February Discussion Meeting

            DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC:              NHS - THE WAY FORWARD

SPEAKER:        JON WILLIAMS

TIME:                8pm to 9.15pm

DATE:               SUNDAY, 9th FEBRUARY 2014

VENUE:           CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD


  Jon is a former Chair of the Dronfield Labour Party and has produced a series of important articles about the NHS which we have previously run on this blog. Our series on the NHS runs to 15  articles in all. Jon has written nine of these and has provided material that has been incorporated into numbers of other items. The whole series can be found by clicking here. It starts with his latest contribution which is of particular relevance to our coming discussion meeting. You then trawl down for the other items.

As part of the Labour Party's policy making process and in the run up to adopting its Manifesto for the 2015 general election, it has produced a number of consultative documents. Here is the avenue for accessing a full PDF version of Labour's current consultative document on the NHS. This is due, however, to be updated in early February. So our above discussion meeting will place us in a position to consider and respond to what will be Labour's final consultative document on the NHS.

Labour's consultative procedure on the NHS and on other matters is explained here,  

General Election 2015 : Where Should Labour Stand?

Ann Black (photo) of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) has circulated the following helpful information about the coming procedures in relation to the Labour Party's policy formation for the next General Election. In fact rank and file Labour Party members find out more about what is going on within the procedures of the Labour Party from Ann than from any other source. She states -

"At the end of February the National Policy Forum (NPF) will publish new consultation papers before a final forum meeting in July agrees the foundations of the 2015 manifesto.  This is the last chance to influence the policies on which Labour will fight the general election. Constituencies can submit amendments until early in June (exact date to be decided) so it is worth organising meetings even during a very busy campaigning period."

I contacted her by email for additional information as to what is happening and she helpfully added -


... the papers will be published on the Your Britain website and anyone will be able to comment.  Also Constituency Labour Parties will be able to submit formal amendments - currently a maximum of ten is proposed, with no more than two on any of the eight documents, but this is still under discussion.  However it will then be up to NPF reps from your region to decide which ones to take forward, and how, and with what degree of enthusiasm.

- the NEC is part of the NPF and will contribute to whatever emerges from the July forum and goes onwards to conference.

- the taskforces (such as this one, who took evidence up to 18th December 2013  HB)  are, I believe, supposed to be feeding in through the policy commissions before July."

I have, therefore, submitted a motion on the following lines for consideration at the next meeting of my Labour Party Branch in Dronfield . It is intended to then be submitted for the agenda of the General Committee of the North East Derbyshire Constituency Labour Party.  I would encourage all local Labour activists to pursue a similar approach -

 "That this Constituency Party will hold a meeting in April 2014 to determine any formal amendments it wishes to submit to consultation papers which Labour's National Policy Forum (NPF) is due to issue by the end of February, with our local branches and affiliated bodies being enabled and encouraged to examine these consultation papers at their March meetings, and that arrangements be made for a Regional Member of the NFP  to attend the April meeting."

The Your Britain website can also can be examined now to see the current state of play on the policy discussions. There is plenty of scope for improvement.