Nursing numbers continue to fall

Nursing numbers continue to fall

1 September 2012

The downward procession in nursing and midwifery staff numbers in NHS Tayside continues, at complete odds with the fact-defying assertion of the SNP Government election promise that they would “ protect the NHS budget in Scotland for the duration of the next Parliamentary term - ensuring frontline health services are protected”
The number of nursing and midwifery staff in NHS Tayside fell in the three months up to June to 5,048 ( whole time equivalents) from the previous quarter (January –March) when the figure was 5,085 .
37 nursing and midwifery staff have been lost.
The added significance of the June figure of 5,048 nursing and midwifery staff is that it is already lower than the figure NHS Tayside projected for the end of this financial year in March 2013 – 5,068.
Across Scotland overall, the numbers of nursing and midwifery staff have fallen by over 280 between March and June.
The Scottish Government has attempted to inflate the number of nursing and midwifery staff by now including interns in the count, a practice which RCN Scotland describes as “ not a true reflection of the nursing workforce”.
RCN Scotland add too that, in contrast, health boards are not allowed to count interns as members of their ward workforce staff.
Health boards such as NHS Tayside have been forced by the Scottish Government to make 3 per cent “efficiency savings” this year which equates to £24 million.
This presents big problems for health boards faced with little or no alternatives but to squeeze staffing levels with recruitment freezes and the re-deployment of staff.
In such an environment, “efficiency savings” is a euphemism for cuts.
RCN Scotland make the point well :
“Difficult decisions about how a health budget at a standstill can meet growing demand need to be made and the only way that the public, patients and NHS staff will support these decisions is if the NHS presents a clear picture of the pressures that the health service is under and the choices it faces.
“Indeed, lack of clear financial information means there is no way to verify that ‘efficiency savings’ being made by Scotland’s health boards are not actually cuts to services by another name."
And what has this, amongst other fasctors, produced ?
My friend and colleague Councillor Lesley Brennan recently revealed that almost 250,000 working hours were lost last year through stress–related conditions amongst NHS Tayside staff.
Within NHS Tayside, between April 2011 and March of this year, the highest level of sickness absence from all conditions was amongst nursing and midwifery staff - 6.3 per cent.
Yes, there have been massive cuts made to the Scottish Government’s budget made by the Tory-led UK Government, the impact of which has been felt right across the public sector, including the NHS.
However, the SNP government has aggravated their impact with its flagship 5-year council tax freeze.
This is targeted to help the very well off in Scotland most of all, while the average tax payer gains around just £2 per week.
The independent SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre ) has produced figures that show the huge amounts of money involved in freezing the council tax.
The total cumulative cost of freezing the tax from its introduction in 2008-09 to the end of this session of the Parliament in 2016-17 is estimated to be £3.1 billion.
Compare £3.1 billion with this year’s total budget for all of Scotland’s health boards - £8.6 billion.
While the Scottish Government Health Secretary said before last year’s election that they would
“ protect the NHS budget in Scotland for the duration of the next Parliamentary term”, the Scottish Government website displays figures from the 2011 Spending Review of its spending plans for health that tell a different story
They show that in the period up to 2015, health spending will be cut in total by £319 million in real terms.
The only appropriate response to the assertion “we will protect the NHS budget in Scotland for the duration of the next Parliamentary term “ seems to be the old saying :
“You may be entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts”

Marlyn Glen : Language and the Left

Language and the Left

13 August 2012

Language has been described as a “catalyst” in politics, in the struggle between competing forces for power in society.

Thus the traditional orator sought to inspire his or her public audience with words that touched the emotions, to win converts to the cause, or to fortify the faithful.

In complete contrast, George Orwell’s 1984 saw a totalitarian regime that sought to control how people think ( and therefore ultimately how they behave and react) by restricting the vocabulary of language through Newspeak,

It was intended to strip away all alternative meaning from everyday language and abstract concepts to leave just simplified words, and so depriving its opponents of the means of arguing against them.

Thus,

“goodthink” was to hold thoughts and beliefs approved by the regime.

“crimethink” was to hold thoughts and beliefs the regime disapproved of.

Recent decades has seen the advent of the “sound bite” , an oversimplification of a policy in a cleverly crafted phrase for a mass communication audience with an alleged – and unproven - declining length of attention span.

