kingdom to respond to a pandemic. My report recommends fundamental reform of the way in which the UK government and the devolved administrations prepare for whole-system civil emergencies.

If the reforms I recommend are implemented, the nation will be more resilient and better able to avoid the terrible losses and costs to society that the Covid-19 pandemic brought.

I expect all my recommendations to be acted on, with a timetable to be agreed with the respective administrations. I, and my team, will be monitoring this closely.

Baroness Hallett, Chair of the Inquiry

Module 1 examined the state of the UK’s structures and the procedures in place to prepare for and respond to a pandemic.

Hearings for Module 1 were held in London in June and July 2023 and the Chair heard from current and former politicians as well as key scientists, experts, civil servants and bereaved family members.

Following these hearings, the Inquiry’s findings and recommendations are set out in the report published today. The publication of the first report has been welcomed by some of those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. Dr Alan Wightman from North Yorkshire, lost his mother in early-May 2020 to Covid-19 that she had acquired in her care home in Fife, Scotland.

My Mum was an 88-year-old widow, a dementia sufferer and a cancer survivor. She had been settled and looked after in her well-run home for 11 months before Covid got in, despite the best efforts of the staff. A number of the home’s residents were taken by Covid.

I congratulate Baroness Hallett and her Inquiry team for reaching this substantive milestone of issuing findings and recommendations from Module 1. To be at this point a mere 13 months after witnesses started giving evidence in this Module is very impressive. To have achieved that whilst simultaneously completing Module 2 and its three satellite Modules, plus having Module 3 ready to launch within the next three months, is truly exemplary.

Dr Wightman

In her findings, the Chair concludes that the UK’s system of building preparedness for the pandemic suffered from several significant flaws.

These include a flawed approach to risk assessment, a failure to fully learn from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease, and Ministers not receiving a broad enough range of scientific advice and failing to challenge the advice they did get.

Baroness Hallett acknowledges the pressure on politicians and others to make tough decisions about how resources should be used. However, she also stresses that if the UK had been better prepared, the nation could have avoided some of the significant and long-lasting financial, economic and human costs of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In summary her recommendations are:

  • A radical simplification of the civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems. This includes rationalising and streamlining the current bureaucracy and providing better, simpler Ministerial and official structures and leadership;
  • A new approach to risk assessment that provides for a better and more comprehensive evaluation of a wider range of actual risks;
  • A new UK-wide approach to the development of strategy, which learns lessons from the past and from regular civil emergency exercises and takes proper account of existing inequalities and vulnerabilities;
    Better systems of data collection and sharing in advance of future pandemics, and the commissioning of a wider range of research projects;
  • Holding a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years and publishing the outcome;
    Bringing in external expertise from outside government and the Civil Service to challenge and guard against the known problem of ‘groupthink’;
  • Publication of regular reports on the system of civil emergency preparedness and resilience;
  • Lastly and most importantly, the creation of a single, independent statutory body responsible for whole system preparedness and response. It will consult widely, for example with experts in the field of preparedness and resilience and the voluntary, community and social sector, and provide strategic advice to government and make recommendations.

The Chair believes that all 10 recommendations are reasonable and deliverable and all must be implemented in a timely manner. The Inquiry and the Chair will be monitoring the implementation of the recommendations and will hold those in power to account.

The Chair has today restated her aim to conclude all public hearings by summer 2026, and to publish reports with findings and recommendations as the Inquiry progresses.

The Inquiry’s next report – focusing on Core UK decision-making and political governance – including in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Modules 2, 2A, 2B and 2C) – is expected to be published in 2025.

Future reports will focus on specific areas, including:

  • Modules 2, 2A, 2B, 2C: Core UK decision-making and political governance – including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  • Module 3: Healthcare systems
  • Module 4: Vaccines and therapeutics
  • Module 5: Procurement – procurement and distribution of key equipment and supplies
  • Module 6: The care sector
  • Module 7: Test, trace, and isolate programmes
  • Module 8: Children and young people
  • Module 9: Economic response to the pandemic

For more details of these modules visit the Inquiry’s website.

The Chair is also examining the best way to fulfil her Terms of Reference and investigate the impact of the pandemic on the population of the UK. This will cover a wide range of those affected and include the impact on mental health.

