Category Archives: England

Consultants’ strike to put NHS care in England ‘at a standstill’, says top doctor

Posted on by

Sir Stephen Powis says two-day strike over pay will cause most severe impact ever seen in the NHS as result of industrial action

Planned NHS hospital care in England will be “virtually at a standstill” on Thursday and Friday when consultants stage their first strike in a decade, the service’s top doctor said.

Their two-day strike over pay will cause “the most severe impact we have ever seen in the NHS as a result of industrial action”, Prof Sir Stephen Powis said on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Rural bus services hit new low after losing out on post-Covid funding

Posted on by

More than a quarter of routes in English county and rural areas have been lost over 10 years

Endangered rural bus services have dwindled to a new low after losing out on funding after the pandemic, analysis for councils has shown.

More than a quarter of routes in county and rural areas of England have been lost in the past decade, with passenger numbers falling sharply.

Continue reading...

Sunak to force English universities to cap numbers of students on ‘low-value’ degrees

Posted on by

Exclusive: Move penalises courses with a high proportion of working-class or minority ethnic students, critics say

Rishi Sunak will force universities to limit the number of students taking “low-value” degrees in England, a measure which is most likely to hit working class and black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants.

Courses will be capped that do not have a high proportion of graduates getting a professional job, going into postgraduate study or starting a business, the prime minister will announce on Monday.

Continue reading...

‘Hugely exciting and rare’: Neolithic polishing stone found in Dorset

Posted on by

‘Polissoir’, discovered in Valley of Stones nature reserve, was used about 5,000 years ago to hone tools such as axes

At first glance it looked like nothing more than a rugged boulder jumbled among many others on the floor of a valley in the West Country.

But a smooth, glossy dip in the stone indicated that it was something very special – a vanishingly rare “polissoir”, or polishing stone, used 5,000 years ago by Neolithic people to hone tools such as axes.

Continue reading...

Legal aid cuts denying vulnerable women access to justice, says thinktank

Posted on by

Women’s Budget Group says changes have disproportionately affected women and cut critical lifeline in England and Wales

Vulnerable women in England and Wales, including survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, are being denied justice because of cuts to the civil legal aid budget, a thinktank has said.

The Women’s Budget Group says a decade on from major changes to legal aid, women have been disproportionately affected, leaving them without essential support to fight discrimination, violence and housing insecurity.

Ineligibility, for example some employment discrimination not being included in legal aid.

Inaccessibility due to insufficient legal aid providers.

Lack of awareness and signposting of what qualifies for legal aid.

Continue reading...

Teachers in England vote for strike action in autumn over pay

Posted on by

Members of NASUWT give ‘largest mandate in a decade’ for action over pay, workload and working hours

Members of the NASUWT teachers’ union have voted in favour of industrial action over pay and workload, raising the prospect of mass strikes and widespread disruption across schools in England this autumn.

After months of stalemate with no progress over teachers’ pay, NASUWT members voted decisively for industrial action, with 88.5% of eligible members voting to support strike action and 94.3% supporting action short of strike.

Continue reading...

Revealed: children’s care homes flood into cheapest areas of England, not where most needed

Posted on by

Shocking figures gathered by the Observer show social care provision is dictated by money, not need

New children’s care homes are being disproportionately placed in cheaper and more deprived parts of England, according to an Observer investigation. .

Over the past five years the number of children’s care homes located in areas with the cheapest house sale prices has risen almost three times faster than in the most expensive places. Among the regions with big increases in homes was the north-west, including in parts of Blackpool and Burnley and other northern cities such as Bradford. Children’s services directors warned that the trends were driven by the “blatant profiteering” of private care providers, targeting cheap housing and local labour.

Continue reading...

English teaching unions to strike during Tory conference if pay deal rejected

Posted on by

Action could be directed at Rishi Sunak’s keynote speech, seen as vital in run-up to general election campaign

Teachers are preparing to target Rishi Sunak’s make-or-break Tory conference speech with strike action this autumn, amid growing cabinet support for a compromise to end months of public sector walkouts.

Should ministers fail to support a deal that would hand teachers a 6.5% increase this year, all major teaching unions in England are increasingly confident that their members will back more strikes when the new school year begins.

Continue reading...

Police using live facial recognition at British Grand Prix

Posted on by

Northamptonshire force says technology adds ‘extra layer of security’ at Silverstone for F1 race

Police are using live facial recognition (LFR) to scan the faces of people attending the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.

Northamptonshire police were deploying the technology on Saturday and Sunday to provide “an extra layer of security” at the Formula One race, which 450,000 people were expected to attend, the force said.

Continue reading...

New Ofsted report upgrades headteacher Ruth Perry’s school to ‘good’

Posted on by

Perry took her own life in March after Caversham primary school was downgraded from outstanding to inadequate

Ofsted has replaced its “inadequate” rating that may have contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry after a new inspection praised staff for addressing previous weaknesses at the school in Reading.

