Bristol South

The family of a young Bristol boy who was left with lasting injuries after he was shot with an air rifle have welcomed a government review into air weapons after their MP Karin Smyth raised the issue in the House of Commons.

Both Karin and Edward Studley, the father of Harry Studley who was just 18 months when he was shot in the head by a former family friend in 2016, are helping to inform a new government air weapons review.

They are calling for changes to the way air guns are regulated – asking the government to consider whether introducing licencing for air weapons might help reduce tragic incidents. They’d also like to see trigger locks, securicords and the need for such weapons to be kept in lockable cabinets to be introduced in a bid to prevent more children getting hurt.

“Existing controls are not enough,” said Ed in his submission to the government Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service Nick Hurd. “We need trigger locks, securicords and lockable cabinets to prevent tragic incidents like what happened to Harry.”

The review recognises that, while fatal air weapon shootings are rare, at least four children have died in the UK as a result of air weapon shootings since 2005. This includes 13-year-old Ben Wragge from Suffolk, whose death and the subsequent coroner’s report has helped inform the government review.

The law currently forbids under 18s from possessing air guns unless supervised by someone over the age of 21 or on a private premises with the consent of the occupier but there are currently no licensing requirements.

New licencing regulation was introduced in Scotland in 2016, with 4,000 air weapons handed in as part of an amnesty ahead of the licensing coming in. Karin has this week written to Mr Hurd asking him to ‘very carefully consider’ licensing in England and Wales in light of the change to the law in Scotland. “Children in Bristol South should be afforded the same level of security as children in Scotland,” she says.

Ed, whose son still has a pellet lodged in his brain and suffers with seizures, said: “If there’s licensing in place it will be policed better and take more of these harmful weapons off our streets. The way they have rolled out this law in Scotland is the way forward for England and Wales. We want to ensure that everyone in England and Wales are fully protected.

“Those who have a legitimate reason to purchase, possess and use an air gun will be able to retain ownership and would simply need to apply for a licence.”

The results of the review are expected later this year.

Karin has responded to the announcement that Bristol City Council is considering moving the planned Arena away from Bristol South. She said:

“For many years, we’ve been looking forward to welcoming a new arena to Bristol South and the potential it brings with it for jobs and apprenticeships, investment and the local economy.  An arena for Bristol has been a long time coming with plans for developments at Ashton Gate and Temple Meads. For the past few years, the council has been pursuing plans to build a 12,000 seater venue in the Temple Quarter, something I have supported due to the benefits it would bring to the area.

Bristol South is home to some of the most deprived areas of the city and people desperately need decent job opportunities and apprenticeships – the proposed arena in my constituency offers this. I was very disappointed to learn that the council is considering moving the arena to the outskirts of the city.

I appreciate the financial confines within which the council is working and understand the need to ensure value for money but Bristol South needs this development. The wider economic benefits – including job and apprenticeship opportunities – and social value of keeping it within the city centre and accessible to people living in Bristol South must not be underestimated.

Millions of pounds have already been spent on preparations for the arena in city centre, and Bristol has already waited long enough for its own arena. I sincerely hope that we can find a way to keep the much-needed Bristol arena in the planned location and not waste any more time and money”.

In her speech in the NHS Winter Crisis debate in the House of Commons yesterday, Karin highlighted the need for South Bristol Community Hospital to be given more support in order to tackle major health inequalities in the area. She also described how the Government’s NHS transformation plans have created confusion for NHS workers and patients alike. Karin argued there needs to be more accountability and greater financial transparency throughout the NHS which would make it possible for MP’s to help ensure their constituents hard earned tax is being fairly and efficiently allocated to health services locally: “Being able to follow the money is a big part of accountability. It’s a key part of the path to true openness and transparency in our NHS and a more informed discussion about resources.”

Karin Smyth MP has just published an article for the Health Service Journal about the need for the NHS to be more accountable to local people following the Government’s disastrous Health & Social Care Act. You can read it here…

The Kings Fund’s Chris Ham recently wrote about tighter working at the top of the NHS, reducing the number of commissioning bodies and much closer working between the NHS and local authorities. He argues this would simplify a complex system and could release resources. His challenge to politicians is to let that happen without a top-down reorganisation but with some legislation.

The challenge is likely to fall on deaf ears even though just about everyone accepts that the Health & Social Care Act was a disaster. The government has no appetite and little time for non-Brexit enabling legislation and they control the legislative timetable.

