• Remembrance Sunday: we must never forget their sacrifice
• Over two million GP appointments at risk due to National Insurance tax hike
• NICs Rise: Govt must invest in healthcare
• Rennie comments on primary school teacher training cut
• Rennie: RAAC threatens to wreck college budgets
• 1.3m school working days lost to mental ill health

Remembrance Sunday: we must never forget their sacrifice

Commenting on Remembrance Sunday, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Remembrance Sunday is such an important day for all of us. We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, for our peace and for the future we all share.

We must never forget their sacrifice nor can we forget the veterans, many of whom will march past the Cenotaph today. They still bear the scars, both mental and physical, from their service, and our country can and must do much more to support them.

Over two million GP appointments at risk due to National Insurance tax hike

The rise in employers’ National Insurance Contributions at the Budget could end up costing GP surgeries the equivalent of over two million appointments a year, Liberal Democrat analysis has revealed.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to exempt GPs and other health and care providers from the rise, but so far ministers have refused to do so. The party is seeking to use amendments to upcoming legislation on the Budget to exempt GPs from the National Insurance tax rise.

The Institute of General Practice Management has estimated that the rise will mean the average GP surgery’s tax bill will go up by around £20,000 a year. This could end up costing GPs an estimated £125.5 million a year in additional costs, for all 6,275 GP practices in England.

This is the equivalent cost of providing 2.24 million GP appointments, at £56 per appointment. It means it could cost the average GP surgery the equivalent of 357 appointments a year.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

Clobbering GP practices with higher taxes makes no sense at a time when many people are already struggling to get an appointment.

Surgeries are already struggling and these increased costs will leave GPs with no choice but to cut services and staff numbers. Ultimately it is patients around the country who will pay the price.

The Chancellor needs to urgently rethink these proposals and exempt GPs from this misguided tax hike.

NICs Rise: Govt must invest in healthcare

Following reports that the Government is considering additional funding for hospices to offset the impact of the NICs rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

After years of underfunding by the former Conservative government, the Chancellor has a real opportunity to properly invest in health and care services to save them from breaking point.

Rather than hammering health and care services with a tax hike, hospices, care providers, GPs, pharmacists, dentists and front-line medical charities must be exempt.

Rennie comments on primary school teacher training cut

Commenting on the report in the Scotsman newspaper that targets for training new primary school teachers could be slashed by up to a fifth in Scotland, with officials discussing a cut of between 10% and 20% over the next two years, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said:

The level of unemployment, short term contracts and underemployment among teachers, especially primary teachers, has been far too high. New teachers have been left on the scrap heap.

This is because the government have failed to secure 3,500 extra teachers as they promised at the last election. The decision to cut the intake at ITEs (initial teacher education) is a sign of the government’s failure to deliver that recruitment.

Rennie: RAAC threatens to wreck college budgets

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie has today written to the Education Secretary to express his concern after it emerged that as many as seven colleges have now identified the dangerous concrete RAAC at their sites.

Mr Rennie’s letter is as follows:

Dear Jenny,

I am writing to highlight concerns over the state of the repair backlog to Scotland’s colleges and the impact that the dangerous concrete RAAC is having on college budgets.

In an article published in The Scotsman last week, college leaders warned of “extreme concerns” about the impact of an escalating £775 million repair backlog that is being exacerbated by the discovery of dangerous crumbling concrete at several sites.

You will be aware that UHI Moray college expects to completely close a wing of its building this winter amid concerns about the impact of snow and rain on its RAAC roof.

Budgets for colleges have faced successive rounds of cuts and the result is classes learning in buildings that are crumbling around them.

I am concerned that this is short-sighted because colleges are well placed to provide the workers that sectors such as our renewables industry and the care sector need.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have warned of the risks posed by RAAC for well over a year. We need a national fund to remove RAAC from our public buildings but to date, I don’t think the Scottish Government has set aside a single penny for this purpose. It’s not sustainable to leave this up to cash-strapped councils, health boards and colleges to pick up the tab.

Yours sincerely,

Willie Rennie
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson

1.3m school working days lost to mental ill health

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today warned of the “mounting toll” of mental health absences among Scottish education staff, as he revealed that a staggering 1,362,204 teacher, support staff and nursery staff days have been lost for mental health reasons since April 2018.

Figures uncovered by Scottish Liberal Democrats under freedom of information legislation, reveal:

• 1,362,204 school and nursery staff days were lost for mental health reasons between 2018/19 and 2023/24. This equates to more than 3,732 years.
• The number of staff days lost has risen from 172,690 days in 2018/19 to 301,314 days in 2023/24.
• South Lanarkshire had the highest number of staff days lost in 2022/23 with 27,563 days lost, followed by Glasgow on 22,136 days and North Lanarkshire on 20,745 days.

Mr Rennie said:

These troubling figures show the mounting toll that mental health absences among teachers and staff are taking across our schools and nurseries.

From rising violence in classrooms to a lack of support to tackle the attainment gap, the message that successive Scottish Education Secretaries have sent is that teachers are on their own.

When learning environments are turning into pressure-cookers, it’s no wonder staff are going off sick.

It’s time to stop asking our education staff to perform miracles. I want to see the government get back to basics by ensuring teachers and staff have the resources and support that they need.