Political speeches as reported on TV became shorter, and then came Twitter with just 140 characters in which to carry a political message.

In recent years, the restoration of the importance of language in political argument has come to the fore amongst the Left as its electoral fortunes across Europe, with interludes of an occasional victory. have dropped sharply.

It should be an easy argument for the Left to make.

The Right defend privilege, and the concentration of power and wealth and its inheritance in society.

The Left stands for the public good, opportunity and social justice for all, and bringing down inequality and disadvantage .

However, despite all that, and despite being exposed to facts, logical discussion, and the promise of progressive policies from the Left, many of the potential beneficiaries amongst the electorate vote against their own economic interests and against parties of the Left.

Why is this?

The work of George Lakoff, an American professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, has been enlightening in this area, and his work has enthusiasts in the Labour Party here , as well as amongst the American and European Left.

Lakoff sees choices in politics as being essentially moral ones rather than political ones, made through “frames”.

Frames are nothing new.

They are our structures of thought through which we perceive people and society, and Lakoff suggests that there are two moral systems that create frames.

The Right-Wing frame promotes self–interest, and individual responsibility rather than social responsibility.

On the other side is the progressive/Left frame commits to mutual care and responsibility within the family , the community, the country, the world.

Individuals can inhabit either of these frames exclusively.

They may also choose values from both frames.

Within these frames Lakoff sees language as all-important since words and phrases summon up emotive images in the mind, some in harmony with our frames, some in discord.

The problem for the Left politically is that the Right have been far more skilful in crafting the language of its message so that political debate is conducted to a large extent within the Right wing frame of thought.

It has poured huge resources into polls, surveys, focus groups , think tanks , spokespersons, branding, image-making, interest groups, the Internet, and the media in general to shape the terms of the debate, not just in language but on issues as well.

And the words and phrases are repeated for days, months and even years, spread by the media until they achieve their objective of becoming everyday words and expressions in everyday use.

Shameful, yes, but shameless and to a fair degree, successful, if you’ve heard on TV or radio or read in the press, phrases such as :

“the nanny state”, “government is the problem, not the solution”, “getting government off the backs of the people” , “public sectors workers and their gold-plated pensions” , “setting private enterprise free”

Lakoff makes the important point that unless you frame yourself through your own language your political opponents will do it through theirs such as the examples just quoted.

The counter argument against them would run along the lines of :

The case for the state, its government and the public sector is clear and unambiguous.

Through them, the common good and the welfare of families and individuals are all advanced through public spending and government legislation.

Successful companies and “self-made” individuals have depended upon the flow of educated workforce from public-sector schools, colleges and universities.

Public transport infrastructure provides the means across which private production travels.

And the public sector helped to bring us all into the world, through the National Health Service.

Big business should be there to make life better for all, not for just for elite groups.

The private sector needs the public sector.

And as for the supposedly “gold-plated pensions in the public sector”, shouldn’t the question be about why pensions in the private sector are correspondingly lower?

Lakoff outlines a basic principle: “When you are arguing against the other side: do not use their language. Their language picks out a frame - and it won't be the frame you want.”

Thus, our approach now to “deficit reduction “ should be to talk instead about “jobs and growth “.

To talk of a more efficient management of “cuts” simply reinforces the conservative mindset.

The Left argues and campaigns by of facts and evidence .

Once people were made aware of their economic reality, the truth, as the old saying goes, would set them free.

However, the problem for the Left is that its analytical approach takes time, and on some issues, a long time.

You can’t soundbite your way to success with this, and insufficient time and space is given by the media to political analysis and politics in general today.

Communication is therefore a long-term effort, and for Lakoff, the moral values that underpin a political policy must always be emphasised :

“Bring back “empathy” — “the most important thing my mother taught me.” Speak of “empathy” for “people who are hurting.” Say again how empathy is basis of democracy (“caring for your fellow citizens”), how we have a responsibility to act on that empathy: social as well as personal responsibility.

“Bring the central role of empathy in democracy to the media.

“And make it clear that personal responsibility alone is anti-patriotic……. the opposite of what this country is fundamentally about.

It’s patriotic to care…..

“That is the first step in telling our most important untellable truths.

“And it is a necessary step in loosening the conservative grip on public discourse.”