My own view is that we desperately need more than adjusting the superstructures. We are at a critical point as we approach the 70th anniversary of the NHS as we come to the end of the era of markets and competition exemplified by the disaster of the Health and Social Care Act. To make our whole care system better and to ensure our NHS thrives for the next 70 years the principle of accountability has to be put centre stage.

My pre-MP professional career in the NHS, combined with years of activity in the Labour Party dealing with local councils, led to concerns about the lack of accountability within the NHS. This background showed me that better accountability is a key driver of change and improvement as well as being necessary in a functioning democracy.

The complex fragmentation of the NHS in recent years has muddied things when it comes to accountability. There are literally hundreds of bodies involved. The 200-plus Clinical Commissioning Groups are in effect private members’ clubs.

And of the 250-plus NHS bodies which provide services, some still have fully appointed boards and are controlled directly. Foundation Trusts have a pseudo-membership structure with elected Governors but the model hasn’t done much for public and patient involvement.

And then we have the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) with no legal basis, a leadership that is unelected and unaccountable and operating mostly in secret.

All these bodies spend taxpayers’ money and it is little wonder the taxpayer is both mystified and suspicious as to how they decide what to do with that money.

The current Secretary of State operates in his role as if he’s some sort of Chief Patient Representative, with no active role in leading and shaping any plans, services or systems.

Local MPs are expected by constituents to stand up for local services ensuring they have enough resources, and to be able to make a difference when things go wrong; but the reality is that MPs have been restricted to an annual vote, in Parliament, on the national plan via the Mandate and the budget. We have no role locally in how the Mandate is delivered or on the alignment of the voted national budget with local delivery. And critically neither do local people.

MPs are pivotal: they’re the point where national policy meets local reality. As well as bringing our local experience to Parliament MPs need be made accountable for our decisions in Parliament. They should not be let off the hook for decisions made in Parliament which impact locally.

MPs should be demanding a local role to be able to follow the money – from our vote in Parliament to the GP surgery door, and back again. Local people should have a way of recognising or linking the taxes they pay to the service they get or indeed do not get.

It’s no secret that the money the NHS is allocated is insufficient to do all that’s promised in the NHS Constitution, to the quality that’s rightly expected. Even Tory MPs are being confronted by the reality of GP list closures, trolley waits, too few mental health beds and delayed dates for operations. And these MPs themselves are being forced to come to terms with the reality of being bounced around the system, as they try to help constituents, trying to understand just who is in charge.

Chris Ham’s proposals have some potential for short term benefits but unless we sort out both national and local accountability we won’t be able to sort the long term. On behalf of our constituents we should be putting the public centre stage, considering how to actively improve the NHS and understanding what the money can deliver. We have to give patients and public genuine influence over decisions affecting the care they, their families and their communities receive and the responsibility that goes with that influence.

Publish everything. Let voters follow their taxpayers’ pound all the way to the services they receive. Real comparisons could be made with other areas which may have better outcomes, have implemented better pathways or achieved lower costs. This allows an informed voice into the decision-making process, also giving a proper channel through their elected representatives.

Being able to follow the money is a big part of accountability. It’s a key part of the path to true openness and transparency in our NHS and a more informed discussion about resources.

And we should all want that.

The latest UCAS figures reveal that Bristol South still has the lowest percentage of 18-year-olds going on to higher education out of every area of England, in what MP Karin Smyth calls ‘very disappointing’.

The 2017 End of Cycle report shows that just 16% of 18-year-olds in Bristol South are entering higher education – the average for the UK as a whole is almost 42%.
Full figures available here: UCAS Report

Karin says: “It is very disappointing to see Bristol South bottom of the list again, with so few school leavers going to university.

“While progress has been made, with Bristol South seeing the biggest rise in the number of young people going into higher education compared with a decade ago, to remain bottom of the list shows that there is still a long way to go.

“In a big prosperous city such as Bristol, with two internationally-recognised universities as well as Learning City status, it’s hard to see so many young people potentially being left behind – not sharing in that prosperity.

“I will continue to work with schools, families and universities to improve opportunities for young people in Bristol South. This statistic also reinforces the need for other avenues of post-16 training in Bristol to enable young people to go on to secure skilled work.

“We must remember that university isn’t for everyone and I have been – and will continue -working relentlessly to improve quality apprenticeship opportunities in Bristol South.”

I spoke in the House of Commons yesterday in response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget. I emphasised my dismay at the Government’s lack of any meaningful financial support for Bristol South to help us tackle the crisis facing our public services – from health and social care, training opportunities for young people to help them get decent jobs, and affordable homes.