How the election might impact physiotherapy and the NHS

The NHS is becoming one of the key issues for the General Election. So what do we know so far about the views on the issues that matter to physiotherapists, student physios and physio support workers?

by Rob Yeldham

21 November 2019 - 1:11PM

The CSP is politically engaged but not partisan. We don’t seek to influence how members or the public vote. But it is a core part of our role to comment on behalf of the profession on the policies politicians propose. The CSP are lobbying parties and candidates in line with our strategic priorities.

Here's what the UK-wide parties are saying

Issue	Conservative	Labour	Lib Dems	Greens
NHS, public health and social care funding	The NHS budget will go up by £33.9 billion by 2023-24	Increase spending to £154.9 billion by 2023-24 - a 4.3% average annual increase	Broadly matching Labour spending plan, but some of the money will be spent on social care	Similar funding level to Labour and Lib Dems plus £1billon for nurse education
First contact physio	Committed to providing 6000 more clinicians, including physios, in primary care	Build interdisciplinary services across primary care	Support appropriate use of physios in primary care	Not declared
Support for community rehab manifesto	Not declared	Will allocate a greater proportion of funding to “close-to-home health services”	Not declared	Not declared
Expansion of physio training places, protecting funding for students & HEIs and no return to caps	Focus on training doctors	Would reintroduce bursary for nurses and allied health professionals	Would reintroduce bursaries for student mental health and learning disability nurses	Focus on reinstating bursaries for nurses, scrap tuition fees and write off some past fees
Invest in upskilling support workers and in developing advanced practice	No new proposals at this stage	Would invest, train and develop NHS staff throughout their careers Would restore funding to HEE’s CPD budget Support workers may benefit from adult education funding proposal	Support workers may benefit from adult education funding proposal	Not declared
Action to retain physios and support workers from overseas	NHS visa for AHPs	NHS will be able to recruit overseas staff	Would make the current registration process more flexible Would encourage EU staff to work in public services	Would retain free movement in Europe
Fair pay for all physios and physios support workers in all four UK countries and across sectors	Existing NHS pay deal	Scrap public sector pay cap	Incentive payments to work in rural or inner city areas	Not declared

Labour, the Lib Dems and Greens are offering more spending than the Conservatives. The independent health think tanks say the Labour, Lib Dem and Green proposals could stabilise the NHS, but are not enough for major transformation to improve services and outcomes for communities.

Community rehabilitation has not yet been mentioned by any party. This is perhaps because all the parties, although signed up to a shift to the community between elections, fear the public will only understand promises about hospitals. This underestimates the appetite amongst the public to see improvements in more locally based healthcare. We have seen some individual candidates backing #RightToRehab

Labour are proposing to introduce so-called “safe staffing” limits. The CSP has opposed this as nursing focused and counter productive outside narrow areas of acute care. They do indicate this would cover all staff, not just nurses. The real problem is lack of clinical staff supply, not the NHS not wanting to employ more clinical staff.

Bursaries seem flavor of the month with opposition parties. The Lib Dem and Green bursary proposals do not mention AHPs, so we assume physio students would not benefit from bursaries. Without more detail on Labour’s bursary proposals, which we have asked for, we cannot judge whether their plan will address the physio supply problem or make them worse. The amounts payable to students need to be at least as much as loans, HEI funding needs to be guaranteed and there must be no return to a cap on numbers.

Around 14% of the current physio workforce are from overseas including the EU. So pledges on visas from the main parties sound positive, but the devil may yet be in the detail. One positive development however was the Conservative minister explicitly mentioning physios in this context.

Health is devolved to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, some parties are using the Westminster election to set out their stall on health. The DUP has committed to supporting the expansion of first contact physiotherapy, as have the Conservatives. The SNP are proposing UK wide legislation to prevent the NHS being included in any future trade talks.

The CSP will not be providing a running commentary of the election debate. However as major announcements are made we may comment. Follow #RobYeldham on Twitter for real time news.

Note - figures quoted are from the parties and are not verified independently.

Updated 21 November.

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