TUC: Covid Inquiry Report is a “moment of truth for the country” as report confirms impact of austerity on UK preparedness and resilience

Report confirms that public services were under huge strain even before Covid struck

  • Baroness Hallett says public health, NHS and social care sector’s capacity to respond to pandemic was “constrained” by funding and negatively impacted by “severe staff shortages” and infrastructure “not fit for purpose”
  • Report warns that not investing “in systems of protection” will impact on the UK’s “preparedness and resilience” in a future pandemic 

Responding to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 report today (Thursday), TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:  “This is a moment of truth and reflection for the country. 

“Baroness Hallett’s report confirms that austerity left the UK underprepared for the pandemic. 

“Faced with the biggest crisis since the Second World War our defences were down as a result of severe spending cuts. 

“We owe it to those who lost their lives – and to those workers who put their lives at risk – to make sure this never happens again. 

“Strong public services – and a properly supported workforce – are vital for the nation’s health. As Baroness Hallett rightly points out the cost of investing in ‘systems for our protection’ is ‘vastly outweighed’ by the cost of not doing so.”  

Commenting on the report’s finding that inequality put certain communities at disproportionate risk during the pandemic, Paul added: 

“This report lays bare how inequality fuelled the spread of Covid-19.  Low-income, disabled and BME people were far more likely to be infected and die from the virus.  As Baroness Hallett warns inequality is a huge risk to the whole of the UK.” 

Impact of austerity 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 2 of her report: ‘Public services, particularly health and social care, were running close to, if not beyond, capacity in normal times. 

[…] in the area of preparedness and resilience, money spent on systems for our protection is vital and will be vastly outweighed by the cost of not doing so.’ 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 122 of her report: ‘The Inquiry also heard that there were severe staff shortages and that a significant amount of the hospital infrastructure was not fit for purpose. England’s social care sector faced similar issues. This combination of factors had a directly negative impact on infection control measures and on the ability of the NHS and the care sector to ‘surge up’ during a pandemic.’ 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 123 of her report: ‘Issues of funding are political decisions that properly fall to elected politicians. However, it remains the case that the surge capacity of the four nations’ public health and healthcare systems to respond to the pandemic was constrained by their funding.’ 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 127 of her report: ‘Some witnesses to the Inquiry described the prioritisation and reprioritisation of limited resources as a cause of inaction. This is a widely recurring theme in the evidence.’ 

Impact of inequality 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 70 of her report: ‘Resilience depends on having a resilient population. The existence and persistence of vulnerability in the population is a long-term risk to the UK.’ 

‘[…] as the UK entered the Covid-19 pandemic, there were “substantial systematic health inequalities by socio-economic status, ethnicity, area-level deprivation, region, social excluded minority groups and inclusion health groups.”’ 

Baroness Hallett writes on page 71 of her report: ‘Covid-19 was not an ‘equality opportunity virus’. It resulted in a higher a likelihood of sickness and death for people who are most vulnerable in society. It was the views of Professors Bambra and Marmot that: 

“In short, the UK entered the pandemic with its public services depleted, health improvement stalled, health inequalities increased and health among the poorest people in a state of decline.”’ 

TUC: Austerity left UK “hugely unprepared” for the Covid pandemic

  • NEW REPORT: TUC report shows how austerity led to unsafe staffing in public services, a broken safety net, and decimated workplace safety enforcement when the pandemic began
  • “Austerity cost the nation dearly. The consequences were painful and tragic. The inquiry is our chance to learn from this” says the TUC

Austerity left the UK “hugely unprepared” for the Covid pandemic, according to a new report published by the TUC yesterday.

The report looks at four pillars of the country’s pandemic preparedness:

  1. Safe staffing levels in public services
  2. Public service capacity and resources
  3. A strong safety net through the social security system
  4. Robust health and safety protections at work

It finds that in each of these key areas, funding cuts reduced the country’s capacity to respond to the pandemic.

The report was published as the TUC held a joint press conference with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice about the lessons that must be learned through the inquiry, to save lives in the future.