Marlyn Glen : Austerity and another Lourdes

Marlyn Glen : Austerity and another Lourdes

20 July 2012


Scotland became less unequal last year.

The gap in incomes between the rich and the rest, fell in 2010-11 , reversing a trend of growing inequality in recent years.

The gap now stands where it stood in the halcyon days of Labour’s General Election victory in 1997.

The gap in incomes, as measured by the Gini coefficient was 30 per cent

(A Gini coefficient of 0 per cent would mean equality of incomes, 100 per cent would mean complete inequality of incomes. 30 per cent is still far behind Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden with much lower income gaps.)

The UK gap narrowed only because , while the recession has lowered all incomes , it has hit the very wealthy the most, percentage-wise.

But austerity amongst the rich must be many shades lighter than it is amongst the remainder, and at the centre of the UK of government austerity policies , more cuts, this time of a much larger scale, are looming.

The Glasgow-based Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) estimate that around three quarters of cuts in spending on services in Scotland have still to take place - just under £3billlion by 2016-17, with the deepest coming after the proposed Referendum.

Inevitably, the health of the most vulnerable will suffer.

One health board’s evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee examining the effects of the Welfare Reform Act concluded that “ illnesses in adults and children requiring inpatient care are likely to increase as a consequence of the health impacts of the Welfare Reform Act.

“These include mental, cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses resulting from low income, income inequalities, housing difficulties and fuel poverty and specific additional obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis and cancer arising from poorer nutrition.” (NHS Highland )

A recent review “General Practice at the Deep End” gathered information from GPs working in the 100 most deprived areas in Scotland on the consequences of austerity for their patients’ well-being.

Patients ranged from those in work feeling the pressure of cuts in public spending, seeking additional work to make ends meet, and displaying “presenteeism” ( turning up for work when their symptoms indicated that they shouldn’t have) to those with recognised long-term health problems but classified as “fit for work” and their benefits cut.

While the GPs’ priorities were patients’ health, the patients’ priorities were lack of money for food and heating.

Observations included,

“ Perhaps most striking is the growing number of individuals and families experiencing fuel poverty – the combination of increased costs and falling benefits resulting in a choice between heating and eating.

“Practices reported cases of an elderly patient going to a friend’s house in order to wash; families relying on relatives to pay for food and cigarettes (unable to stop smoking due to stress);….

“In my surgery I am hearing from patients who for 2–3 days a week cannot afford to heat their houses (many use metered cards which are more expensive than direct debit payments). “

Assessments carried out under the Work Capability Assessment had a dramatic effect on the health of those whose benefits were cut, with mis-matches between people’s clinical condition and the assessments finding that they were “fit for work”

Corunna House , the Glasgow Disability Benefits Centre where the Work Capability Assessments are carried out, was known locally as “Lourdes” because “all of the sick emerge from it cured.”

GPs, through BMA Scotland , have called for the Work Capability Assessment to be scrapped, saying that the system needs to be replaced by “a more vigorous and safe process which takes into account the needs of long term sick and disabled patients.”

The biggest single group facing the fiercest brunt of the cuts, are women, with a triple whammy - cuts in jobs in the public sector where women are the majority workforce, reductions in the public services used by women, and women being left to ”plug the gaps” with their own personal efforts when council provision falls because of cuts in services for dependents, all of which is counter=productive to maintaining personal health.

So there is wealth of evidence and experience to indicate how the next wave of austerity cuts will impact upon health.

However, what of those on the other side of the story of the cuts, whose actions lie amongst the root causes of the prevailing austerity?

Before The Crash, there was a high-octane macho culture in casino banking whose banality of vision was the size of the bonus earned, even when the reward was for failure, and the strategy was reckless. These ultra-competitive men, were the “wealth creators”, the magicians of the market, proclaimed to possess “special skills” that were not subject to dispute.

The “Guardian” columnist George Monbiot refers to the work of Nobel Economics Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman which starkly challenges the illusion of omnipotent thinking at the top in the financial sector.

He studied the performances of wealth advisers over an 8-year period to determine whether or not “there were persistent differences in skill among them and whether the same advisers consistently achieved better returns for their clients year after year.”

He found a correlation of zero, saying

“the results resembled what you would expect from a dice-rolling contest, not a game of skill. .

“The subjective experience of traders is that they are making sensible educated guesses in a situation of great uncertainty.