Perry died this year after an Ofsted inspection downgraded Caversham primary school in Berkshire from outstanding to inadequate, with Perry’s family saying the grading was a factor in her taking her own life.

Continue reading...

Pay rise of 6.5% would stop teaching strikes in England, union boss suggests

Posted on by

Mary Bousted urges ministers to publish recommendation from pay body, thought to be 6.5%, and fund schools to pay it

Ministers could ward off potential teachers’ strikes in the autumn term in England if they accept a salary increase recommended by the teachers’ independent pay review body, the head of the biggest education union has said.

Teachers who belong to the NEU continued industrial action on Friday. Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the union, said: “This could stop. What the government must do is publish the independent pay review body recommendations.”

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer refuses to commit to free school meals pledge

Posted on by

Labour leader says ‘money is a big factor’ as he also declines to promise 6.5% pay rise for teachers

Keir Starmer has refused to commit to supporting free school meals for all primary school children, as he stuck to a tough fiscal position despite pressure from inside and outside of his party.

The Labour leader also declined to commit to a 6.5% pay rise for teachers as he urged the government to resolve the dispute at the centre of strike action.

Continue reading...

Austerity has led to NHS quality of care declining in key areas, study finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: Experts say fall in funding caused ‘turning point’ in standards in health service in England

The quality of care that the NHS provides has got worse in many key areas and patients’ long waits to access treatment could become even more common, research has found.

The coalition government’s austerity programme in the early 2010s led to the heath service no longer being able to meet key waiting time targets, the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation said.

Fewer people with long-term heath conditions such as cancer, diabetes and depression, are getting enough help to manage their condition.

Breast cancer screening rates for women aged 53-74 have fallen.

It has become harder for patients to see a named GP.

Only 6% of midwives think their maternity unit has enough staff to do its job properly.

Continue reading...

Striking teachers in England accused of undermining pupils’ pandemic recovery

Posted on by

Gillian Keegan says she ‘can’t think of a worse time’ for action by NEU members

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has accused striking teachers of undermining children’s recovery from the Covid pandemic, saying she did “pretty well” at winning extra funding for schools from the Treasury.

Keegan told a conference in Bournemouth: “Let me be clear, we should not be having these strikes in general, but certainly not now. Children have been through so much in the pandemic and I can’t think of a worse time to be willingly keeping them out of school.”

Continue reading...

Sexual harassment of girls is a scourge at schools in England, say MPs

Posted on by

Commons committee’s report calls for government strategy to engage with young boys to tackle problem

Sexual harassment of girls is “a scourge” in England’s schools, according to MPs, who have called for a government-led strategy to focus on boys who are failing to engage with relationship and sex education.

MPs on the women and equalities committee said in a report that there should be training for all teachers to help them hold conversations with boys and young men about sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in a way that challenges prevailing gender norms and ideas of masculinity.

Continue reading...

Councils in England hit by ‘unsustainable’ £450m bill for free bus passes

Posted on by

LGA says services being put at risk by huge cost and calls way Whitehall funds scheme not fit for purpose

Councils in England are being hit by a “completely unsustainable” annual bill of more than £450m to prop up the free bus pass scheme, according to an analysis.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which calculated the figure, said the enormous cost was putting services at risk.

Continue reading...

NHS radiographers in England vote to strike over pay

Posted on by

Society of Radiographers members reject offer, pushing for deal they say could help cut waiting lists

Thousands of radiographers in England have voted to go on strike for the first time in the increasingly bitter healthcare pay dispute.

The Society of Radiographers (SoR) secured sufficient turnout and votes in 43 NHS trusts to go on strike in a ballot that closed on 28 June. More than 150 trusts had a majority in favour of action but not all met the turnout threshold.

Continue reading...

Fifteen-year-old boy and man, 23, killed in north London stabbing

Posted on by

Another man aged 28 has stab wound not thought to be life-threatening after incident in Archway

A 15-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man have been stabbed to death in north London.

The teenager died at the scene in Elthorne Road, Archway, after the stabbing at 11.30pm on Thursday, while the man was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A 28-year-old man was found with a stab wound that was not life-threatening.

Continue reading...

Water firms push for bills in England to rise by up to 40%, say reports

Posted on by

Plans drawn up to pay for cost of dealing with sewage crisis and climate emergency

Water companies are reportedly pushing for bills in England to rise by up to 40% under plans being drawn up to pay for the cost of dealing with the sewage crisis and the climate emergency.

The increases are due to be announced next year and could drive annual bills up from an average of £450 to £680 in parts of the country by the end of the decade, according to a Times report citing consultation documents.

Continue reading...

‘We’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t do a five-year mortgage fix in 2021’

Posted on by

Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future

Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.

Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.

Continue reading...