Safe staffing levels in health and social care

The report details how safe staffing levels in health and social care were undermined by multiple years of pay caps and pay freezes, which impeded recruitment and increased staff turnover. This left both health and social care dangerously understaffed when the pandemic began:

  • Between 2010 and 2020, the number of nurses per capita in the UK grew by less than one per cent – despite demand for care rising by one-third. This is in stark contrast to the OECD average of nurses per capita rising by 10 per cent.
  • In 2019 the average NHS worker was earning £3,000 less in real terms than in 2010, with significant impacts on both recruitment and retention. 
  • In social care, the turnover rate for staff in England increased from 22 per cent in 2012/13 to 31.8 per cent in 2019/20.
  • When the pandemic hit, a quarter (24%) of social care workers in England were employed on zero-hours contracts, with the turnover rate higher among these workers.

Public services capacity and resources

Public services capacity was damaged by steep cuts to almost every part of the public sector.

In 2020 when the pandemic hit, spending per capita was still lower than in 2010 in social care, transport, housing, childcare, schools, higher education, police, fire services, and environmental protection.

This limited the ability of public services to contribute effectively to civil contingencies, and to continue essential activities effectively such children’s education.

  • Between 2010 and 2020, school funding per pupil was cut by 8.3% in England, 6.4% in Wales, 2.4% in Scotland and 10.5% in Northern Ireland.
  • Local authority core spending power was cut by a third between 2010 and 2020. Over the same period, demographic changes increased pressures – for instance, leading to higher referrals and more complex cases in both adult and children’s social care.  And new statutory duties in public health, social care and homelessness have stretched budgets further.
  • In 2019, capital investment in the UK health sector was 10% below 2010 levels. This forced NHS providers to close hospitals and delay equipment upgrades.

A strong safety net through the social security system

The social security safety net was damaged by direct cuts through benefit freezes, and by reforms that reduced entitlement to help and narrowed eligibility to fewer people.

Most of these benefits cuts were made in the period 2010 to 2016 when David Cameron was Prime Minister and George Osborne was Chancellor – both of whom are set to give evidence at the Covid inquiry.

The benefit cuts increased poverty levels. Living in poverty was associated with greater risks of exposure to Covid-19, and greater levels of vulnerability to more serious health consequences from being ill with Covid.

  • Since 2010, £14 billion has been cut from support to households through social security.
  • A family not in work has lost on average £1,160 a year in social security support since 2010, and a family in work has lost on average £460.
  • Disabled people have lost on average £1,200 of annual support, comparing 2021 with 2010.

Robust health and safety protections at work

The pandemic had a particular impact on workplaces – especially for key workers and those who could not work from home. But the enforcement of rules to keep workers safe at work was compromised by cuts that decimated public health and workplace safety regulators, and by confusion about who had responsibility to enforce the rules.

During the pandemic, when workplace risks multiplied, workplace inspections and enforcement notices fell to an all-time low, despite vast numbers of workplace-linked transmission caused by poor health and safety practice.

  • Funding for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE – the body responsible for workplace safety) in 2021/22 was 43% lower than in 2009/10 in real terms.
  • Staff numbers at the HSE have been cut by 35% since 2010.
  • The number of workplaces investigated by a safety inspector fell by 70% from 2010 to 2020.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “To learn lessons and save future lives, we must take an unflinching look at the choices made by our leaders in the years before the pandemic.

“In the NHS and social care, funding cuts put staff levels in the danger zone. Cuts to social security pushed many more people below the poverty line, leaving them more vulnerable to infection. And cuts to health and safety left workers exposed to rogue employers who cut corners and put their lives at risk.

“Austerity cost the nation dearly. It left us hugely unprepared for the pandemic. And it left far too many workers unprotected. The consequences were painful and tragic.

“The inquiry is our chance to learn the lessons – and to understand why we have to rebuild our public services so that they are strong enough to protect us in a future crisis.”

TUC_Austerityandthepandemic_June23Download

Tough decisions: Scottish Government publishes financial strategy

Plan to grow economy, target spending and deliver progressive tax system

Economic growth, progressive taxation and spending plans that unapologetically target those in greatest need are at the heart of a financial strategy announced by Deputy First Minister Shona Robison.

