Speeches by Streeting.

“We were really pleased to work with our friends at the DWP on the “Get Britain Working” White Paper. They did the lion’s share of the work and we played our part, helping them out, which is how I see this relationship. The NHS does have a contribution to make. As you mentioned, we have 2.8 million people who are econom…”

“I would be happy to send Ministers along to answer any further questions!”

“Merry Christmas and happy new year. I will see you in the new year.”

“I can stand by very strongly the sense that, because the state pension is rising in the way that it is, and because of the decisions the Chancellor has taken to protect the poorest pensioners, she has taken a decision that, I admit, is unpopular with people who have lost the winter fuel allowance, but it is not one tha…”

“That is a great question. First, in overall terms, one of the reasons why our outcomes are so poor relative to other countries’ is that we do not diagnose fast enough, so earlier access to diagnostics will lead to faster diagnosis and better outcomes. That is not just good in terms of patients, their life chances and t…”

“I will bring in Tom very quickly in that case, but the final thing I will say is that I have spent a lot of time, in recent weeks and months, with victims of the NHS—whether they are victims of maternity scandals, of poor care at the wrong time or of mental health scandals—and it is a very sobering experience. If victi…”

“We could do a lot worse than taking the NHS to people. One of the things I was really encouraged by was actually in your neck of the woods—in Birmingham. I went and saw one of the diagnostic vans that is out and about doing screening, specifically because the NHS concluded that they were more likely to find the right p…”

“Yes, we will come back to you. I will bring in Tom, who will obviously have a perspective on this.”

“That is a very good challenge, and we need to think quite deeply about it.”

“I think that is really important. There are some very obvious things that we can do on the victim support side of things, in helping victims of domestic violence—not exclusively, but predominantly women and children—and providing them with the support they need. Recovering from violent relationships or from a violent a…”

“Around the Cabinet table, I do feel a degree of discomfort, which I described in my NHS Providers speech, knowing that every penny I got for the NHS is a penny that could have gone to places that are often social determinants of ill health. That is why we have a moral duty as the national health service to spend the mo…”

“In terms of the shift that we want to see in the NHS lens out of hospital and into community, I think there is a broader question about prioritisation of Budgets and spending reviews over the course of this Parliament and beyond. That is why I probably sound—and am, to be honest, in practice—so hawkish about NHS financ…”

“I would say so.”

“Similarly, one of my new year’s resolutions, as well as DPHs, is to—Stephen Kinnock is on the case, as is Andrew Gwynne on the DPHs—improve my direct connections to directors of adult social services in local government. Although we are the Department of Health and Social Care, our levers and our line of sight are nowh…”

“I think there are varying degrees to which the NHS needs to understand. On public health, there are members of the public who walk into some sexual health services, for example, oblivious to the fact that those services come through funding from their local council rather than the NHS. As far as they are concerned, the…”

“One hundred per cent.”

“No, definitely not.”

“Especially on the latter point, many of the challenges that local government is grappling with are presenting themselves in GP practices, in EDs and on elective waiting lists. This relates to the whole argument around prevention and the brilliant work that Michael Marmot has done on the social determinants of ill healt…”

“Early in the new year would be January.”

“I did say to hospices that we would make an announcement before Christmas. That is next week, and I intend to keep that promise. More broadly, I am mindful that people need to make decisions around their organisations for the year ahead, so I think we need to come to this early in the new year at the latest, and that i…”