“In highly efficient markets, however, educated guesses are no more accurate than blind guesses.”

There was no correlation, no connection, no consistency.

In short, success depended heavily on luck, not on evidence, never the basis for a secure future, and so it has proved , to the detriment of us all.

There are no shared sacrifices in this austerity , no choices for the wealthy between having to eat or heat.

Instead it’s tax cuts for them rather than benefit cuts.

And it isn’t working.

In a recession, cuts in spending do not just magnify falling demand and reduce business investment.

They also diminish people’s health and well-being.

Women and the Referendum

Marlyn Glen

Women and the Referendum

29 June 2012

Media froth claims that the campaign to keep Scotland in the UK has the alleged deficiency of “lacking passion” compared with that of the pro-independence movement.

Passion, however, is no substitution for reason, and we have been here before regularly in politics.

For “passion” read instead :

Style rather than substance

Personalities rather than policies

Assertion rather than evidence.

We are entitled to expect a case based on reasoned argument to be the mainstay of the pro- independence campaign, and the largest single group in Scotland that the pro-independence campaign needs to persuade of this is women.

Opinion polls in Scotland have consistently shown that women are far more sceptical than men of the case for independence.

Indeed, YouGov’s poll of those who voted SNP in last year’s Scottish Parliament elections found that that while 71 per cent of male SNP voters woud vote for an independent Scotland in a referendum, only a minority of female SNP voters – 45 per cent- would .

With women holding the key to the outcome of the Referendum, issues such as family, health, education and care of the elderly in an independent Scotland should be of primary concern.

So far though, much of the debate has focused predominantly on membership of NATO , and the size and location of Scotland’s armed forces, predominantly of interest to men.

Men were for the main part the front of the launch of the pro-independence campaign.

Male international stars jetted in or gave a video message to talk about their passion for Scotland, while at the same time unwittingly lending support to the observation that some of those who are the most enthusiastic for constitutional change are those who live furthest away from it.

The only matter even approaching a "women’s issue" if it could ever be called that, to be raised so far , concerns just one woman – Elizabeth II – who would remain head of state in an independent Scotland, according to the First Minister who now talks fondly of "Elizabeth, Queen of Scots"

Much of the media coverage of the referendum campaign has consisted of the process of the Referendum .

While they have engrossed themselves in matters such as one or two questions, Salmond meets Moore, devo-max, challenge in the courts, wording of the question, Alex Salmond may hold his own referendum , etc., etc., people in Scotland have told pollsters what their own real, important issues are - the economy (51%) ; Unemployment ( 21%); education (21%) , public spending cuts ("20%) and independence only 16 per cent) - Future Scotland poll.

And it appears that most have already made up their minds on how they’ll be voting in the Referendum.

Polls tell us that amongst those expressing a voting intention for any party , only 13 per are undecided on how they will vote.

The figures drops to 11 per cent amongst those who say they are certain to vote.

Polling predicts that turn out could rise to almost 80 per cent

So, if these polls are accurate, then the rival campaigns will be competing for a relative small minority of voters.

Undecided women voters who are still waiting for the debate to begin on their preferred issues of importance, will also have the record of the Nationalists in power to consider.

Women make up the majority of the workforce in many parts of the public sector such as the NHS and local government.

The experience of women there has been the loss of thousands of nursing posts in the NHS , and thousands too in councils across Scotland.

Political representation should mirror civic society.

Yet, the gender balance amongst SNP MSPs is only 19 women out of 69 in toal ( just over 1 in 4 )

Jenny Marra’s amendment to the Police and Fire Reform Bill, calling for a minimum representation of 40 per cent women and 40 % men on the new single police board was voted down by the SNP at the Bill’s committee stage.

At present, the pro-independence tactic is to soothe away fears and misgivings about separating with a "you won’t notice the difference" assurance - the £ will be retained ( under foreign control), the Queen will remain as head of state, and Scotland will be a member of NATO.

Such " the more things change, the more they remain the same" approaches are double-edged, which will leave many women concluding, "Why change at all, then?"

And there’s yet another matter of importance to women.

I’ve written before that ,

"It's the heckling, name-calling, rudeness, finger pointing, aggressive, competitive, ego-preening behaviour of some male politicians that turn a lot of women off politics."

The broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch, in that vein, makes this important observation on what may await women over the next two years of the campaign.

"Women are generally dubious about men with an overriding sense of mission or a throbbing vein on the forehead when they speak.

"Toughing out controversy and appearing to spoil for a fight may earn respect from male commentators and small armies of cyber-angry, anonymous men.

"Clever dick answers, snide-sounding put downs and swaggering arrogance turn off watching women as swiftly as they appear to engage watching men. "

Let’s hope as well that the referendum campaign can produce a new national identity that replaces the obstinately masculine Scottish identity through symbols such as Wallace, Bruce, and a separate Scottish international football team.

Let’s include women in that identity , let's celebrate their achievements and their potential in post-Referendum Scotland .... and let's be aware that Scotland’s male international football team’s FIFA world ranking is currently 41; Scotland’s international female football team’s FIFA world ranking is 21.

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A school closure in Dundee

Marlyn Glen

A school closure in Dundee

19 June 2012

A school closure has recently occurred in Dundee which has closed its doors to new entrants to the midwifery course at Dundee University.

This academic year’s new intake of students has been its last.

Two other Scottish Universities , Stirling and Glasgow Caledonian , have also been forced to close down their undergraduate midwifery courses, when the Scottish Government cut the numbers of training places by almost half –from 183 to 100.

The reasons given include a lack of sufficient posts after graduation, and an “over-production” in a profession that’s traditionally been well-staffed in Scotland.

However, midwives see things differently.

Their professional body, the Royal College of Midwives say, : “ Scotland’s midwifery workforce is ageing. What we need to see therefore is not a downward trend in the number of new student midwife places, but an upward trend.”

Midwives are eligible to retire at 55, and the report Midwifery 2020 warns that by then some 40 per cent of midwives in Scotland will have retired.

The age profile of midwifery staff in NHS Tayside bears this figure out :

14 per cent are already in the age band 55-59

18 per cent are between the ages of 50 and 54, with 23 per cent in the age group 45-49.

The prospect of shortages in midwife care is compounded by the rising birth rate.

In Dundee, for example, there has been an overall upward trend in the number of births in Dundee in the past decade, rising from over 1,400 in 2001 to over 1,700 in 2010.

And some women in the city are postponing children till later in life, with 39 women in the city over the age of 40 gave birth last year

All of this should require more not less midwives, but in recent trends, over the past three and a half years, the number of midwifery staff in NHS Tayside has fallen by 8.

The threat of shortages are acknowledged by the Scottish Government which concedes that "There will be a potential under-supply in the future assuming that all the variables remain constant”

2021 is forecast to be the crunch year if things go on unchecked.

This issue deserves to be looked at from the broader perspective of overall Scottish Government spending, and in particular the 5-year council tax freeze.

Taxing Scotland estimates that it costs the Scottish taxpayer £155 million to freeze the council tax of the wealthiest 10 per cent in Scotland for 5 years .

A council tax freeze aimed primarily at making the rich its chief beneficiaries has consequences such as cuts in health spending, in this instance the ending of midwifery courses at Dundee University

Compare too the midwifery school closures with the manner in which the Scottish Government has supported a jobs decision taken by the £200,000- a year head of Scottish Enterprise, Lena Wilson.

With full blessing of Alex Salmond, Ms. Wilson has been permitted to work, in addition to her post with Scottish Enterprise, one day a month for the FTSE-100 company Internek.

Two points emerge here.

Firstly , there should be no extra job for someone in charge of a public body such as Scottish Enterprise whose priority is the revival of Scotland’s troubled industries – “ it’s the economy, stupid,” to quote a famous political slogan.

Secondly, for working 1 day per month -12 days a year, the head of Scottish Enterprise will receive £55,000 a year.

It costs on average £12,000 a year to train a midwife over a three year midwifery course.

So the earnings from the £55,000 12-days a year additional job are more than the cost of training 4 midwives for one year of their course.

Allowing a highly-paid public servant to take on another highly-paid part-time job while thousands of nursing and midwifery posts have been cut isn’t most people’s idea of fairness in Scottish society.

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Work-related stress is a major social problem

Work-related stress is a major social problem

Marlyn Glen

25 May 2012

The Chief Inspector of Ofsted in England , Michael Wilshaw, recently described how teachers in schools should be treated :

“If anyone says to you that staff morale is at an all-time low, you know you are doing something right.”

