Stephen Kinnock MP Speech – 'Re:Imagining Health' conference
Research Manager and Head of Health
Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister for Care, kindly joined us at our inaugural ‘Re:Imagining Health’ conference yesterday where the room was brimming with interesting ideas about how to actually achieve the shift towards prevention. The minister shared some interesting provocations, just as the stopwatch for the Ten Year Plan starts to pick up.
- Local government is having its moment
The first major theme in the speech (as well as a common feature of the other panels) was the emphasis on devolution, and its fundamental role in the long-term sustainability of the health system. We need to let the system have the creativity to deliver initiatives that work for them. Consequently, this should involve reflecting on the role of the centre and how to ensure approaches can be varied but performance consistent. This may require walking a tight rope of performance indicators but leaving it up to the system to deliver them.
- Who looks after what?
As we see the resurgence of the foundation trust model, the question of accountability also rears its head. Indeed a theme from the other panels was that accountability is still too ambiguous which means that it’s everyone’s and no one’s responsibility to do all of the crucial preventative work that often falls through the cracks. Everything from the interface with local authorities and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to the funding model of primary care, it’s clear that better identifying accountability for different tasks in the health system could be high on the agenda.
- Time to “rip up the rulebook”
One theme that is consistently clear from all Government communication is that they refuse to accept the status quo that treats the NHS as a “secular religion with tablets of stone”, that the NHS has succumbed to constantly “system firefighting rather than fireproofing”, and is stuck in a “cycle of crisis management”. Nothing is off limits in the Ten Year Plan and they are ready to rip up the rulebook as a result. All eyes on Thursday now…