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There are more than 33,000 traffic lights in the UK and…
… it’s estimated that drivers spend eight minutes a day waiting at red lights…
… that adds up to two days a year.
There are some facts that, well, are a bit of fun, can be trotted out in a pub quiz or as part of an elaborate excuse if you’re late for work.
There are other sorts of facts that have to be ingested, ruminated, mulled and rolled around the brain-box.
Facts like;
In April this year, 4.2 million working-age UK people were claiming health-related benefits, which is about ten percent of the working-age population.
Or this;
As of October this year, there were 1.81m people claiming unemployment benefits… nearly twenty-seven thousand more than the previous month and over a quarter of a million more than a year ago.
As the IFS points out;
The new claimants of disability benefits are … younger… new awards made to under-40s have grown by 150% … current new claims are more likely be due to mental health problems… 37%.
Those are the facts and they are the sort of facts that need a lot of thinking about. These are the sort of facts that need consideration, deliberation and cogitation.
These are the sort of facts that makes it easy for me to guess that the one word on the tip of your tongue, right now is; ‘why’?
Dunno.
But I do know it’s important.
Charmer has bet the farm that he can solve the ills of the Albion by growing the economy.
Meaning; more businesses making stuff, employing more people with wages to buy stuff, creating revenues that can be taxed.
Growth and productivity… to increase them you need two things; investment in the modernisation of plant, kit and processes and… expanding the workforce.
With workless numbers like these, he stands no chance and the burgeoning benefits costs will drag the economy in the opposite direction.
He’s commitmented to cutting the welfare bill over the next four years and announced another go at remodelling job centres... not the first government have tried it.
Here's brief history;
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Labour Exchanges in 1910.
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National Assistance and Unemployment Benefits (1940s-1970s) focusing on unemployment benefits, alongside job matching.
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Jobcentre's, 1973 with services like job listings and training advice.
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Integration with Benefits (1980s-1990), benefits linked more directly to job-seeking activity.
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Restart, (1980s) aimed to encourage long-term unemployed back into work.
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Jobcentre Plus (2002), merging Employment Services and Benefits Agency.
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Post-2008 Financial Crisis austerity adjustments
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Work Programme (2011), greater emphasis on partnerships with private sector.
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Universal Credit Rollout (2013), fundamentally changing the role of Jobcentre Plus, promoting job readiness. Digital services increased, reducing in-person interactions.
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Rapid expansion of Jobcentre staff (2020s), services to cope with increased unemployment, Kickstart and Restart.
Do you think after ten major changes, somebody might wonder why none of this has worked?
Way too difficult.
Charmer is now committed to number 11; a new National Jobs and Careers Service to help people into work.
Good luck with that... what about the NHS?
Charmer wants to send NHS people to target waiting lists in areas of high unemployment...
... it's not like everyone is very busy right now, sorting out their own backyard and...
... the NHS does not prioritise on the basis of national economic significance...
... and what do you say to retired people waiting for a new hip in Surrey, (sorry your surgeon has gone to Yorkshire) and how will Charmer cope with rows about equity and clinical need.
Who will up-sticks and cart their family to the other end of the country to do it and how will social care cope with the fall out?
None of this will work. What will?
A national group of people who are medically qualified, given the time and money, to get to know people, in consultations that are limited only to the extent they are helpful and not by the clock...
... where there is thorough clinical appraisal, holistic understanding, continuity, relationship building, trust and follow through.
They are called GPs.
Unfortunately, there are nearly two thousand fewer fully qualified GPs compared to Sept 2015 and one in ten under 40yrs have left in the last year… a record high.
We don’t have enough GPs.
Perhaps tapping into recently retired GPs might help but...
... however you do it, if you want to give people the confidence to step away from sickness and walk into the world of wellness and work, with reassurance and demolishing doubt…
... all roads lead back to your friend and mine, the family GP.
Put your money on them.
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