In the NHS, in one year in the last decade, the Department of Health in England estimated that “£96 million was spent on replacing staff who have left their jobs due to bullying”

Scotland is not immune from the confrontational macho style of relations at work either.

UNISON Scotland reported earlier this year that almost one in three of their members in Scotland have either have been bullied, or have witnessed bullying in a six month period..

The websites of unions in education such as the EIS, SSTA and UCU, all carry detailed information on how to deal with bullying.

What should be of major concern is that bullying is occurring in the public sector.

The spirit of the public sector is supposedly one of dialogue, co-operation, dignity at work , and benefit for the common good.

Instead, we see all too often light-touch scrutiny of those at the top, while top-heavy micro-management of those at work.

With the banks now in partial public ownership, the consequences of failure are a bonus for those in command, but P45s for its employees

The higher echelons can accept the rewards that high salaries and secure jobs bring, but they can refuse to accept responsibility or culpability when things go wrong.

The buck stops somewhere else down the line.

Common sense assumptions that the hazardous consequences of stress for health is mainly the fate of the high-powered in authority who have to take make-or-break decisions are contrary not just to academic research but daily workplace experience.

Those who suffer stress-related illnesses such as anxiety and depression tend to be those in the lower grades upon whom demands are highest and where control over one’s work is lowest.

Stress also comes with a financial cost to the organisation affected through long term absence, reduced production , and increases in statutory sick pay.

With the public sector still to face much greater cuts in spending than have been made so far, women face added pressure from job losses, since they make up the majority of most public sector organisations.

The 2010 British Academy study “ Stress at work” reported :

“Work stress has increased since 1992, especially for women. In the past year these levels have risen at an alarming rate and there are no effective measures in place to prevent the situation worsening.”

This was its “disturbing finding” - a 25 per cent increase in the number of women suffering from job strain over the 14 year period between 1992 and 2006.

The latest TUC survey of union safety reps indicates that stress is by far in the most quoted problem for health and safety at work with longer hours, heavier workloads, less staff and unrealistic targets at its root.

The TUC itself declared that “ stress is most often found in the public than in the private sector”

Meanwhile, the Labour Force Survey found that last year 77 000 people suffered from work-related illness in Scotland , and that the sectors in which stress had been most prevalent in the UK were health, social work, education and public administration

Much more work-related stress seems almost inevitable unless attitudes and behaviour towards preventing stress from taking its toll on the workforce is made a priority.

There are Management Standards produced by the Health and Safety Executive on how employers should deal with work-related stress.

The TUC says that such standards “, based on the risk assessment approach, are seen as the most useful method of tackling stress in the workplace”, but that is only because of “ the absence of specific legislation “

The British Academy study emphasises this point by asking,

“With no legislation in the UK specifically on this issue, the report questions the effectiveness of the current voluntary code of practice that is meant to guide employers in matters of work stress. “

Work-related stress is major social problem.

Tax Cuts before Tax Credits

Marlyn Glen

In 2003, Michael Portillo, erstwhile aspirant to lead the Tory Party , took part in a BBC “reality “ TV programme entitled “My Week My World” .

It featured senior politicians taking on the jobs and lives of everyday people to see how they could cope with its stresses.

Mr. Portillo’s task was to look after 4 young children while also deputising for their mother as a classroom assistant and working in ASDA.

All of this was to be done within a family budget of £80 a week.

BBC noted that Mr. Portillo said that his week’s work “was harder than anything he had faced in the Commons.”

As from last month life has become intolerably harder for hundreds of families in Dundee as the Tory Government introduced changes that will take away from them almost £80 a week of working tax credits unless they increase their working hours by half.

Over 430 families and 760 children in the city are affected.

These are the couples earning less than some £17,700 a year who benefited from Working Tax Credit and work between 16 and 24 hours a week.

The Tories have ordained that unless they increased the number of hours by 50 per cent, the tax credits would be withdrawn.

To find extra hours of work in a collapsed economy is difficult, particularly in a city such as Dundee which already has the highest percentage of those working part-time in mainland Scotland.

The difficulty of finding extra hours escalates when we consider the number of those already “underemployed” in Dundee – those seeking extra hours of work – 5,200, or 1 in 10 of the working population.

