Tony Hockley

NHS management is resilient. From the the NHS Executive, the NHS England, to whatever management is called next. The work goes on regardless of the door badges. In the end the NHS suffers from underinvestment in good management. Politicians confuse quality & quantity

#NHSengland

Global, regional, and national prevalence of adult overweight and obesity, 1990–2021, with forecasts to 2050: a forecasting study for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 No country to date has successfully curbed the rising rates of adult overweight and obesity. Without immediate and effective intervention, overweight and obesity will continue to increase globally. Pa...

Terrifying obesity forecasts in The Lancet. Huge implications for economies, wellbeing & public services. The finding that no country has shown policy success shows a need for serious policy creativity & bravery

#obesity #thelancet #wellbeing #behaviouralscience

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Making a Difference: Behavioral Insights and Public Policy USAID administrator Samantha Power argues that behavioural science should play an important role in development

Similar to many agencies doing great work in tough situations, #USAID has been using science to maximise aid effectiveness

bppblog.com/2021/12/23/m...

Trump announces 'retaliatory measures' after Colombia refuses to accept deported migrant flight Donald Trump announced an emergency tariff of 25% on Colombian goods - rising to 50% after one week. Colombia's president then threatened 50% tariffs on US goods in retaliation.

US disregard for international law may bode ill for US firms dependent on global respect for IP rights. Multilateral agreements sustain a fragile & important balance …

news.sky.com/story/trump-...

Government unveils plan to reduce NHS waiting-list backlog The government promises to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.

Wish Starmer well with this. Perhaps these NHS policies will work this time, with new tech & tech uptake? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I hope they get Jeremy Hunt on board. Without high-level cross-party support it’ll surely end up being weaponised again?

Evidence-based advice on New Year resolutions

Really like this article on the real challenges facing #behaviouralscience in policy

#behsci #nudge #behaviourchange

Gregg Wallace: Epic failure in crisis management - he just doesn't get it Gregg Wallace's attack on "middle-class women of a certain age" is a master class in how to arm the trolls. Why do powerful men, of a certain age, fail to grasp the basics of behaviour?

Is self-awareness that difficult? Stunned to hear Gregg Wallace’s natural line of defence. Whatever the outcome of investigations now it looks like he may be self-limiting his career to GB News

news.sky.com/story/gregg-...

Fascinating background to today’s vote. Also interested to note that in this ‘conscience’ vote religious MPs felt the need to deny this influence. Feels like a real shift from the past

Assisted dying bill: MPs wrestle with decision ahead of vote - BBC News As Friday's assisted dying bill vote approaches, MPs explain how they are approaching their decision.

Fascinating that so many MPs unable to decide when faced with a real policy decision, wanting even more analysis. But nod through major changes under party whips. Reflection of modern candidate selection systems?

#assisted-dying #Parliament #free-vote #parliament

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Inheritance tax and farms | Institute for Fiscal Studies The Autumn 2024 Budget brought some agricultural property into inheritance tax. What are the changes? Who will be affected? Were they a good idea?

Shouldn’t need saying, but a tax break on inheritance is a poor way to subsidise domestic #farming. Good new analysis by the IFS

ifs.org.uk/articles/inh...

Taking the heat out will be worth the effort though. The trade negotiations ahead will need some calm & detailed dialogue in place of the same old simplifications around food security, safety & environmental impacts

Outside the EU, farming faces a choice between diversity or decay UK farmers have been promised that £3bn of EU direct payments, which come to end because of Brexit, will be matched until the 2024 General Election. The economic and social repercussions of the cor…

The argument about farming tax support has been years in the making, predictable, & not the end of the shift to renewed scrutiny

From 2020 …

blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2020/...

Zero tolerance for failure under package of tough NHS reforms Health and Social Care Secretary will outline how government and NHS leaders have a duty to patients and taxpayers to get the system working well

No indication yet of how this differs from the NHS policy path that led to deaths at Mid-Staffordshire & elsewhere

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Yes. Good to see it included in the legislation

Also good to see that land managed for environmental outcomes will benefit from the same reliefs as farmed land

Good to see the Chancellor brave enough to tackle this. The relief is hugely inequitable & a major barrier to new entry opportunities in farming

Robust questioning of Minette Batters by @evanhd.bsky.social on BBC R4 PM. Farm inheritance tax break has been a barrier to innovation & new entry, & a much-used perk for the wealthy

Although what’s visible in 2029 could be shiny new kit with no-one to run it (again)

A little concerning that yet another cash boost is “front loaded” (In a budget that said “no quick fixes”)

Chancellor gets some prep time, and will be on tomorrow

The Leader of the Opposition normally makes the immediate response (a tough job), then other party leaders

Conservative benches looking like the naughty gang called to the Headmaster’s study

Worth a read, to better understand how the context of the SEN crisis. Another example of unintended consequences in public policy

Wes Streeting interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg

Two very positive points to hear from Wes Streeting on #BBCLauraK today (1) Working cross-party on social care reform (2) Full recognition that any Budget £ spent on NHS is a £ denied to other public services that impact the nation’s health

The NHS cannot Buck the Market. That’s the message of the nurses' strike - Politeia Since Covid the NHS has come under ever more scrutiny. There are demands for a change of course and calls for reform. But, says Tony Hockley, one truth must be grasped. If front line staff are to be r...

A relief to have a government that talks seriously with health unions. With RCN nurses rejecting the latest pay offer, still much to discuss. My 2022 blog on NHS pay www.politeia.co.uk/the-nhs-cann...

More families refusing to donate relatives' organs Hundreds of patients died waiting for a transplant last year, amid concerns about consent rates.

They were warned; but politics favours a (false) silver bullet. Presumed consent for organ donation can do more harm than good www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Clapping for NHS in pandemic may have been 'dangerous', health ombudsman says The new government has launched a review of the health service after taking power, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting declaring the NHS "broken".

Perhaps (just perhaps) stating the danger of placing a health system beyond question is no longer an act of heresy news.sky.com/story/clappi...

Another election and still searching hard in the Conservative manifesto for that social care fix that was “oven ready” in 2019