Blogminster » David Kidney (Lab)

'Standards of care in hospitals' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:46:43 +0000

I was interested in the recent Radio 4 edition of More or Less which looked at the use of statistics in assessing the performance of hospitals. Inevitably Mid Staffordshire came up, particularly the question of the accuracy of the newspaper reporting that said 400 or more patients died due to poor standards of care.
Many people, including many journalists, thought that the figures came from the report of the Healthcare Commission, but they didn’t. The report was damning about some standards in some parts of the hospital at some times. But it didn’t make any claim that sub-standard care resulted in a particular number of deaths.
This claim was made in a newspaper headline shortly before the report was published.
As More or Less explained, the figures used came about by projecting a death rate from a statistic produced by the private business Dr. Foster. Dr. Foster produces “standardised mortality ratios” to enable the comparison of rates of death of patients in different hospitals after adjustments for variables such as …

'World of work' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:25:57 +0000

When I was not re-elected to parliament on 6 May 2010, there was one consolation. I really did have more time to spend with my family. After thirteen years of living most weeks away from my wife Elaine, I had, truly, great pleasure in being at home with Elaine. She was still out at work every day, getting home quite late. I was glad to be able to cook meals which were ready for eating as soon as she came in through the front door.
Of course I had to search for a new job and I set to with a will. I had helped enough constituents who found themselves jobless in their 50′s to know that it was going to be tough. I was willing to be flexible as to the kind of work I was willing to do. But being honest with myself, I really wanted a job to do with the environment and sustainable development.
I found there were few jobs advertised that fitted with my passion …

'We are going to need lots more green skills' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:10:52 +0000

Taking part yesterday evening in a debate on our country’s skills needs for a low carbon future, I drew two conclusions.
The first is that we need to make the intellectual case for equpping our workforce with skills for jobs which in many cases do not yet exist. Traditionally, employers look for business opportunities and when they see a market for their goods and services they skill up for that trade. Yet if we wait for the markets to open up for low carbon goods and services we will find that progress will be hampered by skills shortages. When these markets open up, they will be global – that’s global in the opportunities for business and global in exposure to competition.
So for once, we need to skill up in advance of being able to see the markets. The obvious challenge is therefore to convince employers, and convince students and workers who will invest time and money is gaining qualifications, that these markets will then be present by the time …

'Affordable housing – the co-operative way' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:57:52 +0000

Stafford has a small but enthusiastic housing co-operative. I’m a member and supportive but not as active as I should be. Others, like Lisa and Tony Pearce, are doing the heavy lifting. And it’s getting us somewhere. Staffordshire County Council owns blighted properties in Castletown. They are blighted because of a highway protected route once published by the same County Council. The properties, potentially good homes, are long-term empty as a result. Our co-op has a plan to buy them, make them habitable once more, and rent them out. Finance for the purchase has been negotiated. We just need the Council to abandon the protected route (for a road that is never going to be built on that line) and sell the homes to the co-op.

This is a great example of a small number of committed people making a difference by taking the initative. There is a role for this kind of work, especially when it comes to bringing empty homes back into use.

We do, however, need national …

'Too many cuts will crash the economy' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:28:32 +0000

To be clear, the worst global recession in my lifetime required extraordinary responses from governments and peoples all around the world. In part this meant spending more money nationally despite falling revenues and so of course borrowing went up. In each case where a national government could afford a “fiscal stimulus” this is what was done.
In the UK, additional public spending brought work into a seriously depressed construction industry. It steadied a teetering car industry thanks to the scrappage scheme. And jobs were found for young people through the Future Jobs Fund. And the result? Lower unemployment than in the recession of the 1990′s even though the challenges in the 1990s were less severe. Similarly, home repossessions this time were at half the rate of the 1990s. This time, what we did was civilised, humane and affordable.
Governments that took part – and no government argued against the strategy – expected to have to make serious efforts to repay this extra borrowing afterwards. Most judged that a combination of …

'We need a renewable heat incentive' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:20:14 +0000

As a Minister I was proud to have been involved in the design and launch of the UK’s “Feed in Tariffs”, rewarding small-scale generators for electricity they produce by their own efforts. The scheme only went live in April and already sales of solar panels are up and the Solar PV market is growing fast. This means rising investment in the technology and new green jobs – as well as helping householders, small businesses and community groups cut their carbon footprints and cut their energy costs. I’m sure other technologies that help us cut carbon emissions will also benefit.

