Agenda item

6.1

It was moved by Councillor Chris Peace, and seconded by Councillor Anne Murphy, that this Council:-

(a)       believes that the NHS is in crisis after eight years of government underfunding and privatisation from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and notes that patients are waiting longer hours in overcrowded A&Es, waiting lists are rising and hospitals are facing huge financial problems;

(b)       notes that 70 years ago, the Labour Party created the National Health Service (NHS), despite opposition from the Conservatives;

(c)        contends that the NHS is one of the crowning achievements of the post-war Labour government, and that the ideal that healthcare should be free to all is as important today as it was 70 years ago;

(d)       praises the commitment and compassion of staff working in the NHS and in social care throughout the last seventy years and to those currently employed who are having to work under ever increasing pressures;

(e)       believes that the NHS has helped transform British society for the better and its positive impact on the health of the UK population over the last seventy years is immeasurable;

(f)        believes that for all the public goodwill towards the NHS, recent governments have failed to support this precious institution sufficiently and despite the Rt. Hon Theresa May MP’s rhetoric of providing a “70th birthday present for the NHS”, the recent announcement of additional funding for the NHS confirmed that this Government has failed to give the NHS the funding it needs;

(g)       notes that patients are facing record waiting times for treatment, A&Es have had their worst performance figures on record this year, social care has been pushed into a state of emergency, the NHS currently has nearly 100,000 staff vacancies and NHS Trusts are almost £1billion in deficit;

(h)       contends that the Government’s pledge to increase spending by 3.4% has been widely criticised for not going far enough to rectify eight years of austerity;

(i)         notes that the Government’s announcement excludes public health budgets, training and capital – meaning it’s an increase of around 3% for health services, when we have a childhood obesity crisis, cuts to sexual health and addiction services, workforce shortages and a backlog of £5 billion repairs;

(j)         further notes that the Labour Party’s 2017 General Election manifesto pledged to invest an extra 5%, with nearly £9 billion extra going into the NHS and social care for this year alone;

(k)        notes that Labour’s spending commitment was fully costed, and would have seen the big corporations and the very wealthy being required to pay their fair share of tax to fund it;

(l)         notes that the 3.4% funding for NHS services (excluding the aforementioned funding for preventive, training and capital budgets) is still below the 3.7%  average increase the NHS has seen over the last 70 years;

(m)      further notes that the Labour government of 1997 - 2010 funded the NHS an extra 6% each year – which transformed and revitalised health services in the UK following years of neglect from Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major -  with hospital and GP waiting times significantly reduced and public satisfaction with health services reaching record levels; 

(n)       notes that Labour’s 6% yearly increase over 13 years in government is in stark contrast to the miserly 1% yearly rise seen under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010 to 2015; and

(o)       believes that Labour is the only Party who can be trusted to stand up for the NHS and support is given to Labour’s consultation on how to re-establish a universally public NHS; with the ambition of bringing more health provision back in-house, and to dismantle the structures created under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s Health and Social Care Act (2012) which led to billions of pounds wasted, greater privatisation and fragmentation, and instead, a Labour government would seek to, in the words of Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health “move to an NHS based on partnership and planning where privatisation is banished”.

6.2

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Gail Smith, seconded by Councillor Steve Ayris, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.         the deletion of paragraphs (a) to (c).

2.         the addition of new paragraphs (a) and (b) as follows:-

(a)       condemns the current Government and their approach to NHS and social care funding and the crisis this has left the services in;

(b)       recognises that the burden of social care is the biggest financial pressure facing local authorities and there is set to be a £30billion funding gap by the year 2020;

3.         the re-lettering of original paragraph (g) as a new paragraph (c).

4.         the deletion of original paragraphs (f) and (h) to (o).

5.         the addition of new paragraphs (f) to (m) as follows:-

(f)        notes the Liberal Democrat policy of an immediate 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax, which would raise £6 billion in additional revenue and be ring-fenced to be spent only on NHS and social care services;

(g)       believes only this policy will provide a new long term funding settlement for social care, which is desperately needed to sustain vital services and relieve pressure on the NHS, particularly for places like Sheffield which has a relatively low council tax base but a high level of need;

(h)       believes that the public would support the 1p in the pound tax rise and notes that, when polled by Opinium, two thirds of people polled would be happy to pay an extra penny in the pound ring-fenced for health and social care, even when shown how much it would personally cost them;

(i)         welcomes all those who have contributed to the success of the NHS in its inception from the Liberal, Sir William Beveridge, on whose acclaimed report the NHS was founded, and notes that, born out of the closer cooperation of the health organisations during the war, it now spends 40 times as much in real terms than it did at the beginning, and believes the NHS's continuing success depends on the goodwill of those in power and the willingness to increase taxes to pay for it;

(j)         notes that former health minister, the Rt. Hon. Norman Lamb MP, and other senior political figures including the Labour MP Frank Field, are calling for a cross-party commission on the future of the NHS and believes that we need this ‘Beveridge Report for the 21st century’ in the form of a cross-party commission to investigate, work with stakeholders and find solutions to the NHS funding crisis;

(k)        notes that in the Council budget for 2018/19, the Liberal Democrat Group made two proposals that would have significantly improved the standard of social care in Sheffield, which were to:-

(i)         create a “Helping Hand” fund for adult social care to provide a substantive pot of money for desperately needed, urgent, short term support; and

(ii)        use the central government adult social care grant to further fund training to support front line staff and help to ensure standards of care are always at the highest standard of quality possible and to secure retention of staff;

(l)         asks the Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Health calling for a cross-party commission on the future of the NHS; and

(m)      asks the Leader of the Council to write to the local NHS trusts to pass on the Council’s congratulations to staff on the 70th anniversary of the NHS and to thank them for their service over the past 70 years.

