Westminster Parliament Liaison Committee report on national party conferences activity – Autumn 2010

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ activity at the national party conferences was led by Dr Ian Hall, the Chair of the Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee (WPLC), and organised by Neil Balmer, the College’s Public Affairs Manager. Professor Dinesh Bhugra, President of the College, Dr Tony Zigmond, the College’s lead on Mental Health Law Reform, Dr Janet Parrot, Chair of the Forensic Faculty Executive, and Dr Arun Chopra, Dr Andrew Crombie, and Dr Catherine Perry,Members of the Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee attended.

Executive Summary

The Royal College of Psychiatrists attended all three of the main national party political conferences. We met with politicians from national and local government, including Ministers, Shadow Ministers, and back-bench MPs.

The political and economic environment, with a new government, proposed major reforms to the NHS and welfare state, and the backdrop of a serious economic downturn, meant that this was a key conference season for the College to promote our priorities, develop links, and gather intelligence.

The NHS Reforms and the effect of the economic environment on services were key themes for the College that underpinned our conference activity. Additional areas that the College worked on at the conferences included public mental health, mental health research, offender mental health, and welfare reform.

The College carried out a programme of activity that enabled us to meet with Ministers and shadow Ministers, hold high-level roundtable meetings with influential parliamentarians, and develop links with new and interested MPs and Peers.Our activity also focused around engaging with other professional and voluntary organizations to build coalitions around our priorities to use for future work.

Through this work we successfully raised the College’s profile as a professional organization, raised awareness of the College’s positions regarding the political reforms, and most importantly developed capacity for effective public affairs work in the next year.

Aims:

We set out with the following aims for the party conferences, which encompassed the goals set out in the Strategic Plan 2008-2011.

  • To increase the profile of the Royal College of Psychiatrists among Parliamentarians and other stakeholders; to outline the work of the College and how it operates, emphasizing the depth of expertise and experience in the College.
  • To brief Parliamentarians on the College’s key messages on the NHS reforms and the effect of the economic downturn on services.
  • To raise awareness of the Fair Deal for Mental Health campaign with Parliamentarians
  • To take forward wider College public affairs objectives and promote wider psychiatric issues on behalf of the College.
  • To ensure continuing engagement between the College and other mental health professionals and organisations.

Strategy:

We focused on implementing the aims through influencing the following Parliamentarians:

  • Ministers and Shadow Ministers – who have influential positions to develop policy within their parties.
  • Senior MPs and Peers with specific policy development roles, such as Chairs of Parliamentary Committee.
  • New MPs who expressed an interest in the College’s General Election manifesto and/or raised mental health in parliament.
  • Those with a strong interest in mental health issues, who may be keen to take forward issues that the College want to lobby on.
  • MPs that have particular mental health concerns in their constituency, to look at developing links with their local Division.

This was carried out through the following:

One-to-one meetings - These were short, often relatively informal, meetings for about 30 minutes which were individually tailored to develop shared areas of interest or potential work.

Fringe meetings – These meetings are mini-debates, often with a panel of four or five people, including parliamentarians, representatives from organisations, and individuals. We attended the meetings and asked questions on the College’s behalf. This was an effective way of raising the College’s profile at the meetings, and giving the College’s viewpoint concisely on particular issues. There was also often an opportunity to discuss the issue further with parliamentarians after the meetings.

Round-table discussions – Round-table discussions at conference are invite-only meetings with Ministers, Shadow Ministers, other parliamentarians and stakeholders. They are a cost-effective way of holding a high-level discussion, often under ‘Chatham House’ rules.

College representatives

We continued our strategy of bringing in individual college experts to take part in specific events at the Conferences, enabling us to make a targeted and focused impact on various policy discussions. Dr Tony Zigmond attended the Conservative conference to take advantage of the working relationship he had built with Conservative politicians during the Mental Health Bill, including the current Secretary of State Andrew Lansley MPand Health Minister, Earl Howe (see below).

We took Dr Janet Parrott, Chair of the Forensic Faculty, to Lib Dem conference to chair our joint criminal justice roundtable meeting. Her experience in the area was vital in presenting the College’s expertise to the Coalition Minister, Lord McNally, and other stakeholders.

