Southport Model Engineering Club's Open Weekend

THE Southport Model Engineering Club will be holding an Open Weekend, this weekend, at the club's venue, located at the top end of Victoria Park, Rotten Row, Southport, Merseyside, PR82DA. We are told that visitors will be welcomed to see the delights of these large-scale models and also see gauge 1 live steam and 16mm garden railways working. Visitors will also have the opportunity to look at the boats sailing on the boating lake, and more... For more details please contact: see:- SouthportModelEngineering.Club.

£4.51m Boost For Energy Efficient Homes across the Liverpool City Region

HUNDREDS of households in the Liverpool City Region should see their energy bills drastically reduced after the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority approved a £4.51m funding boost to extend one of its popular retrofitting programmes.

More than 500 housing association properties will benefit from improved energy efficiency through Sefton Council's Retrofit for the Future programme after the Combined Authority approved funding towards the project at its 10 June meeting.

The £4.51m will enable measures including external wall insulation, roof insulation, energy efficient doors and windows, heat pumps and solar panels to be fitted to 519 Housing Association properties across the Liverpool City Region.

The money will take the Combined Authority's total investment in measures to tackle fuel poverty and reduce emissions to £58.65m, which will mean energy efficiency measures can be fitted to the properties of almost 5,500 low income households. Almost 1000 homes have been retrofitted to date.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:- "Everyone in our City Region should be able to live in a safe, warm home that doesn't break the bank to heat. I want to help ease the burden on as many families as possible; especially those being hit hardest by the cost of living crisis. We've invested almost £60m to help put money in the pockets of thousands of our most disadvantaged households, making their homes more energy efficient and cutting their fuel bills. It's already making a real difference, and hopefully we can continue to help even more people."This is the difference that devolution makes; we take important decisions locally that ensure every penny spent helps to make a tangible difference to people's lives."

Sefton Council has been running the highly successful Retrofit for the Future programme, funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and in partnership with Registered Providers from across the City Region.

As ERDF funding for the project runs out, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is reallocating unspent funding from a number of other ERDF projects towards the programme, which will be delivered by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The Combined Authority is already investing £11.1 million to work with nine Housing Associations to improve the energy performance of nearly 1250 social housing properties, tackling fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions.

Consultation work has been carried out with Housing Associations across the Liverpool City Region to encourage expressions of interest, which has generated a long list of eight potential projects. Those projects are currently going through a due diligence process.

Any projects not successful in this initiative will be developed for wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which is anticipated to open for bids in Autumn 2022.

Health and Social Care Secretary sets out his vision for the year ahead

THE Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, will set out his ambition to ensure every pound of taxpayer's money is well spent in the health and care system when speaking at the NHS Confed Expo in Liverpool.  Over the next 3 years, the Health and Care Levy will see a record £39 billion of additional funding invested in the health and care sector to help reduce waiting times and ease pressures on the workforce so they can deliver for patients. Progress is already being made with hundreds of thousands of patients receiving vital care more quickly through over 90 new Community Diagnostics Centres (CDCs) to provide easier access to tests closer to home, delivering over 1 million additional checks already, and providing patients with earlier diagnoses. Good progress is being made on cutting waiting times; the number of people on the longest waits has halved in the past four months. This is a direct result of our plan to tackle the Covid backlogs and the hard work of staff on the frontline.

Speaking to an audience of NHS professionals, the Health and Social Care Secretary will talk about the power of partnerships– taking learnings from the Pandemic to strengthen ways of working between different health and care services and drive down waiting times. For example, South London Health and Community Partnership; a unique partnership of three mental health trusts;- has been able to bring out of area patients down by a third and re-admissions down by two thirds.

The Health and Social Care Secretary is expected to say:- "It's not about reinventing the wheel. It's about listening to the innovators already doing incredible things within the system; then giving them a platform to do it. There are also some 50 acute trust collaboratives and mixed collaborative, bringing together acute, specialist, mental health and community providers. They've already shown that when we partner like this, challenges that appear intractable in one place can be resolved in another."

