In first breakthrough of long-running dispute, nurses to begin ‘intensive talks’ with govt today
Nurses have paused strike action as they begin pay talks with the government – despite a recommendation that most public sector staff should get a pay rise of just 3.5%.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is getting around the table with the health secretary today to start “intensive talks” on pay and conditions.
It is the first breakthrough in a long-running dispute that saw their first-ever strike in December, plus further walkouts in January and February.
They were offered the talks yesterday afternoon and said they would pause plans for a 48-hour strike in England from 1 to 3 March, which was to involve emergency, intensive care and cancer staff for the first time.
RCN head Pat Cullen said she is “confident that we will come out with a fair pay settlement for our nursing staff”.
The union initially wanted an above-inflation pay rise of 19.2% following years of real-term pay cuts but said it would meet the government “halfway” at 10%.
Unison, which also represents nurses, criticised the government for only offering meetings with the RCN as it called for pay talks with all health unions.
British Medical Association (BMA) members who are junior doctors – all doctors below consultant level – also announced on Monday they had voted overwhelmingly in favour of striking for 72 hours, forcing most pre-planned care to be cancelled on dates yet to be announced.
The Department for Education also offered talks with teaching unions on Monday but they have not revealed if those have been accepted yet.
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Nurses’ union ‘confident’ of agreeing deal
3.5% pay rise across various sectors
Moments after the government and the RCN agreed to talks, the government published its recommendation for a 3.5% pay rise for NHS staff, police officers, teachers, judges and prison staff for the next financial year.
The government said a 3.5% pay rise would be “affordable” – but unions are calling for much higher increases for this year before negotiations even begin for 2023/24.
In the Department for Health and Social Care’s evidence to the pay review body, which recommends how much public sector staff should be paid, it said anything above 3.5% “would require trade offs for public service deliver or further government borrowing”.
Rachel Harrison, national secretary for the GMB union that represents ambulance workers and other NHS staff, called the offer “a disgrace” and said it “will do nothing to end GMB’s NHS and ambulance strikes”.
Unison’s head of health, Sara Gorton, said the government “couldn’t have done better than this” if it was actively trying to worsen the NHS crisis and warned it “could prove the final straw” for staff questioning whether to leave the NHS.
Tuesday also saw Welsh Ambulance workers who are members of Unite setting out two further days of strike action on 6 and 10 March – on top of the current three-day strike that ends today.
As health is a devolved issue, their fight is with the Welsh Labour government.
Read more:
NHS crisis: Why are so many staff leaving the health service?
Who is striking and when?
The GMB union said the 3.5% pay offer was a ‘disgrace’
Police
The 3.5% pay recommendation from the Home Office for police pointed to forces having “previously indicated that a pay award above 2% for 2023/24 may be affordable”.
The document said the department was carrying on discussions with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.
But it added: “Considering the additional funding available from the police funding settlement for 2023/24, and forces seeking to maximise efficiencies, our current assessment is that there is scope for forces to budget up to a 3.5% pay award within the existing settlement.”
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Teacher strike would be ‘regrettable’
Teachers
The Department for Education’s recommendation for a 3.5% pay rise for teachers also included 3% awards for experienced teachers and raising starting salaries to £30,000.
It said that “will be manageable within schools’ budgets next year, on average, following the additional funding provided at autumn statement”.
But ministers also said there could be more available for teachers if energy costs came down, allowing them “more headroom”.
The National Education Union (NEU) joint secretary, Kevin Courtney, said he was “pleased” the government is offering formal talks and he hopes it means they are willing to talk about pay after previous talks this year have failed to result in an offer.
But he said their offer of talks “still contains no suggestion that they are willing to talk about pay rises this year”.
There is nothing in the government’s talks offer suggesting the NEU should call off next week’s teacher strikes, the union said.
But, Mr Courtney said there is still time for an offer to be made ahead of its national executive meeting this Saturday.
Judges and prison workers
The Ministry of Justice said all judges should get a 3.5% pay increase next year, which it said would cost £23m.
On its submission for those working in the prison service, it said it would not provide a base figure and instead submitted proposals for wages depending on pay band.
UK
Church ‘needs to be changed’, Archbishop of York to say in Christmas Day sermon after sex scandals
The Church of England needs to “kneel in penitence” and “be changed”, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell is expected to say in his Christmas Day sermon.
It comes at a challenging time for the Church which has faced criticism over how it handled a number of abuse scandals.
Mr Cottrell will next month effectively become the Church’s temporary leader in place of the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Mr Welby announced his resignation in November and will step down on 6 January after a report found prolific serial abuser John Smyth may have been brought to justice had Mr Welby formally reported him to police in 2013.
But Mr Cottrell has himself also faced calls to quit after revelations David Tudor, a priest at the centre of a sexual abuse case, was twice reappointed under him while he was serving as bishop of Chelmsford.
With Mr Welby not giving the 25 December sermon, the focus has moved to what Mr Cottrell will say at York Minster.
He is expected to say the Church must “kneel in penitence and adoration” this Christmas and “be changed”.
He will say about Jesus: “At the centre of the Christmas story is a vulnerable child; a vulnerable child that Herod’s furious wrath will try and destroy, for like every tyrant he cannot abide a rival.
“The Church of England – the Church of England I love and serve – needs to look at this vulnerable child, at this emptying out of power to demonstrate the power of love, for in this vulnerable child we see God.
“If you’re in love, show me. If you have love in your hearts, embody and demonstrate that love by what you do.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Pic: PA
‘Put the needs of others first’
The archbishop will add: “This is what we learn at the manger. Put the needs of others first – those who are cold and hungry and homeless this Christmas.