In July, the Westminster Committee appointed three new Members; one a newly appointed consultant psychiatrist, and the two higher trainees in psychiatry. The Chair decided that it would useful to take these members to conference to give them an immediate opportunity to learn about the College’s work in briefing parliamentarians on a range of issues at conference and develop their lobbying skills more generally. We looked at the particular experience of each of the new members and devised a timetable of work for them at the Conferences.

Dr Andrew Crombie and Dr Catherine Perry came to the Lib Dem conference, attending one-to-one meetings, and representing the College at fringe meetings through raising questions on College priorities. Dr Crombie’s recent MA in Health Economics and Dr Perry’s work in the forensic field provided important experience to use in our parliamentary briefings during the conference.

As a former Committee Clerk in the House of Commons, Dr Arun Chopra added value to the College’s work at the Labour conference. His knowledge of parliamentary matters coupled with his contacts from his previous employment proved useful in raising the College’s profile.

Taking the new Committee members to conference was a success. Their enthusiasm, commitment to learning the College’s key priority issues, and natural style in articulating these priorities throughout the conferences enabled the College to extend our scope of work and influence significantly.

Conference Priorities

College priorities

The NHS reforms and the current economic situation were the key priority areas for the College. Although the final deadline for the first stage of NHS White Paper consultations was not until after the conferences, the policy unit, through consultation with the Registrar, set out the key messages on the reforms. Three areas of the NHS reforms were highlighted as priorities: Commissioning; Outcomes; and Public Health. The fourth priority area, which underpinned the other issues was that of the economic downturn and the effect on services. This was the final of the four briefing areas set out in the document. (see appendix A)

Promoting Fair Deal priorities

In April, before the General Election 2010, the College produced a General Election manifesto. This outlined four key priorities for public affairs work after the election, which we promoted at the party conferences. These were:

1) Economic downturn and services

2) Mental Health Research

3) Early Intervention

4) Public Mental Health

Autumn Conferences 2010: Setting the scene

As the first Autumn conferences after the General Election this was always going to be a fascinating conference season.But the backdrop of an economic downturn and a looming Comprehensive Spending Review, likely to outline severe public sector cuts, alongside the announcements of planned reforms in the health service and welfare system meant that the conferences were also key events to highlight College positions and gather important political intelligence.

Perhaps the over-riding theme from all of the conferences was that of novelty. A new Government, which was the first Coalition Government since the Second World War, a record number of new MPs, and a Labour Party with a new leader: the first Labour opposition Leader for 13 years. This meant there was a considerable amount of uncertainty, some anxiety, and touch of excitement amongst parliamentarians and conference delegates.

For the Liberal Democrats, it was their first ever party conference in government. Naturally, this meant it was a busier conference with increased security and significantly more outside observers than normal for a Lib Dem conference. But for the College is also meant it was an opportunity to meet with and monitor the activity of the mental health Minister, Paul Burstow MP. Discussions with parliamentarians at the conference took on a greater significance given their new positions of power and influence.

On the conference floor and at fringe meetings across the conference, Lib Dem Ministers spent much time outlining their policy progress, responding to critical commentsfrom activists (some constructive, some not), and attempting to reassure Lib Dem members that they had made the right decision to enter the Coalition.

For Labour, parliamentarians and party members were attending their first conference in opposition for 13years. We arrived at the Labour Conference on the Sunday, the day after Ed Milliband was announced as leader. There were two competing themes: the buzz and excitement of a new leader on the one hand, and the discontent from the David Milliband supporters on the other. This remained throughout the conference.

This feeling of transition and the obvious uncertainty involved underpinned discussions with Shadow Ministersat fringe debates on health or mental health related issues.

The Labour Shadow Cabinet at the time of the conference was largely made up of former Ministers that were remaining as Shadow Ministers and a few post-election appointments. All of whomwere only in their position until the Ed Milliband announced his cabinet following the internal shadow cabinet elections.

At a College run round-table, there were two former Ministers from the Ministry of Justice who were still Shadow Ministers in the same roles but neither of whom knew if they would be in the same position the week after, or even if they would be in the shadow cabinet. Fortunately this uncertainty didn’t detract from strong debates on the issues with the Shadow Ministers, who all had their own strong views to the proposed cuts and NHS reforms. There was also an additional openness from former Ministers about what they might have done differently or how they might develop policy.