Working Families is a major charity in the field of work-life balance.

It reports that just only 17% of employers were confident that they could accommodate requests for an additional eight hours of work.

It commented,

“The change to the Working Tax Credit rules are harsh.

"Parents will find that it is no longer worth staying in work.

“Many of our callers have one parent (often the mother) in a part time job, struggling to make ends meet after the other parent has been made redundant.

“It isn’t for want of trying that these parents can’t get more work.

“Our survey shows employers can’t offer them what they need to stay out of poverty.”

An acknowledgement of the actual day-to-day experience of such families is a very rare commodity in the Tory Party.

And so, at the opposite end of the social scale, in a world of different lifestyles, expectations and opportunities, millionaires are deemed by the Tories to be in need of a tax cut windfall.

As the Party of the Wealthy, the Tories will continue to deliver for them.

Marlyn Glen : Living side by side - Underemployment and Unpaid Overtime

Living side by side : Underemployment and Unpaid Overtime

Marlyn Glen

8 March 2012

The last Thursday in February was specially designated by the TUC as " Work Your Proper Hours Day"

This was to highlight the issue of unpaid overtime , which , according to the TUC, results in an extra 6 hours a week on average being worked by 1 out of every 5 members of the workforce in Scotland.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary described the practice thus :

"The heroic amount of extra unpaid hours put in by millions of workers makes a vital – but often unsung – contribution to the UK economy.

"While many of the extra unpaid hours worked could easily be reduced by changing work practices and ending the UK's culture of pointless presenteeism, a small number of employers are exploiting staff by regularly forcing them to do excessive amounts of extra work for no extra pay."

UNISON estimate that last year the scale of unpaid overtime in the UK that it gave their employers £29.2 billion of " free work." , and this is occurring at a time of a public sector pay freeze.

Overwork takes its toll on health with greater sickness rates and a general decline in the quality of life outside of work.

Union surveys on the gruelling culture of long working hours have found that a third of their members said that they did not have enough time to be with their families.

Community involvement , social life, and even hobbies all fell victim to disproportionate working hours.

The recession is driving the excessive hours culture whereby job insecurity mounts through tougher workloads resulting from less staff and shrinking budgets.

Compare this with its mirror image , those who need to and want to work longer and be paid for that work.

They are struggling on their present income to provide for themselves and their families and want to work more hours per week simply to make ends meet.

Late last year the STUC called this situation Scotland’s " full-time employment deficit" and measured it last month to stand at a vast 502,000.

This is its estimated number of those amongst the unemployed, the economically inactive and the underemployed who would like full-time employment .

What would Dundee’s "full-time unemployment deficit " look like?

Using the same methods as the STUC, there would be around 3,800 amongst those currently unemployed who would wish for full-time employment as opposed to part-time employment.

Amongst the economically inactive , those who are currently not working because of illness, raising a family, etc, the figure would be some 4,600, although it is acknowledged that many of the economically inactive would require support to return to working.

"Underemployment" is usually associated with people being overqualified for a job they are currently doing because qualifications, while required for for good jobs in the past, today can no longer guarantee them in a deteriorating labour market.

However, here it is defined as :

those people who are in work but wanting another job in addition to their current job(s);

or

wanting another job with more hours instead of their current job(s);

or

wanting to increase the total number of hours worked in their current job(s).

The Scottish Government retains figures for the number of Scots who are underemployed in every local authority area with Dundee’s now standing at 5,200, or almost 10 per cent of the 16-64 year old population.

So the "full-time employment deficit" in Dundee could be over 13,000.

The smaller figure of 5,500 receiving Job Seekers Allowance in the city last month which is the usual measure of joblessness simply does not reflect the numbers looking for a better level of employment to raise their standard of living.

Billions of pounds worth of unpaid overtime is living alongside thousands of people desperate to work more hours so that they can provide a higher standard of living for their families.

The match up between is unlikely to be completely even , and so the remedy for both is an expansion of the economy that puts people back into full-time work.

When economic confidence returns , job insecurity and presenteeism should retreat.

Increasing job prospects reduces fear of losing a job , and it raises morale at work.

However, unemployment, underemployment and the flatlining economy are the price still being paid for Government immobility on jobs.

