WEMBLEY MATTERS News and views on local politics, the environment, climate change, culture and local history
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| A pavement 'repair' in King's Drive, Wembley |
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| Fly-tipping in Chalkhill |
Its good news that all 28 EU member states have agreed to make this move and help the global agreement on climate change enter into force. The timing is important – China and the US are already on board and India says it will sign up this weekend, so the EU’s decision comes not a moment too soon if it is still to be seen as an active force on this vital issue.With 2016 virtually guaranteed to be the hottest year on record, and new warnings from scientists about the scale of the climate challenge, the action required to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target in the Paris agreement cannot be underestimated. There is no time to lose. UK taxpayers’ money needs to stop propping up fossil fuel suppliers with eye-watering subsidies and go instead to a clean energy transition and the green jobs that come with it.
The EU has been crucial for the fight against dangerous climate change and has set targets which prevented our government from totally crushing the renewable energy sector. But as we prepare to leave the EU it is a worrying fact that many of those who campaigned to leave and are now steering our course and are deeply sceptical about climate change and not remotely interested in pushing for a renewable energy transition.So it is critical at this time that climate campaigners, those from the renewable energy sector, progressive politicians; indeed, anyone who cares about a safe and secure future, work together. We need to pile pressure on the government to sign the Paris Agreement without further delay, to stay within the single market which will protect the most important climate and energy targets, and to bring about the transition that will make climate stability a reality.
Again, the UK is set to follow where the EU leads, with Theresa May announcing her intention to ratify the Paris Agreement ‘sometime before 2017’. Such a loose and lackadaisical commitment demonstrates a failure to understand the importance of the agreement and suggests little intention of honouring it.With no indication from the government that it intends to drop plans to continue fast-tracking fracking and oil and gas drilling, or reject the ‘airport capacity crisis’ myth and say no to expansion at Gatwick and Heathrow, ratification is empty symbolism. Theresa May can sponsor the development of new fossil fuel reserves and encourage expansion of an aviation industry that already emits more CO2 than 129 countries. Or the Prime Minister can make a genuine commitment to meeting the climate objectives set out in the Paris Agreement. She cannot do both.
The section of the report on 'Changing the Culture' is key:· Ensure that staff maintain the ethos of self-directed support, enabling individuals to use direct payments in ways that they feel will meet their social care needs· Individuals need to have more choice about their personal assistants and staff need to work with them to ensure they feel in control of their relationship.· Staff need to work with individuals to enable them to identify and utilise personal assistants to do what they feel motivates them as opposed to what staff think will motivate people· Individuals need to be actively involved in measuring their progress; flexibility to meet individuals changing needs also needs to be incorporated· The role of personal assistants needs to be distinct from that of staff in specialist mental health services· Where individuals are using personal assistants via agencies, the role of the agency needs to be clear
While some progress towards change has been made, mental health services do continue to use the traditional, chronicity approach – characterised by staff ‘managing risk and care’. This represents a barrier to achieving consistent use of self-directed support by individuals using services to deal with mental health issues.Service providers need to replace this approach with all elements of a wellbeing and recovery and personalisation approach which is consistent with national expectations of services.
Staff need to be provided with comprehensive wellbeing and recovery training such as that designed and run successfully by BUG for some years, based on the approach developed together with people using services, carers and clinicians from a range of disciplines by National Institute for Mental Health England (NIMHE). Staff need to work with people as unique individuals in the context of their lives, in equal partnership, facilitating their identifying what they feel will enable them to improve all aspects of their wellbeing and move towards recovery. Staff’s practice needs to incorporate a strengths-based approach – recognising and building on people’s strengths and engaging with their intrinsic motivations as opposed to trying to create artificial motivations. As well as using reframing skills to challenge negative assumptions about individuals and turn them into opportunities to get to know and work with them as individuals, staff also need to use a positive risk- taking approach, enabling individuals to stretch themselves and try new things in order to achieve their potential.Use of self-directed support needs to be incorporated, including to facilitate a personalisation approach, enable individuals to address all aspects of their wellbeing, develop their self-management and utilise community resources. Individuals who took part in the survey talked about how use of self-directed support had enabled them to regain their loss of identity as well as having developed a sense of purpose in life.
Individuals Being Actively Involved in Their Use of Self-Directed SupportPeople’s response to this research has indicated that they are often not aware they are using self-directed support.1. Experience to date has indicated the importance of people using services leading to a greater extent as opposed to staff deciding what will motivate them. People also need to be actively involved in their use of self-directed support.Creating Opportunities for Individuals to Meet Each Other
People do not have many opportunities to meet each other.1. Opportunities need to be created for individuals using direct payments to meet and gain peer support from each other, sharing their experiences and finding ways of resolving any difficulties.
We need to ensure that farm payments are not directed towards wealthy landowners, a choice that was made by the UK government rather than the EU during the CAP era. The government had an opportunity to cap payments over a certain threshold and allow payments to smaller farmers with under 5 hectares. They chose not to. Likewise, with part of farmers’ payments under CAP already dependent on implementing greening measures, DEFRA chose a restrictive approach, failing to give farmers many options in implementing such measures.Molly and her Green colleagues Jean Lambert MEP and Keith Taylor MEP recently made a written submission to the Commons inquiry on The Future of the Natural Environment, expressing their concerns about the future of farming support following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Molly said:
I have long argued to cap the CAP and for CAP payments to be based on the achievement of environmental benefits but it is often conservative governments, supported by their land-owning baron chums, who have blocked reforms.
The government has failed to outline its vision for British farming following the vote to withdraw from the EU but shows worrying signs it will try and take us down a route to intensify our farming industry. There is also the risk of losing the environmental protections pioneered in the EU, such as the Birds and Habitats directive. We must also acknowledge the huge and important part farming can play in averting climate chaos by capturing carbon.Molly is also supporting a new European Citizens’ Initiative, People4Soil which aims to get over a million people to sign a petition to put pressure on EU institutions to adopt specific legislation on soil protection. Writing for the New Scientist on the new initiative, Molly said:
So, this is a critical time for small scale farmers, environmental campaigners and progressive politicians to seize the moment and help shape a healthy, economically sustainable and environmentally-friendly agriculture sector for the future.
Soil is critical to much of our food. It also safeguards biodiversity, as a habitat for below-ground life as well as helping mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. Given the importance of agriculture, food sovereignty and security to the EU, it’s time legal safeguards for soil were introduced in Europe and beyond.
I am hosting a Public Engagement event where anyone can attend on Monday 26th September at 6pm (Brent Civic Centre – Grand Hall).
