Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock has said that barriers need to be broken down to give the NHS the future leaders it needs.

He said he wants to:

• get more people with outside experience working for the NHS, such as mid-career business leaders
• improve training and development, learning from the military, business organisations and the education sector
• make the NHS better at nurturing the talent it already has, as currently only a third of NHS chief executives have clinical backgrounds

The Health and Social Care Secretary spoke at the King’s Fund following the publication of Sir Ron Kerr’s review into empowering leaders in the NHS.

He called on NHS leaders to lead by example to create a culture where their staff feel safe to speak out about mistakes, and where everyone understands the benefits of using new technology in healthcare.

He also spoke about the need to improve diversity in NHS leadership. This follows the government’s announcement in October that it will make black, Asian and minority ethnic representation in senior leadership match that across the rest of the NHS by 2020.

Matt Hancock said:

I welcome what’s happening inside the NHS with the new Clinical Executive Fast Track scheme, the expansion of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, and the Leadership Academy moving to NHS Improvement.

We need to equip staff all across the NHS with the right skills to constantly innovate and continuously realise the benefits that technology such as genomics, AI and digital medicines will provide. That starts with the right skills and capability in management and leadership.

Published 28 November 2018

Deputy Minister of Health, Director General of the Ghana Health Service and Directors of the Ghana Health Service here present, Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), BasicNeeds-Ghana and NGOs present, ladies and gentlemen,

I’m pleased to be here today to launch the Basic Needs Maternal Mental Health project.

This is supported by a UK Aid Direct grant. UK Aid Direct is a 5-year, £150 million programme, currently changing the lives of over 3 million of the world’s poorest people with UK aid.

This important project – £940,000, part of a £1.2 million project, has been granted to BasicNeeds UK to work with BasicNeeds-Ghana and three other NGOs to deliver the project.

It aims to raise attention to a little recognised, but important issue that pregnant women and new mothers experience.

During pregnancy and after the birth of a baby, women, and their partners, are at a higher risk of mental health problems.

The birth of a new baby is a time of great joy, but can also be a time when mental health conditions that a woman may have previously experienced can return.

And it can affect anyone – low mood, anxiety and depression are common problems that occur during pregnancy and in the year after childbirth, affecting up to 1 in 5 women.

I hope that this project will truly make a difference. It aims to improve the mental health and livelihoods for poor and vulnerable pregnant women and mothers – and their children – in target districts.

Specifically, it will make it possible to detect early on mental health conditions – particularly depression – among pregnant women and new mothers that will allow them to access treatment – whether counselling or medical management.

It will help train health and social workers to recognise and manage depression and other common mental health issues in a sensitive way.

It will provide mothers with support – from community groups and peers -so that new mothers know they are not alone, and support them with livelihoods skills.

And perhaps most importantly, the project will continue to tackle stigma around this issue.

…

The launch of this new project comes during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.

We know that women experiencing domestic abuse are more likely to experience a mental health problem, while women with mental health problems are more likely to be domestically abuse. Between 30-60% of women with a mental health problem have experienced domestic violence.

…

DFID has been a major supporter of health in Ghana for more than 20 years. The UK has a growing focus on disability, and mental health is a neglected area.

Our aim is to ensure that people with disabilities are systematically and consistently included in everything that the DFID is doing in developing countries.

1 in 4 people worldwide suffer from mental illness at some stage in their lives. And mental, neurological and substance use conditions are the leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide.

It’s a global issue in our society. In Ghana, as in the UK and in many parts of the world, people with mental health conditions have been left behind and excluded.

Between 2013 and 2018 UK aid has worked with the Mental Health Authority, with Ghana Health Services, Christian Health Association of Ghana, and with Basic Needs.

We’ve invested £10 million of UK aid to:

• scale up access to treatment in health facilities
• increase community level psychological support
• help tackle societal stigma related to mental health
• …. and create a stronger policy environment

Through UK support there has been an increase in the workforce – more than 5,000 health workers trained including GPs, clinical psychiatric officers, midwives and community mental health officers.

We have ensured nationwide coverage of Mental Health services. All districts in Ghana now provide mental health services through GHS or CHAG facilities compared to 32 districts at the start.

Mental health patients are now being registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme and able to access general health care free of charge.

But challenges remain:

Firstly, there is a lack of funding for mental health and shortages of psychotropic drugs.

Secondly, Mental Health services are limited to old institutions for those with severe psychiatric illness, rather than mental health being seen as integral to the health and wellbeing of all people and mainstreamed into community health services.

And third: stigma and discrimination.

It’s about people feeling they can’t ask for help;

… people with mental illness or epilepsy who are ostracized in their communities and so they can’t be productive members of the community;

it’s the shame this engenders in those that suffer but also their family.

And we are still seeing human rights violations reported in “prayer camps”.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The broad partnership between the UK and Ghana is now maturing to support Ghana move beyond aid.

