PPlog

Well Andy. One of the routes this kind of discrepancy comes to light is via trade union representation. And one of the actions the union can take, always with the permission of the employee represented - never without, when a particular case has been resolved is to flag up the problem with the concerned bodies. I would say the union in that instance has a duty to report the problem to the commissioning body, whether the union would agree with that point of view is something I'm currently pursuing. The other obvious course is via employees who are brave enough and have enough conscience to make their own concerns known (whistleblowing). All of these private commissioned companies should have a clear whistleblowing policy. But the difficulties here is employees' lack of knowledge about how they can be protected, and the law, The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, has too many getouts for employers. In the early 1990s I worked (amongst others), alongside Karen Jennings, now the ...

From the DRC website. And while we're on: Congratulations on a good job done so far. Sorry to lose you on the 28th. Hope the Commission for Equality and Human Rights can do as well. Q: How does this (the Disability Equality Duty) affect procurement commissioning and contracting? A: If the contractor is itself performing a public function, standing in the shoes of a statutory body, then it will constitute a public authority and be subject to the general duty in respect of the public functions which it carries out. If the contractor is not itself performing a public function but merely providing services on behalf of the public authority, the obligations to comply with the duty remains with the public authority that contracts out the function. This means that the contracting public authority, and in particular those procuring or commissioning a service, need to build relevant disability considerations into that process to ensure that the authority is meeting the duty even when the se...

My letter, lightly edited, is published in Guardian Society today. What I'd like to do on this score to take it forward, is to have some meetings with the procurement sections of our local authorities, PCTs and other relevant public authorities - preferably in tandem with, or via of my trade union, but if that's not on the cards, on my own initiative. Those meetings will aim to discuss this proposition: Public authorities who commission private/independent organisations to carry out public functions, where those private/independent organisations do not observe the Disability Equality Duty, are in breach of their own Disability Equality Schemes and should be prosecuted.

Message to the Government: This is how the shape of consultation should be drawn. I received this response from the James Paget Hospital University NHS Trust today (see "Local Doings" below): Good morning Mike. Thank you for the link to your blogg and for the critical eye, all comments are useful. The requirement to make reasonable adjustments for employees is provided for within our managing absence policy and within our recruitment and selection policy which are both comprehensive policies that have been agreed between ourselves and our negotiating bodies. These are already in existence and I believe well established which is why we have made only broad reference to employment policies within our DES. I can confirm that we do require all sub contractors to abide by our current polices when working on our site. Regards Liz Cooke Deputy Director of HR Thank you Liz, that's excellent. The only reservation is the "when working on our site" bit. Some of my main c...

In an interesting exercise which looks like more empty propaganda (and I'm foolishly optimistic enough to hope it isn't), the Government have set up a website inviting comments from the great washed public. click on the title of this pplog to get there. Today, I wrote: In 2002, as part of the consultations for removing Community Health Councils in England and putting Patient and Public Involvement Forums in their place, the DoH commissioned a consultation report by the Patient's Forum. That report (by Christine Hogg and Lindsey Graham - still available at http://www.thepatientsforum.org.uk/PPIPscopingstudyfinalreport1.asp), involving a host of patients' organisations, was vitually ignored. The Government then established in 2003 the Quango, the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health. CPPIH went on to do its own thing totally ignoring 30 years' knowledge, expertise and experience of service user organisations. That is chronicled on www.ppeyes.org.uk ...

See Andy's comment on local doings. Thanks for the comment Andy - good harmony. The problem with the DRC is there is no simple, obvious way to report breaches to them. But yes I think every occurrence of this kind should be logged with the regulating body. One item of seemingly slight importance (don't believe it - every breach is important, usually leading to more serious anomalies if let go) might not shake the universe but an accumulation of them would be at least as good as a long petition. I'd like to see a national friendly whistleblowing database - easily accessed. And maybe if we grab the opportunity (you, I and others interested) and lobby the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (go to http://www.cehr.org.uk) we might persuade them to set this up?

Received this afternoon: Dear Mr Cox FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST I refer to your request for information dated September 10th 2007. . In accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I have now processed your request and I can supply the following information to answer your 2 questions: 1) The Norfolk County Council named contact for LINks is Ian Lambert, Head of Democratic Services, telephone 01603 222620, email ian.lambert@norfolk.gov.uk The DoH have been notified of this information. In Norfolk we wanted to wait to receive the draft specification before we started to develop LINks. Work is now underway to appoint a project officer and organise a reference group of key stakeholders to determine what we need to procure, and how to arrange things so that there is no disruption to patient representation. We will be inviting PPI Forum Chairs to be part of the group and plan to organise a conference in the early Autumn with ...