After 13 years in opposition, the Conservative’s first autumn conference in government should have been a celebratory affair, and in many ways it was with the parliamentarians enjoying their new positions of power. But, of course, the General Election did not go exactly to plan for the Conservatives and they aregoverning in a Coalition with the Liberal Democrats, which left some disgruntled ‘rising stars’ without ministerial roles and the more right-wing activists unsure about some of the Coalition Government announcements.

As with the Lib Dem conference though, the main theme that emerged from the Conservatives was that they were “getting on with business”. This was no more so than in the area of health, where the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley MP was wasting no time in setting out his vision for reform.

Conferences and Mental health

The overall prominence of mental health as a policy area at the autumn conferences continues to grow each year. Whilst it can still struggle from being sidelined at mainstream health debates, it was striking how often conference observers, delegates, or parliamentarians themselves would make mental health an issue in health debates on, for example, public health or patient safety.

It was also the case that in discussions around the concerns about commissioning arrangements in the reform proposals, mental health was one of the key areas highlighted by parliamentarians and stakeholders as needing specific consideration.

Mental health was discussed in meetings on a range of issues, such as homelessness, military mental health, and welfare reform. This is partly because organizations attending the Conference, including the College, are working hard to ensure that mental health is central to the discussions, but also because MPs and other organizations are starting to realize the importance of the issues.

When discussing the issue of mental health with parliamentarians, two key areas of concern were closures of local mental health services and benefits concerns for their constituents with mental health problems. Whilst knowledge of mental health is still variable amongst MPs, it was clear at the conferences through one-to-one meetings and in discussions that the awareness of the key issues for mental health is definitely increasing.

Briefing on conference activity

Meeting with Ministers and Shadow Ministers

The College rarely meets Ministers in one-to-one meetings at the party conferences. This is partly because the Ministers are normally dashing around having triple booked themselves for events. But it is also because one-to-one meetings at conference are generally short meetings held in packed conference centres or hotels, which are not the best place to have high-level meetings with Ministers.

This year, however, we were able to work with the Minister for Care Services, Paul Burstow MP’s office to set up a formal meeting for the College president and five senior representatives from other mental health organizations in a location away from the conference venue. The wide agenda covered NHS reform, commissioning, public mental health, and early intervention, and was a rare opportunity for the President to sit with a Minister at conference for over an hour discussing mental health policy. The College was also well positioned having helped the Minister to bring together the organisations, demonstrating our influential role in the sector.

One of the best ways to meet with other Ministers at the conference is to attend the Health Hotel events. The Health Hotel is a collaboration of organisations - each with a strong health policy interest - who all work together to host events that encourage debate about the top issues in health. Although the College isn’t a member, through links we have established we are able to attend their events, in particular their main party conference reception. At each of the conferences, this enabled us to meet with Health Ministers, Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP, Anne Milton MP, and Paul Burstow MP, and Shadow Ministers. This was particularly useful as we were able to discuss mental health with politicians who might not normally cover the issue in detail.

College representatives attended the Care Reception at Labour Conference and met with Andy Burnham MP (Shadow Health Secretary) and Barbara Keeley MP (Shadow Mental Health Minister).This event was organized by the Care and Support Alliance, who are a consortium of organisations who have come together to raise the profile of social care and help improve the care system.

Through attending fringe-meetings, College representatives asked questions on College priorities directly to Conservative Health Ministers.

A useful fringe meeting event entitled: ‘Can Health Cuts Be Good For You?’ was held at all three conferences. Paul Burstow MP, Kevin Barron MP, and Chris Skidmore MP were all guest speakers at the Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative conferences respectively. Lib Dem mental health Minister, Paul Burstow said during the debate that: ‘The Government was determined to ensure “parity of esteem” between mental and physical health budgets’

Another useful opportunity to raise mental health was at the ‘Health Hotel debates’. These high-profile conference events, each with a journalist chairing, including Michael White and Fiona Phillips, attracted Ministerial and Shadow-Ministerial speakers.

There were specific fringe meetings that discussed health research, where the College was able to outline points from the College manifesto. The Health Hotel held a fringe meeting called ‘Research to the Rescue! Is medical research the new growth area for Britain’s economy’at all three party conferences. At the Conservative Conference, College representatives spoke to the Health Minister in the Lords, Earl Howe to highlight the lack of mental health research funding compared to other physical illnesses.