Speeches by George.

“On the issue of workforce and workforce planning, there hadn’t been a long-term workforce plan until about a year and a half ago. I wonder to what extent the lack of workforce planning up until that point had hampered the ability of the NHS to achieve the productivity and efficiency gains that you are seeking. Now that…”

“It was not intended to be a trick question to draw you down the route of just looking at the plan in two-dimensional terms—purely in terms of productivity. Looking at workforce needs, your other clear headline requirement for efficiency gain, is there not a tension between some of the policy, such as pursuing changes t…”

“No one is arguing to the contrary. In other words, no one is saying that you want the wrong nurse in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pardon my expression, but management babble is worthless unless you have something by which to measure it. I would have thought that the RCN and others were looking for mandated staff-…”

“The long-term workforce plan has been in place for only 18 months, but now that you have had associates in place and had the opportunity to look at some of the pressures within the system itself, has there been any kind of study to see whether that approach is producing productivity or counterproductivity?”

“Yes, of course I agree. I am a strong supporter of the Bill and want it—certainly its intent—to proceed as rapidly as possible, and for us to make progress in all the areas that have been advanced. We must challenge and ensure that we not only meet the commitments that successive Governments have made in relation to ou…”

“It is a pleasure to support my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) and the excellent work she has been doing in advancing the Bill. Indeed, for many years I have supported it in its previous iterations in the local authority in Cornwall. I had a speech prepared to encourage the Government to support …”

“I must congratulate my hon. Friend on her preparation for this debate, which has attracted so many people to Westminster Hall today—except, of course, from the party that created a lot of the problems we now face. On her point about mainstreaming and special school education, does she agree not only that many rural are…”

“Exactly. I suspect that there is probably something within the methodology of the reporting that might explain it, but I will raise it with the GP when I am over there.”

“Coming back to the wider geographic view, I would be interested to know, given the difficulties—I am not saying that you are fully responsible, but I know that you are not proud of the Health Check response rate or take-up levels—what lessons can be learned from health programmes that have been a success. I do not have…”

“But in each case, with a successful programme, you get them through a door or you get them to try something to get the process started. I think the problem that you are having is that you are not even getting any kind of response.”

“When will you know?”

“So it is a communication issue.”

“Are you not expressing it clearly enough? What is happening?”

“So when will you know? You are rolling it out in three areas at present: Norfolk, Lambeth and Medway. It is well known that the most digitally enabled are in your high take-up groups and not in the target groups that are most at risk, is it not? Are you not fearful that pursuing a digital methodology will actually just…”

“Will those who receive an invitation to undertake a digital check-up be invited to undertake a face-to-face check as an alternative?”

“I speak as the MP for the Isles of Scilly, which have a population of approximately 2,500. There are a number of anomalies that often apply to the Isles of Scilly.”

“I sympathise with the Secretary of State for having to pull these projects out of the fire of non-funding, and I thank him for the announcement on the women and children’s hospital in Cornwall. I know that all my parliamentary colleagues in Cornwall will be delighted at today’s news. I sympathise with colleagues who fi…”

“In terms of trying to extract some benefit from the difficulties that the CQC has experienced, and following from Danny’s line of questioning in relation to the IT contract that you have undertaken, there will be lessons to be learned that I think the wider public sector could really learn from. I would hope that the C…”

“Yes. Learning that you have reports that you cannot get out of your system, and that you have not even kept paper copies, let alone Word copies on laptops or whatever, is just remarkable. I think people will be shocked. I mean, we were all shocked; jaws were on the floor when we heard this.”

“Sir Julian, you described the one-word assessment system as at least having the advantage of being more publicly comprehensible. In the light of that, would it be fair to deem the CQC as you arrive inadequate, in a one-word judgment?”