Podiatry Services

Debate between Andy Sawford and Jim Shannon

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Westminster Hall

[Andy Sawford (Corby) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I am pleased to have secured the opportunity to speak about podiatry services. I hope the Minister will forgive me if I speak a little briskly, but there are a number of issues that I want to cover. I am delighted that other hon. Members also wish to contribute.

In my constituency, which covers Corby and east Northamptonshire, podiatry services are delivered through Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. In May this year, the Nene clinical commissioning group and the Corby CCG initiated a public consultation on their proposal to make changes to the delivery of podiatry services, based on categorising the needs of patients as high, medium or low risk. I received letters from constituents and had constituents attend my surgery. For MPs, multiple contacts from constituents is sometimes a warning sign that there might be a problem. My constituents were concerned about the consultation, first, because they regarded it as ineffective, as it failed to communicate or engage with the users of podiatry services to any reasonable degree, and secondly because they thought it token. We know that the public are at times sceptical about consultation exercises, and with reason. It does not help when they see them as being more about selling a solution—a predetermined decision—than about genuinely engaging people in finding the best way forward.

We all recognise that services need to change for all sorts of reasons, not least due to our ageing population and the financial challenges that our local health care providers face. We MPs want to engage in consultations in which the public are genuinely involved and in which we feel that there has been rounded discussion about how best to work together, across the public sector and the different parts of the health system, to find the best way forward.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Podiatry is important for everyone, and those who need treatment in particular. The optician will diagnose things that other people might not see; the podiatrist, too, can diagnose things that are wrong with someone’s body—for example, he can spot the onset of diabetes and other health issues, including in elderly people who do not know they have them. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that podiatry is vital in checking for ailments that someone does not know they have?

[Andy Sawford]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and I shall turn to that point in describing the consequences of some of the changes in my area. There is a pattern across the country. I am sure that he, too, will be concerned to ensure that services are available in his area.

On 30 July this year, the clinical commissioning groups announced that their governing bodies would approve the cessation of “low risk” podiatry. They have been unable to explain to me what the standard assessment process will be for categorising patients in that way. They qualified the announcement by stating that the decision would not apply to children or vulnerable groups, which was a response to the strong feedback that the public and I, and perhaps other hon. Members, gave. I challenged the Nene CCG on the definition of “vulnerable groups”, and it told me that the term refers to

“The frail elderly and people who are likely to neglect foot-care for financial reasons”.

That is good to hear, but it is not clear who will make that assessment, and on what basis. We must ensure that the most vulnerable can access care.

Energy Bill

Debate between Andy Sawford and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andy Sawford]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) and my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead).

A year ago, my hon. Friend and I, along with my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), wrote in a paper called “The Power Book” about the potential for community energy. We argued that as the new energy industrial revolution unfolds in this country, future technologies, new sources of renewables and low-carbon energy have huge scope to challenge the existing market, help reshape the relationships between people and power providers and create new agents of delivery. I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test, who has been pioneering such work for some years—for example, he has championed the district heating project in Southampton as an MP and former local council leader.

I also want to mention such projects as the Baywind energy co-op in the Lake District, Watchfield in south Oxfordshire and Brixton Energy. There are increasing numbers of inner-city providers of community energy.

However, we have to be honest. The scale of such projects in this country is small compared with other countries. We should look to America, for example. Some 42 million American citizens, the equivalent of two thirds of the population of this country, are members of energy co-ops. The German example is even more impressive. Since 1990, German citizens have had a legal right to be producers and suppliers of electricity to their grid system. The big step change came a decade ago when their Government introduced a system of preferential feed-in tariffs. That transformed an energy sector that once had only four major suppliers into one that now has over 2 million contributors. It also created 400,000 jobs and has lowered prices, year on year, over the past five years.

Across the UK, local councils are rising to the challenge of transforming the energy sector. I have followed community energy projects around the country and I have profiled projects in Stoke, Stevenage, Kirklees and Sheffield. I am particularly pleased to welcome Electric Corby, which was launched in my constituency on Friday. It is a not-for-profit community interest company formed with the support of the borough council to establish the UK’s leading practical community-scale test centre for future low-carbon living and transportation and to redistribute the benefits of its labours to the Corby community. As the Minister will know, Electric Corby is funded via DECC’s Cheaper Energy Together switching competition. We welcome that support, but it is very much a local initiative.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Gentleman is energetically outlining the case for the community initiatives that are taking place across the whole United Kingdom. Does he feel that these community initiatives will enable people to see that this is not being foisted on them because they have an opportunity to control the situation? That is why they are good, and they should have had a great start.

[Andy Sawford]

I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman, who hits on the key point that this is about shifting the power in energy supply to give ordinary people a chance to say to the big six, “If you won’t give us a fair deal we can do this for ourselves in our local communities.”

Electric Corby is partly about enabling people to switch their energy provider, but it is wider and more ambitious than that. For example, it will involve an electric vehicle charging point infrastructure. I recently welcomed the shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna), to Corby to see those electric charging points and other innovations in my constituency. In Priors Hall, a major development of 5,000 new homes has just begun, and there is smart metering and electric charging points across the whole development.

We are trying to lead in Corby, but I am concerned about the potential impact of this Bill. I particularly support amendment 1, which has been ably championed by my hon. Friend the shadow Minister. In Committee, the Government indicated that they were supportive of the amendment. That was welcome, and it was on that basis that it was withdrawn at that stage. We have heard some very warm words from the Minister today. He and I have previously spoken in the Chamber about energy policy. I know that he tries to listen and respond to good debate, as in Committee, but it is disappointing to find that he cannot offer something more substantive to the House in respect of amendment 1.

The purpose of amendment 1 is to raise the feed-in tariff threshold to benefit co-operative and community energy suppliers. Currently, the feed-in tariff is for projects of under 5 MW. That means that renewable developments of over 5 MW have to participate in the new contracts for difference. I share the concern that contracts for difference will raise the barriers to entry for the community energy projects that Members in all parts of the House have said that they support. The need for a higher degree of technical knowledge is one such barrier to entry. The contracts will mean that smaller generators will receive lower market prices for their power. With the end of the renewables obligation, there will no longer be an incentive for suppliers to purchase renewable energy from independent suppliers.

For those reasons, the feed-in tariff threshold should be raised to above 5 MW. I agree with the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion that we should be ambitious and raise it further, but the amendment would allow us to raise it to apply to schemes of above 10 MW. That would give smaller renewables projects a clear and certain route to market and enable us to promote the community-owned renewables sector.