The intentions and motivations of our diverse group of 16 Sussex MPs are not always easy to understand from their behaviour communicated through Hansard, which provides a transcript of their spoken words and occasional written requests in Parliament. No doubt part of the reason for this is that Hansard is not able to describe their body language and far too often the same words can be used in a variety of ways depending on what issue the person is really focused on. However when as electors we are told that we can hold our MPs to account via the ballot box, that is a rather poor sense of what the word accountability means. When it comes to elections most Politicians invest a great deal of time and effort in presenting themselves in a positive way through their campaigns and so the idea of accountability every five years is not really effective if that is the only material to hand. It is for this reason, albeit with the limitations of Hansard as mentioned above that I subscribe to a website called ‘They work for you’ which enables people to list MPs and then every time they speak or submit a written request, the subscriber gets a message with the content included. One of the 16 Sussex MPs who I follow in this way is the MP for Mid Sussex, Nicholas Soames. As the grandson of Winston Churchill he is an interesting person to observe even though I often disagree with his views on many subjects. In the past he has occasionally asked questions of the Government that he could get answered much more quickly by asking the question directly of the organisation concerned. However in doing so his question will never appear on Hansard and so I suspect sometimes he uses the Government to help market his requests, even if every question he asks costs you and I around about £170. In the last few weeks he has asked at least three questions on a theme which does seem to have relevance to all Sussex residents. These questions do not seem to be so much a focus on gaining credibility for his own work on behalf of his constituents as raising a genuine concern with a Government designed system. His questions all relate to the NHS structure known as the Sustainability and Transformation Plans or STPs. I have written about these in the past, not so much from the point of view of how well our STP is doing as on a more fundamental perspective which relates to their formation going back to the end of August 2016. There was a press release at the time which stated “We need an NHS ready for the future, with no one falling between the cracks. To do this, local service leaders in every part of England are working together for the first time on shared plans to transform health and care in the communities they serve, and to agree how to spend increasing investment as the NHS expands over the next few years.” The press release referred to the creation of the STPs which it stated as being STP footprints which at that time totalled 44 such groups and went on to state “Proposals are at a draft stage but we expect all local leaders to be talking to the public and stakeholders regularly – it is vital that people are able to shape the future of their local services. No changes to the services people currently receive will be made without local engagement and, where required, consultation. There are longstanding assurance processes in place to make sure this happens.”

I do not recall every hearing or reading about such consultation or engagement. Part of my frustration is the idea that a Sussex and East Surrey STP makes any sense to members of the public. We all have some sense of identity and of course people living in communities on the edge of Sussex and Surrey may not relate well to either County area, but those in East Surrey will certainly not feel any obvious affinity with people in Rye, Chichester or Brighton. All STPs are measured by the Government on a number of criteria and then placed in one of four categories. We along with four other STPs are in the category 4 “needs most improvement”. I cannot tell anything from the answers provided to Nicholas Soames that explains when as residents we will begin to be engaged about the STP, but let us hope he and the other 16 MPs in Sussex will start to challenge the Government on this issue, so that at the very least our STP rises to a higher state than category 4! 

The above text was published today in the Argus newspaper, the three questions along with the answers are available here, here and here!