We also designed a “Renewable Heat Incentive” and announced we would introduce this in April 2011. Heat is the biggest use of energy in the UK, responsible for almost half of UK emissions. We definitely need a strong and vibrant renewable heat industry especially when you consider that today only 1% of the UK’s heat energy comes from renewable sources.

The legislation for Tariffs for renewable heat was established with strong …

'Is the West Midlands a region?' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:45:36 +0000

I’m not a flag-waver for Advantage West Midlands, the Regional Development Agency spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money in an effort to improve the region’s economy. However, I do think that we, the residents of the various local government areas within the West Midlands, should all give some thought to the consequences of the coalition government’s intention to abolish Regional Development Agencies.

An immediate aspect of abolition is the accountability and transparency of the public spending that will either be transferred to other bodies in the region or completely withdrawn. Presumably some withdrawal of funding is inevitable given the government’s stated plans for cutting the deficit in the public accounts more quickly than the previous government. But in his emergency budget the Chancellor did say that the existing capital programme will not be cut. So it’s important that we see that the region retains its fair share of capital spending overall and that we see the full consequences for the component parts of our region of the withdrawal of revenue spending. …

'UK Youth Parliament' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:01:59 +0000

Last night the House of Commons finally voted to allow the UK Youth Parliament to debate in the Chamber when it meets for its annual session later this year. There was fierce opposition from a small number of MPs who felt that our tradition made this step unacceptable.

I didn’t speak in last night’s debate (I was chairing a meeting about the effects of the recession on rural economies at the time) but I had spoken briefly on this subject last Thursday. For me the decision to allow the hallowed Chamber to be used by today’s elected Members of the UK Youth Parliament is a welcome development in the promotion of citizenship teaching and citizenship awareness raising.

I was active in the campaign to make citizenship a curriculum subject in its own right, a campaign ably led by the late Bernard Crick. A campaign which was successful when, in 2001, citizenship became a compulsory curriculum for secondary schools and optional for primary schools.

I was also active on the House …

'Responding to Baby P’s death' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:43:06 +0000

Lord Laming’s report will be published tomorrow. It’s important to acknolweldge that society’s protection for a vulnerable child was once again found wanting when Baby P was wickedly killed. It’s also important we build upwards from this recognition and design systems for safeguarding children that are more effective in future.

I’m leading a group to see Secretary of State Ed Balls next week to offer some suggestions. I am doing this in my capacity as the MP who chairs the Associate Parliamentary Group for Looked after Children and Care leavers. The huge membership of this Group, which includes adults with past care experience and children and young people currently in care, thinks we have something to offer to the design of better safeguarding services.

We’re going to focus especially on three issues.

First, the crucial need for a stable and successful social care workforce. All that is being said now about training, support, skills mix and status matches precisely the views that have been expressed in the Associate Parliamentary Group. …

'Best laid plans' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:21:03 +0000

This is a story about me away from my job as a Member of Parliament. Well, almost anyway. As you will see, an MP can be on duty at any time.

My story begins last Christmas when my Westminster Secretary bought me and my wife Elaine a present of two tickets for a performance of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall. Neither of us has ever been to the Royal Albert Hall and we have never before seen an opera, so we were thrilled. And although we haven’t been to an opera before, we both like Bizet’s music for Carmen and we have it on a CD at home.

We fixed a date of Friday 27 February to see Carmen and we decided to make a weekend of our being in London, which is an extremely rare treat for us.

But then I received an invitation to the home-coming parade in Stafford town centre of the 22 Signals Regiment after their tour of duty in Afghanistan. The date was Saturday 28 February.…

'Whose data is it anyway?' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:14:20 +0000

There has rightly been concern about a proposition in the Government’s Bill on Coroners and Justice about making it easier for organisations to share data. Some of the criticism of the Government for bringing forward this proposal has been unfair, given that the idea for it came first from the Information Commissioner, who is after all our independent guardian of our data protection rights.

Any followers of my blog will know that I am serving on the Committee scrutinising this Government Bill and yesterday we debated this data sharing proposal. I’m really pleased to report that the Minister, Bridget Prentice MP, quite openly accepted that the data sharing arrangements have been too widely drawn – and she plans to re-write the offending Clause.