He will reflect on work already underway to tackle the Covid backlog, improve social care and narrow health inequalities. He will set out what the Government will deliver over the next year, including a Digital Health and Care Plan, Health Disparities White Paper, 10 year plans on cancer, dementia, and mental health, a reset of the NHS Long Term Plan and a Health Education England workforce framework followed by the NHS's 1st ever 15 year workforce strategy.

Looking ahead, the Health and Social Care Secretary is expected to say:- "I've been determined we keep moving forward, because this moment in time we dare not lose. It's a moment when we can combine valuable lessons from the Pandemic, with incredible new technology and innovative ways of working, which when taken together, help us face the challenges of the future. It's a small window of time where we can make a big difference."

On leadership, he will reflect on the findings from General Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard's review into health and social care leadership published last week. The review found various examples of exceptional leadership in difficult circumstances. However, it also highlighted reports of poor behaviour, bullying and discrimination in certain parts of the health and social care system. Employing great leadership at the top will help to take burden off NHS staff, allowing staff to focus on providing care for patients and bringing down waiting lists.

Discussing the review, the Health and Social Care Secretary is expected to say:- "Just as Gordon and Linda found that bad behaviour was contagious, they found that great leadership was contagious too. It works best when everyone; even those without leader in their job description; feels like a leader. Other recommendations around training, standards and management will support this effort; helping the workforce at all levels, by creating the conditions for everyone to thrive."

The Government is ensuring the NHS has the necessary tools to boost its workforce and is able to use data to tackle the Covid backlog. The NHS resource budget will increase to over £160 billion in 2024 to 2025 on top of £5.9 billion of capital investment to support diagnostics, technology, and elective recovery.

Innovative ways of working have already been adopted; community diagnostic centres have delivered more than a million checks and scans closer to patients' homes, saving staff and patients time while delivering the highest standard of care. This is backed by record investment from the Health and Care Levy, with over £39 billion invested over the next 3 years.

Damien Moore MP presses for increased opportunity in the Civil Service

LAST Thursday, Southport MP Damien Moore raised the suspension of the Civil Service Fast Stream in Parliament, following an announcement earlier in the week that no applicants would be accepted in 2023.

Each year, the Civil Service Fast Stream sees over a thousand talented people from across the country, regardless of background, placed in impactful jobs across all Government departments, where they can put their drive and passion to great use making a real difference to people's lives.

At Cabinet Office Questions, Mr. Moore pushed Cabinet Office Minister Heather Wheeler MP to explain what steps the Government was taking to broaden the diversity of expertise in senior civil servant posts, to which she set out how the Government have strengthened "external by default" recruitment practices.

Mr. Moore, who expressed his belief that restoring the Fast Stream would ensure that the top ranks of the Civil Service continue to be world leading in their breadth and depth of knowledge, further pressed the Minister, who confirmed that places for Autumn 2022 would be honoured, and that the direct entry partnership and internship schemes would continue.

The Minister continued that the pause would allow for a review of the scheme to take place, with a view to focussing on the driving-up of specialist skills, and improving the availability of Fast Stream posts in all Regions and nations of the United Kingdom.

The Minister also congratulated Mr. Moore on his dedicated work with the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, with which he has formed close links through his roles as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Belgium, Luxembourg, and Tunisia.

As part of this work, Mr. Moore recently met with the Luxembourg President and the UK Foreign Secretary, The Rt. Hon. Liz Truss MP, as he organised for and hosted the largest delegation of Luxembourg Parliamentarians to visit the UK Parliament since 1949.

Damien Moore, MP for Southport, said:- "As part of the Government's Levelling Up Agenda, more and more senior Civil Service positions will be based across the North of England, increasing opportunity for people in Southport. It is right that the best and the brightest from across the country, regardless of where they live, have this opportunity to make such a positive impact on local people's lives. This impacts my constituents in Southport, who deserve the opportunity to let their hard work ethic speak for itself, and so I look forward to the scheme reopening as soon as possible."