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Health and Education

There is merit in the new choose-and-book system, but I am not so sure about the targets being set, such as the one for 15 per cent. private-sector provision. The York hospital trust is interpreting that in an interesting way. The treatment centre at the York hospital site is being built in partnership with Capio, and will be staffed entirely by doctors on secondment from the NHS. In phase two of the development, the trust wants to build, with the help of a private sector provider, as many as four wards for elective surgery on the York hospital site, but again it wants to second doctors from the NHS rather than bring them in from developing nations. The private sector providers think that that will provide greater continuity, and it will be interesting to see how Ministers react to the proposals. In the run-up to the next general election, if we do not manage choice properly, there will be the danger that some hospitals will be under severe pressure. In mid-Yorkshire, for example, the plans for a private finance initiative new build at Pontefract and Pinderfields are delicately balanced. They could be unbalanced if the private sector has to provide 15 per cent. I also support the new dental school proposed for York, but I want to move on to education in the minutes that remain to me. When, at 7.10 in the morning, I made a rather bleary-eyed acceptance speech in response to my unexpected election victory, I stressed that, in this Government’s third term, I wanted the schools in the poorest areas of Selby to achieve as much as those in the more affluent areas. The signs are already very good. For example, in a school in the Fairburn with Brotherton ward of my constituency, only 52 per cent. of 11-year-olds achieved level 4 or above in English and maths in 1997. The total is now 82 per cent. That is above the national average, and it stems from the tremendous leadership shown by the head, John Evans. The success is also down to extra resources—the school is a new building—and it shows what can be achieved. Other programmes, such as Sure Start, have proved tremendously successful. I am more or less an observer of the city academy debate, as we are not going to get one in Selby. I have heard hon. Members supporting the establishment of city academies in other locations, where they have been agreed with local authorities and local residents, and I am sure that, in those circumstances, they are a good thing. However, the Labour manifesto makes no mention of removing the power of local authorities or communities to say no to such academies, if that is what they choose to do. I am pleased that the Queen’s Speech contains no proposals to remove the power of local authorities to resist city academies. Perhaps that is a victory for the Secretary of State over Lord Adonis. New schools and new investment must be welcomed, but do we really need to follow the Government’s model, under which all power is given to a person who may donate only £2 million out of the £30 million needed to build a school? One person who successfully resisted a city academy in Waltham Forest said:"““We haven’t got anything against this man””—" in this case, Jasper Conran—"““as an individual, but why should all this public money and power be handed over to people just because they happen to be very rich?””" The principle involved is not especially modernising, and does not offer much in the way of accountability. Ministers should proceed very cautiously when it comes to city academies: they should abide by the spirit of the manifesto, but not go beyond it. That is the big challenge for the two Secretaries of State on the Front Bench today. They must get right the balance between the public sector ethos and the proper use of market forces in both education and health. If they can do that, they will be heroines of the Labour movement. We have been promised that, at some stage in this Parliament, there will be an orderly transition between Prime Ministers. It will be a test of Cabinet Government to ensure that there is a smooth transition of policies on health and education when that change takes place. I am sure that both Secretaries of State are well up to the task. I want our Chancellor and Prime Minister to be as close, in the next two or three years, as they were when they ate ice creams together during the general election campaign.