The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust held its first AGM on Monday evening. Justifiably, the Trust's many achievements were proudly reported to those present. BUT. Sadly, almost despairingly, those present, maybe 50-70 people, were, overwhelmingly, professionals, clinicians and administrators. Service Users (their term Patients) were in a minority of, as far as I could see, under 5%. Class and status rules! The suits well to the fore (and yes, well could be a verb too and I'm not apologising for the golf pun)! As I said, the Trust's achievements are undeniable, and applause for those - but the whole concept of foundation status is to enhance the Trust's democratic operation - how many members has it? Their document says The membership as at 31st March 2007 is 9,759 Public Constituency and 3,367 Staff Constituency giving a total membership of 13,126 I don't really have to say any more. But I will. Communication with its Public constituency, cert...

My letter to the Guardian today (it won't get published but at least it gets an airing here and CSCI should take note of it). Hello. Your Society front page feature underlined (yet again, sadly and scandalously, with little notice being taken) the sagging standards in residential care and nursing homes. Anomalies which, as a retired member, some union representation allows me to witness first hand. The other side of this is the way some private and some charitable companies rise roughshod over employees rights - not only in the context of employment law but, more craftily, in terms of breaching legislation which, like the Human Rights Act, the statutory organisations have to observe. Legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Acts and the Race Relations Act and their adjuncts which all statutory authorities now have to publish and abide by: the Disability Equality Duty and the Race Equality Duty. While we (service user organisations) are gradually establishing that private a...

That’s excellent Mr Brown and a most welcome priority. We are committed to promoting equality of access and equity in the provision of healthcare....and to improving the . The cross cutting report “Tackling Health Inequalities: A programme for Action (July 2003) has already identified the actions that are needed to improve the health of the poorest communities, and a comprehensive programme for public health is outlined in Derek Wanless’s (sic) report “Securing Good Health for the Whole Population (February 2004). And so we continue.......: Inequalities in healthcare mirror wider injustices in society, but we could and should be doing much more as a Department to tackle them. We must ensure that tackling health inequalities is fully integrated into NHS commissioning and the operational framework. R.H. Tawney wrote that promoting equality is not about some “romantic illusion that men are equal in character and intelligence” : rather, it is about eliminating the inequalities which have t...

Your Norfolk, the glossy September issue of the "County Council's magazine for all residents" dropped through my letterbox this morning. Its foreword is by Daniel Cox, the Leader of Norfolk County Council. Now I know, after years of experience in these matters, I shouldn't expect accuracy from County Council nabobs but this is pure ignorance of very important probable changes in legislation. Talking about The failed Norwich City Council application for unitary status he says: However, when the Local Government and Improvement in Health Bill (my italics) becomes an Act.... There is no such Bill - what he is obviously referring to, because he is talking about potential local authority boundary changes, is the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill. What is more important than the Leader of the County Council getting his facts wrong about which Bills are in Parliament is that in his mindset, he has ignored the really important Part 14 of the Bill, which ...

Here in rural south and south east Norfolk we’re in the throes of the Safer Neighbourhoods police initiative being set up. Yesterday evening (05.09.07.) I went to the first announced SNAP (Safer Neighbourhoods Action Panel?) public meeting which turned out to be intended to introduce the panel and the scheme and to consult those present on what the panel’s local priorities should be. The first thing that has to be said is that the meeting was very well attended but unfortunately, badly organised and a veritable shambles. Most importantly, from my point of view as Chair of the Norfolk Constabulary/Police Authority Disability Equality Duty Forum, it was in breach of the Disability Equality Schemes of all three agencies involved (the police, Norfolk County Council and South Norfolk Council) and as such, discriminatory (For example there was no provision for people with sensory deficits and the venue was unsafe for wheelchair users even if they were able to get in). I did point this out a...

Hello Mandy. That's a very welcome comment on User Uninvolvement and I think your suggestions at the end are excellent. And like an ancient grandfather clock, my pendulum still ponderously ticks between mad and non-mad, sometimes making an unexpected stop in the middle where time has no sense anyway. But, I don't know if you've already come across it (should I rephrase that?) - the PCX (shorthand for Patient Citizen Exchange) website (to get it, click on the title of this blog) is a chance for those suggestions of yours to contribute to the suits absorbing a little sense. PCX's parent is the NHS Centre for Involvement - the name now for the 'Centre for Excellence/PPI Resource Centre' which emerged gradually out of the fog of the John Reid arms length body review a couple of years ago and the idea of which was taken on board by the PPI Expert Panel whose recommendations the fragrant Patricia enshrined in prospective law. PCX is currently touting a questionnaire ...