His Excellency the President’s vision for a self-reliant Ghana is truly inspiring and is applauded by the UK and all development partners.

In the long term, economic development and investment in human capital is the sustainable pathway to self-reliance.

But “Ghana Beyond Aid” must address the issue of why, despite record economic growth, inequality in Ghana is rising. Ghana Beyond Aid can’t just be about Ghana’s “self-reliance” through industrialization. It has to be address the “self-reliance” of the poorest and most marginalized Ghanaians.

And that means the 2.8 million Ghanaians who suffer from some form of mental health disability.

A country cannot develop if it excludes a significant proportion of its citizens.

We call on government to champion mental health.

It is time for change. And this is a good moment to change our thinking on mental health.

The recent London Summit hosted by the UK government and attended by Deputy Minister of Health, the Honnourable Tina Mensah, challenged us to radically rethink mental health – to look after our mental health as we would our physical health.

Mental Health exists on a spectrum, from mild, time limited conditions, to chronic, progressive, severely disabling conditions.

We are all on the continuum – all of us, in all countries and at all ages – and some of us move along that spectrum. We all need to pay attention to our on mental health as we do our physical health.

So we look forward to our continuing partnership with Ghana on mental health. DFID is now preparing a new phase of support and we are currently working to design this with the Mental Health Authority – we encourage all CSO partners to apply as the procurement processes commences.

In conclusion

I congratulate BasicNeeds for their work on mental health, and their partnership with several other NGOs and with government health partners.

I’m delighted to declare this project duly launched.

Thank you

Today (28 November) the International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP met with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Trade Secretary and Prime Minister discussed the growing trade and investment relationship between the UK and Israel – which has reached record levels as more than $9bn of goods were traded between the two countries last year – and the importance of ensuring bilateral trade continuity post-Brexit.

On continuity, the Trade Secretary welcomed Israeli cooperation in ensuring that trade agreements are rolled over and noted the significant progress that has been made in this regard.

The Trade Secretary briefed the Prime Minister on the Brexit process.

International Trade Secretary, The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP said:

I am looking forward to an enhanced and even more ambitious trade and investment relationship with Israel as we work closer together going forward into the future.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said:

Britain is in fact our largest trade partner in Europe, one of our most important trading partners in the world and we value the friendship, we value the prospects for the future.

Published 28 November 2018

The iconic Scottish-built Széchenyi Chain Bridge that reaches across the Danube river in Budapest, Hungary, will be turned blue in celebration of St Andrew’s Day on Friday and Saturday this week

The engineer in charge of the bridge’s construction was Edinburgh-born Adam Clark.

Completed in 1849 it was one the world’s longest bridges and remains a famous landmark in Hungary’s capital today. Clark is still well remembered in Hungary for this work and Clark Ádám tér (“Adam Clark Square”) is named in his honour.

Welcoming the news, Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, said:

Lighting up Budapest’s Chain Bridge in Saltire blue shows the international significance of St Andrew’s day, and the transformative impact of Scots throughout history. Scotland and Hungary have long been linked. There is a thriving Scottish community in the country and this warm gesture shows that our ties are going from strength to strength.

I wish those in Hungary – and across the world – a happy St Andrew’s Day.

HM Ambassador Iain Lindsay, OBE said:

It is a particular pleasure and honour for me, as the British Ambassador to Hungary and as a proud Scot, to see Széchényi Chain Bridge, an iconic Hungarian landmark and a symbol of strong British-Hungarian and Scottish-Hungarian bonds, lit up in the colours of the Saltire, Scotland’s national flag, to mark St Andrew’s Day, the National Day of Scotland.

Scotland and Hungary have strong historical links. Jane Haining was born in Dumfriesshire, and spent the Second World War in Budapest helping to save the lives of Hungarian Jewish children. She was later arrested for this work and died in Auschwitz in 1944. She is still remembered in the Hungarian capital when a road was renamed in 2010 to ‘Jane Haining rakpart’.

St Margaret of Scotland, Scotland’s only Royal Saint and a Queen of Scotland, was born in the Kingdom of Hungary c.1045. She undertook many charitable endeavours such as establishing a ferry route across the Firth of Forth for pilgrims. Today St Columba’s Church of Scotland in Budapest is a joint congregation of the Church of Scotland and the Hungarian Reformed Church.

The lights will be turned on during a ceremony to mark St Andrew’s Day on Friday. The British Ambassador, Iain Lindsay, OBE, has been working with the St Andrew’s Association of Hungary and the local authorities to turn the bridge blue. This comes ahead of the 170th anniversary of the bridge next year.

The Secretary of State for Scotland will host a ‘Taste of Scotland’ event at Dover House in celebration of St Andrew’s Day tomorrow (29 November). Some of Scotland’s finest food and drink producers had their chance to boost export sales while on show in London to an audience of Ambassadors and High Commissioners from all around the world including Japan, Denmark and Paraguay.