In as much as this is a victory, it is common sense that is the winner. The idea that there are some illogical and unnecessary barriers to legitimate data sharing came from the Information Commissioner himself. He thinks it is reasonable to remove such barriers. I’m prepared …

'Not so secret inquests after all' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:54:23 +0000

The Public Bill Committee I am serving on is scrutinising the Government’s Coroners & Justice Bill. This includes the Government’s proposal for some “sensitive” inquests to be heard by a High Court Judge without a jury. I must admit, the proposition sounds alarming and a potential threat to our usual democratic openness. Indeed, I saw an article by Henry Porter saying just this.

So it was with some relief that when I studied what was being proposed, and why, I realised that actually this proposal relates to something that would in reality be extremely rare – and extremely serious. Mind you, I take the view that our freedoms are inviolate and non-divisible and I perfectly well understand arguments about the thin end of the wedge, policy creep and incremental loss of liberties.

I also formed the view, when I had studied the Government’s proposal (it is Clause 11 of the Bill) that whether by design or by accident the Government has pushed the boat out too far. It claims too …

'House building' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:35:56 +0000

Returning to my theme of helping people through the recession, I had talks yesterday with Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett (separately) about how we can get house building going again.

I raised the subject following two separate meetings with developers in Stafford who cannot get the finance they need to allow them to start their next projects.

Gordon recognises the problem and showed me that Ministers are willing to “think outside the box” to try to help. He explained that the new Homes & Communities Agency is permitted to buy land from developers if this will help the developer to raise money for the intended project. The Agency may then be a partner with the developer in the project.

Margaret equally said that she is willing to look at specific projects to see what can be done to help them go ahead. I’ve promised to send her details of the schemes that the developers in Stafford told me about.

Of course it’s one thing for the politicians at the top …

'when a global economic downturn gets personal' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:20:30 +0000

It’s one thing understanding what is happening to the world as banks and other financial institutions self implode, businesses run out of money and people lose their jobs. But when it’s your redundancy notice, the world is altogether a sadder, more worrying place.

As an MP, I’m meeting many people whose jobs and businesses are uncertain. I know that people yearn for some signs of an end to the present difficulties. But there’s no point politicians talking about “green shoots” of recovery before they appear. The responsible thing to do right now is to give help wherever and however we can.

That’s why Governments around the world have had to save banks from collapse, try to stimulate their domestic economies and consider ways of seeing vaulable businesses and jobs through exceptionally lean trading times.

We have had to act. If we hadn’t have taken real action the recession would be deeper and longer. But it has to be action with compassion and with understanding of what people are going through.…

'Young people rule!' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:02:23 +0000

Last Saturday I was at the results event for Staffordshire’s elections of four YMPs and four Deputies. You can check out the story on my website www.davidkidney.com

What was so exciting about the event was the immense commitment from the candidates (a larger field than in any past year) their supporters and families. The room was buzzing in the run-up to the declaration of the results. I learned that over 13,000 youngsters voted, again the largest number ever.

The retiring YMPs gave presentations about their work in the past 12 months. There were campaigns against bullying and University tuition fees, campaigns for better transport and things for young people to do. There were great experiences like the UKYP debates in the House of Lords Chamber and the YMP who went to USA and heard Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democrats Convention.

They reminded us all that Staffordshire has other outlets for young people who want to start early getting involved in working for their communities. There’s a County-wide …

'Feed the world!' -- David Kidney (Lab)

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:21:23 +0000

Every year as Stafford’s MP I meet the local branch of NFU farmers. On Monday we had this year’s meeting and I tried out on them my argument that we are running into an era where food security will be as significant as energy security.

I wanted to enthuse them and persuade them that their businesses may be about to take a major turn for the better.

I suppose they have seen enough false dawns in their time to get too enthusiastic, and they certainly took their time to chew over my words (they also chewed my ears on other subjects dear to them such as tackling bovine TB more effectively!).

Anyhow, we can all see that the global population is on the up and there are predictions that there will be 3 billion more mouths to feed by the middle of this century. That’s 9 billion humans rather than today’s 6 billion plus.

It’s not as though we shall have half as much agricultural land again as we have …