The Medium-Term Financial Strategy outlines the approach to ensuring Scotland’s finances are on a sustainable footing and delivering high-quality public services in the face of high inflation. This includes:

  • growing the economy, including by delivering on ambitious commitments on childcare, seizing opportunities in areas where Scotland has a competitive advantage and supporting entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups
  • taking tough decisions around spending, focusing on what is needed to achieve the missions of equality, opportunity and community
  • updating the tax strategy, with a new advisory group to be established this summer and chaired by the Deputy First Minister

The strategy details the tough choices required in challenging financial circumstances. Scottish Government estimates indicate that due to inflation, pay increases and the lack of further funding from the UK Government, current resource spending requirements could exceed funding by £1 billion in the next financial year, and by £1.9 billion in 2027-28.

The gap between capital spending commitments and funding could rise to 16% in 2025-26.

Ms Robison said: “We are steadfast in our commitment to tackling poverty, building a fair, green and growing economy, and improving our public services to make them fit for the needs of future generations.

“But we must recognise that our current financial situation is among the most challenging since devolution, driven by the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the recent period of high inflation.

“Our funding remains largely based on decisions made by the UK Government, but they have failed to take the steps required to inflation-proof our budgets, and their decisions from Brexit to the disastrous mini-budget have made matters worse. This is creating substantial pressure on our public services, which we have no choice but to address.

“Today I have outlined our strategy for managing these challenges, doing all we can within our powers to ensure public finances are on a sustainable path. We will have a laser-like focus on spending, ensuring it targets equality, opportunity and community.

“We will generate economic growth, supporting businesses to invest and create new jobs while increasing tax revenues to invest in better public services. And we will continue to build the most progressive tax system in the UK, ensuring the burden of taxation is placed on those with the broadest shoulders.

“There can be no escaping the difficult choices ahead, but by following the plan outlined today we can provide a more prosperous and fairer future for the people of Scotland.”

Responding to the statement, STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “The Cabinet Secretary for Finance is in a slightly better budgetary position than was predicted this time last year. However, she rightly points out that UK Government austerity and its manufactured cost-of-living crisis continue to hit Scotland hard.

“However, this is not an excuse for inaction. There is a worrying lack of ambition from the government ministers which cannot be condoned.

“Tax reform cannot be kicked down the road for another year. To protect services and pay, the Scottish Government must make good on the First Minister’s pledge to leave no stone unturned in seeking to raise additional income by rebalancing wealth. This means committing now to the policy changes required to introduce wealth and property taxes as the STUC has advocated.”

The Deputy First Minister’s statement to the Scottish Parliament

Letters: Austerity – Never Again!

Dear Editor

When the banks crashed through mismanagement and greed most were bailed out by the government, using public money to do so.

People were told that everyone was ‘in it together’.

But as we know from thise years, the government embarked onn what they called Austerity, in whih wages were frozen for years; prices were rising; major cuts were made in services of all kinds;unemployment and zero hours contracts grew.

The years of tremendous sacrifices made by the people in their lives have now been forgotten by employers and government alike.

In fact there is an indication that both of these are preparing the repeat of austerity, more severe than the last – and that will last much longer.

The people must not allow this to happen again!

The investors and financial institutions are intent to make everyone pay and once again decimate the lives of all people.

Tony Delahoy

 

What a waste: Holyrood spends £100 million to mitigate Tory welfare cuts

This year more than £100 million has been spent to mitigate the effects of UK Government austerity and this money could have been better spent on more anti-poverty measures, Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said. Continue reading What a waste: Holyrood spends £100 million to mitigate Tory welfare cuts

New TUC report reveals the damage from a decade of austerity

  • Every developed nation that cut public spending since the financial crisis has experienced slower GDP growth
  • Wage growth has halved across OECD nations since the financial crisis

Every developed nation that cut government spending since the financial crisis has experienced slower GDP growth, according to a new TUC report.

The report looks at the impact of austerity across the OECD. It finds that the rate of GDP growth reduced in all 32 countries where government spending was cut

The only OECD countries with higher GDP growth are Germany and Japan, which both increased government spending after the crash.

Living standards

The report also reveals the devastating impact of austerity on living standards.

Wage growth has halved across OECD nations since the crash, with annual real pay growth averaging less than 1% for two-thirds of countries.

