I can never complain about this being a boring job. This week has been varied and very busy. Wednesday saw me presenting at leading property event MIPIM UK on behalf of the Constellation Partnership on modern methods of construction. Constellation is the collection of Staffordshire and Cheshire local authorities and local enterprise partnerships to maximise the benefits from the building of HS2. It is clear that traditional construction techniques are not going to achieve the level of housebuilding that the government wants to see in the coming years, and we will have to persuade developers and customers to consider more modern technologies. Having just finished our own custom build home, which arrived from a factory on the back of 5 trucks and was built in 6 weeks, I’m a convert. As well as speed and quality of finish, the level of energy efficiency is excellent.
Thursday was a key day in our ongoing discussion with the NHS on our Better Care Fund – many readers will be aware that Staffordshire has a particular problem with health and part of that is that people stay in hospital longer than anybody – patients, families, staff or politicians – would want. Our Deputy Leader Alan White, Director for Health and Care Richard Harling and I accompanied 2 NHS colleagues to our escalation panel in London. It was a formal hearing during which our plan for getting people out of hospital – so-called Delayed Transfers of Care (DTOCs) – was examined from all angles. The key question is whether there was a better plan than the one that we had submitted. I think that our central government inquisitors, who are quite rightly fearful of a hard winter during which hospitals are unable to perform properly because of elderly people waiting to be discharged, had hoped that there would be an obvious answer. Thankfully, our grasp of the issues and particularly of the statistics, resulted in a very constructive conversation during which we outlined why the work that have done in reducing DTOCs to zero in Royal Stoke Hospital through a scheme called Discharge to Assess (D2A) over the past year gives us a firm baseline and experience from which to work up the same programme across the rest of Staffordshire. We look forward to welcoming some visitors this week in Stafford who will continue that conversation. My hope is that we get on with implementing the plan very quickly to get Staffordshire residents home from hospital and back to good health.
Lastly on Friday, Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SSLEP) had their annual conference at Yarnfield. It was fully booked and a great attendance from business, academia and local government. Our own Philip Atkins spoke, as did a number of business leaders, and it was heartening to note the high morale and optimism among all attendees. Sir John Peace, the Chairman of Midlands Engine, was the keynote speaker, and he reiterated the key themes of the day – skills and Brexit. They are, of course, related, and there is no doubt that Staffordshire’s economy will change as we leave the EU, as well as equally unpredictable drivers such as the digital revolution. That said, with a balanced economy and a group of leaders like we had at Yarnfield, we have as good an opportunity as any to come out ahead.