The NHS and the Council Tax Freeze

The NHS and the Council Tax Freeze

Marlyn Glen

3 February 2012

Who was it who said that the SNP Government "cannot continue to hide behind messages that they're protecting NHS funding"?

And who was it who added , "Chipping away at the workforce in this short-sighted manner has the potential to really harm patient care and overburden remaining staff."

It was Theresa Fyffe of RCN Scotland, a formidable defender of her members’ and patients’ rights and of the NHS, regardless of which party is in power in the Scottish Parliament.

Her comments come after the Salmond-Sturgeon assertions on the National Health Service -

"We will protect the NHS over the duration of this parliament" - Alex Salmond

and

"We will protect the NHS budget for the whole of the next parliament " -Nicola Sturgeon

These assertions exist in a different world from the inescapably grim reality of the state of the NHS that their own Government figures show.

On staffing, the number of nursing and midwifery staff is now lower than the level that the SNP Government inherited from Labour in 2007.

2,000 nursing and midwifery posts have been cut.

On expenditure, provisional figures indicate that in the next financial year, 2012-13, health expenditure is expected in Scotland to fall by £ 68 million in real terms,

In the following year, 2013-14 , it is forecast to drop by a further £88 million

In financial year 2014-15, Referendum time, it will decline further by £163 million.

By complete contrast, in an effort to establish its credentials as a low-tax party, the SNP Government’s over-riding concern above all else has been to freeze the council tax till 2016-17, at considerable cost to the public sector.

So while spending on health plummets by £319 million in real terms between now and 2015, the demands of freezing the council tax over the same period will cost £420 million.

The independent SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre ) has produced figures which show the colossal sums involved in the council tax freeze.

The total cumulative cost of freezing the tax from its introduction in 2008-09 to the end of this session of the Parliament in 2016-17 is estimated to be £3.1 billion.

Compare £3.1 billion with this year’s total budget for all of Scotland’s health boards - £7.5 billion.

£3.1 billion is broadly equivalent to 40 per cent of all of Scotland’s health boards’ revenue budgets in the coming financial year.

The fine blog Taxing Scotland comes up with some pretty impressive information on who benefits from the council tax. ( http://bit.ly/wAGfkF )

There’s a novel twist to the well-established view that the very well-off benefit the most from the freeze.

Taxing Scotland ask – how much does it cost to freeze the council of the richest 10 per cent in Scotland ?

Taxing Scotland estimate it costs £155 million to freeze the council tax of the wealthiest 10 per cent for 5 years .

They further estimate that the cost of freezing the council tax of the top 20 per cent of income earners in Scotland is £280 million over 5 years.

The £155 million that it costs to freeze the council tax over 5 years breaks down to around £30 million a year - the equivalent of paying the wages of an extra 1,000 nurses at £30,000 a year.

The 5-year council tax freeze is undoubtedly populist, representing in the words of its enthusiasts " hundreds of pounds of help to hard-pressed families" ( without adding that the "hundreds of pounds" is spread over several years ).

In everyday life, those on middle income benefit by around £2-£3 per week

The council tax freeze is paid for by councils being forced to increase their charges for their services to council tax payers and the shedding the jobs of thousands of council workers who provide essential services that the community depend upon.

Eventually all populist politics have a political cost .

A 5-year council tax freeze is simply not a viable option, and will loom over the period of the Referendum as an example of the consequence of low taxation for public services in Scotland.

No one is under any illusions about the scale and the severity of the problems that any Scottish Government whatever its political colour would face from the Coalition cuts now cascading out from the UK Government

However, the Scottish Government’s priority should not be freezing the council tax payments of the wealthy who can easily afford to pay a modest increase to protect public services.

Neither is this a time for the pursuit of the SNP Government ’s Holy Grail of lowering Corporation Tax for businesses to 12 per cent with all the serious concerns that this would pose for the funding of public services.

Just as populist politics has its eventual political cost, so Government by Assertion delivered by Soundbite meets its nemesis amongst the very own cuts that it makes.

Last month, RCN Scotland made the perfectly reasonable case for an increase in places for student nursing in 2012-13.

They argued that this was necessary to meet the increasing demand on the NHS in the near future and to replace the many nurses who will soon be of retirement age.

The SNP Government’s response was to cut the intake for student nursing and midwifery numbers to their lowest level for 15 years.

"Protecting the NHS over the duration of this parliament" ?