6.3

It was then formally moved by Councillor John Booker, and formally seconded by Councillor Jack Clarkson, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of new paragraphs (p) to (s) as follows:-

(p)       notes the Government’s Quantitative Easing package so far in this country is £435 billion, and believes it should not go into the financial markets, but be spent in our society where it is needed and, furthermore, notes that the State is the original source of currency and the Government cannot be short of the very money it creates;

(q)       further notes that, under the powers available to the government, the NHS can be funded by the Treasury requesting the Bank of England to credit the NHS account with the necessary funding;

(r)        notes that the NHS can be funded in exactly the same way as the £435bn Quantitative Easing Programme was funded, i.e. by creating the money out of thin air, by the Bank of England under the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and therefore the Government can create as much money as it needs to run the services under its control effectively, the only constraints being real resources such as labour, equipment and materials; and

(s)        also notes that taxation does not wholly pay for Government services at the national level and we do not ‘Tax and Spend' but rather ‘Spend and Tax’, as the spending must come first or there is nothing to tax; and that taxation performs essential functions in the economy, including removing money from circulation in order to control inflation, promoting economic activity, correcting market failures, reducing inequality and legitimising democracy, as well as ensuring that the pound is widely accepted as a means of payment in society.

6.4

After contributions from six other Members, and following a right of reply from Councillor Chris Peace, the amendment moved by Councillor Gail Smith was put to the vote and was negatived.

6.4.1

(NOTE: Councillors Kaltum Rivers, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison Teal voted for part 2 and paragraph (j) of part 5 of the amendment and abstained from voting on all other parts/paragraphs of the amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)

6.5

The amendment moved by Councillor John Booker was then put to the vote and was also negatived.

6.6

The original Motion was then put to the vote and carried as follows:-

RESOLVED: That this Council:-

(a)       believes that the NHS is in crisis after eight years of government underfunding and privatisation from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and notes that patients are waiting longer hours in overcrowded A&Es, waiting lists are rising and hospitals are facing huge financial problems;

(b)       notes that 70 years ago, the Labour Party created the National Health Service (NHS), despite opposition from the Conservatives;

(c)        contends that the NHS is one of the crowning achievements of the post-war Labour government, and that the ideal that healthcare should be free to all is as important today as it was 70 years ago;

(d)       praises the commitment and compassion of staff working in the NHS and in social care throughout the last seventy years and to those currently employed who are having to work under ever increasing pressures;

(e)       believes that the NHS has helped transform British society for the better and its positive impact on the health of the UK population over the last seventy years is immeasurable;

(f)        believes that for all the public goodwill towards the NHS, recent governments have failed to support this precious institution sufficiently and despite the Rt. Hon Theresa May MP’s rhetoric of providing a “70th birthday present for the NHS”, the recent announcement of additional funding for the NHS confirmed that this Government has failed to give the NHS the funding it needs;

(g)       notes that patients are facing record waiting times for treatment, A&Es have had their worst performance figures on record this year, social care has been pushed into a state of emergency, the NHS currently has nearly 100,000 staff vacancies and NHS Trusts are almost £1billion in deficit;

(h)       contends that the Government’s pledge to increase spending by 3.4% has been widely criticised for not going far enough to rectify eight years of austerity;

(i)         notes that the Government’s announcement excludes public health budgets, training and capital – meaning it’s an increase of around 3% for health services, when we have a childhood obesity crisis, cuts to sexual health and addiction services, workforce shortages and a backlog of £5 billion repairs;

(j)         further notes that the Labour Party’s 2017 General Election manifesto pledged to invest an extra 5%, with nearly £9 billion extra going into the NHS and social care for this year alone;

(k)        notes that Labour’s spending commitment was fully costed, and would have seen the big corporations and the very wealthy being required to pay their fair share of tax to fund it;

(l)         notes that the 3.4% funding for NHS services (excluding the aforementioned funding for preventive, training and capital budgets) is still below the 3.7%  average increase the NHS has seen over the last 70 years;

(m)      further notes that the Labour government of 1997 - 2010 funded the NHS an extra 6% each year – which transformed and revitalised health services in the UK following years of neglect from Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major -  with hospital and GP waiting times significantly reduced and public satisfaction with health services reaching record levels; 

(n)       notes that Labour’s 6% yearly increase over 13 years in government is in stark contrast to the miserly 1% yearly rise seen under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010 to 2015; and

(o)       believes that Labour is the only Party who can be trusted to stand up for the NHS and support is given to Labour’s consultation on how to re-establish a universally public NHS; with the ambition of bringing more health provision back in-house, and to dismantle the structures created under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s Health and Social Care Act (2012) which led to billions of pounds wasted, greater privatisation and fragmentation, and instead, a Labour government would seek to, in the words of Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health “move to an NHS based on partnership and planning where privatisation is banished”.

6.6.1

(NOTE: 1. Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Bob Pullin, Richard Shaw, Adam Hanrahan, Mohammed Mahroof, Joe Otten, Martin Smith, Roger Davison, Shaffaq Mohammed, Paul Scriven, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Sue Auckland, Steve Ayris, Gail Smith, David Baker, Penny Baker, Vickie Priestley and Mike Levery voted for paragraphs (b) to (e), (g) to (i), (l) and (m), and against paragraphs (a), (f), (j), (k), (n) and (o) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded;

2. Councillors Kaltum Rivers, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy, Martin Phipps and Alison Teal voted for paragraphs (d) to (i), against paragraph (o) and abstained from voting on paragraphs (a) to (c) and (j) to (n) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded; and

3. Councillors Jack Clarkson and John Booker voted for paragraphs (b) to (l) and (n), and abstained from voting on paragraphs (a), (m) and (o) of the Motion, and asked for this to be recorded.)