“Those who are victims of abuse and exploitation. Those who, like the little holy family, have to flee oppression and seek refuge in a foreign land.”
Read more:
Church of England rules ‘not fit for purpose’
Archbishop ‘sorry’ for hurt caused by final speech
With regards to the Tudor case, Mr Cottrell has acknowledged things “could have been handled differently, and regrets that it wasn’t”.
But Tudor’s victims have branded Mr Cottrell’s response to the case “insulting and upsetting”. They have suggested it’s “inevitable” that he resigns or is forced out of his role.
Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley questioned how Mr Cottrell could have any credibility, and Bishop of Gloucester Rachel Treweek declined to publicly back him.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, is giving the sermon at Canterbury Cathedral in place of Mr Welby and will speak of the birth of Jesus as a triumph of “light and hope” over “fear and darkness”.
UK
A&E departments ‘absolutely full to bursting’ with flu blamed for making ‘bad situation even worse’, top medic says
Around half of accident and emergency departments, polled by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), have said they are “full to bursting” this Christmas.
The vice-president of the RCEM, Dr Ian Higginson, told Sky News’ Gareth Barlow on Christmas Eve that the situation for the NHS in the UK is “pretty grim” at the moment.
The group, representing emergency doctors, put a call out to senior managers on Friday night. Dr Higginson said half responded and “all but two of them said that the emergency departments were absolutely full to bursting”.
“Normally just before Christmas, we’d expect a bit of a lull. So I’m afraid things are looking pretty difficult out there for our patients and for our staff,” he added.
Dr Ian Higginson told Sky News A&E departments are ‘absolutely full to bursting’
The NHS has warned that hospitals are under severe pressure because of winter flu cases and a so-called “quad-demic”, combining respiratory infections with norovirus.
Commenting on the challenges facing the NHS, Dr Higginson said: “We simply don’t have enough beds in our hospitals for patients who are admitted as emergencies.
“We don’t have enough staff for those beds and we don’t have any headroom at all. So if something like flu hits as it has done, it makes a bad situation even worse.”
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Hospitals are being flooded by winter flu cases
England ‘about 10,000 beds short’
Dr Higginson added he believes the answer is “strategic solutions and strategic investment”.
He said: “In England alone, we reckon we’re about 10,000 beds short in our hospitals to deal with the predictable, urgent and emergency care… the equivalent of approximately two wards in every hospital.”
Recently the RCEM also attacked the “nonsensical” guidance on how to treat patients in corridors – describing it as “out of touch” and “normalising the dangerous”.
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Dr Higginson said recent pressures mean “we’ve got patients all the way through our corridors because we can’t admit them to hospital when they need to”.
He added: “It may be that their ambulance is outside in car parks because those patients can’t get into our emergency departments.”
And he argued that social care is “in a really difficult place at the moment” – needing investment to prevent older patients from remaining in hospital longer than they need to.
“When they’re ready to leave hospital, they get stuck in hospital, and that contributes to that shortage of beds even more,” he said.
Since its election victory in July, the Labour government has acknowledged the NHS needs investment with the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying it is “broken”.
In October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £22.6bn increase in day-to-day spending on the NHS in her budget.
Commenting on rising pressures within the NHS, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We inherited an NHS that is broken but not beaten, and staff are already working hard to tackle an increase in admissions this winter.”
“For too long, an annual winter crisis has become the norm. We will deliver long-term reforms through our 10-year health plan that will create a health service that will be there for all of us all year round,” he added.
The UK’s oldest man has celebrated his 110th birthday with a special performance from opera singer Alfie Boe at his care home in Derbyshire.
A party was laid on for Donald Rose – who’s now ranked as a ‘supercentenarian’.
Mr Boe joined the bash in Ilkeston by video call and sang happy birthday, adding it was “a pleasure” to perform for him.
Mr Rose, who served in the Second World War with the Queen’s Royal Regiment, said: “Today is the best day I’ve ever had.”
Alfie Boe sang happy birthday via video call
Canal Vue Care Home announced his birthday with a post on Facebook: “Today we’re celebrating a remarkable milestone. Our beloved Donald is turning 110 years young!”
Activity coordinator Naomi Allsop also shared a touching tribute on Facebook: “Happy 110th birthday to my amazing best friend, the UK’s oldest man and a remarkable WWII and D-Day veteran!
“We’ve shared so many incredible experiences together, and there’s still so much more to come!”
“Donald is a lovely character – and a true national treasure,” said the Mayor of Erewash, Councillor Kate Fennelly, who also paid him a visit.
Mr Rose, who was born in 1914 in Westcott, Surrey, also received a card from The King and Queen, which he proudly showed off.
Other performances at the care home included Kate from D-Day Darlings, an all-female singing group who reached the finals of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.
She sang Dame Vera Lynn’s The White Cliffs of Dover and We’ll Meet Again.
Mr Rose, a Second World War veteran, also received a military visit
On 5 December, the war hero was among 200 veterans and their guests to attend a Christmas reception at St James’s Palace, hosted by the Duke of Gloucester.
The event was organised by The Not Forgotten veterans’ charity, which aims to combat isolation and loneliness in the armed forces and those who have served through social activities and holidays.
Mr Rose served as a sniper and Desert Rat in North Africa in the Second World War, according to The Gerontology Research Group, and was part of the liberation of Italy and France.
He earned a number of medals during his service including the Legion D’Honneur – France’s highest honour.
After working various jobs as a labourer, lorry driver and bin man he moved to Derbyshire in 2000 following the death of his wife, and at the age of 106 moved into his care home in Ilkeston.
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On 25 November, following the death of 112-year-old John Tinniswood, he became the oldest known living man in the UK.
The world’s oldest living person is Japan’s 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka.
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