UK workers have been among the worst affected. Only Lithuania, Estonia, Greece and Latvia have experienced a greater reduction in real wage growth than Britain since the financial crisis.

Over this period the number of people in working households living in poverty in Britain has increased from 5 million to 8 million.

Commenting on the report, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady  said:  “Austerity was always a political choice. It’s now clear how much harm it caused, holding down economic growth and living standards.

“We can’t afford to make the same mistake again. If there’s another crisis, the government’s response must be to focus on public investment to make our economy stronger.

“But we shouldn’t wait for the worst to happen. The best way to deal with a recession is to prevent it. There are already warning signs, so the government should act now by boosting public sector pay and spending on public services.”

Recommendations from the report:

  • An independent review of how the Office for Budget Responsibility and Bank of England judge the impact of government spending on the economy.
  • Urgent fiscal support for aggregate demand through public sector pay increases and spending on services.
  • Fast-track increases to UK public infrastructure spending to least the OECD average of 3.5% GDP.
  • Increased expenditure should initially be financed by borrowing rather than increased taxation. This will strengthen the economy, leading to higher revenues that can support spending increases longer term.
  • Fiscal policy should be part of a wider plan to deliver sustainable growth across the UK, including investment in the public services families rely on, the skills workers need for the future, a just transition to net zero carbon emissions, and giving workers a real voice at work.

Crisis? What crisis?: More than 336,000 households aided through Scottish Welfare Fund

Scottish Welfare Fund annual spend hits £35 million.

poverty family JRF

People in crisis made more than 165,000 successful applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund in the last financial year, according to the latest statistics.

The Fund paid out £35 million, including £10.4 million in Crisis Grants to people in financial emergency, such as those struggling on low incomes or benefits  – a 14% increase on 2017-18. The money helped people with essentials such as food, heating costs and household items.

A further £24.8 million in Community Care Grants helped those facing extreme financial pressures with one-off costs for purchases including beds, washing machines and cookers.

The Scottish Welfare Fund is part of an annual package of over £125 million to mitigate against the impact of UK Government welfare cuts. Since its launch in April 2013, the Fund has paid out more than £200 million to support over 336,000 households, with a third of recipients being families with children.

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “We would much rather these resources were invested in anti-poverty measures than protecting our people from another government’s cuts – a positon the UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty recently described as ‘outrageous and unsustainable’.

“The fact that so many households in Scotland are in need of emergency financial help is appalling, and a sad indictment of the UK Government’s record on austerity and welfare changes.

“As their welfare cuts continue to cause harm and damage, we continue to do our best to mitigate against them and provide financial support to low income families and carers through new social security benefits.”

In the UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty report published earlier this year, Professor Philip Alston praised Scotland’s “ambitious” schemes for addressing poverty, including the Fairer Scotland Action Plan and the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

He also noted Scotland’s “promising social security system, guided by the principles of dignity and social security as a human right, and co-designed with claimants on the basis of evidence”

The Scottish Government’s response to the Special Rapporteur’s report shows UK Government welfare cuts have increased the risk of deprivation for low-income families across Scotland

The Scottish Welfare Fund statistics

 can be found on the Scottish Government’s website

UK Government ideology responsible for systemic poverty, says UN expert

Damning indictment of Tory policies

The UK Government’s policies have led to the ‘systematic immiseration of millions across Great Britain’, the UN’s expert on poverty and human rights said in a report released on Wednesday. UN Rapporteur Philip Alston has called for a new vision that embodies compassion to end the unnecessary hardship.   Continue reading UK Government ideology responsible for systemic poverty, says UN expert

Austerity: Council spending has fallen by half since 2010

  • People living in cities shouldered the equivalent of £386 worth of cuts per head since 2009/10, compared to £172 per person elsewhere
  • Liverpool and Barnsley worst hit by cuts to local government budgets
  • 50% of cities spend more than half their budget on social care
  • The Spending Review must mark the end of local government austerity

Cities have borne nearly three-quarters (74%) of all real-terms local government funding cuts in the last decade despite being home to just 54% of the population, according to Centre for Cities’ annual Cities Outlook 2019 report – the Centre’s annual health check on UK city economies. Continue reading Austerity: Council spending has fallen by half since 2010