:01:42. > :01:47.On the Sunday politics in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire - claims that
:01:47. > :01:57.disability benefit diskpwraim names again those who have -
:01:57. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :30:43.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1726 seconds
:30:43. > :30:47.discriminates against those who Good afternoon. Coming up today.
:30:47. > :30:53.After the resignation of a superhead at a flagship school, we
:30:53. > :30:58.ask where whether the Government's academy programme needs closer
:30:58. > :31:02.scrutiny. Our guests are Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for
:31:02. > :31:08.Pudsey, Jeanette Sunderland, the leader of Bradford Liberal
:31:08. > :31:13.Democrats, and Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP for Huddersfield. First
:31:13. > :31:17.the latest row about getting people off welfare and into work. It is
:31:17. > :31:21.thoughts thousands of people will lose their disability benefit
:31:21. > :31:27.following new legislation. The Sunderland politics has been told
:31:27. > :31:36.that people who have paid -- Sunday politics have been told that people
:31:36. > :31:41.who paid contributions can only claim allowance for a year. Nick
:31:41. > :31:48.Morris reports. The main injury I suffered was a broken neck at C2. I
:31:48. > :31:53.think they call it the hangman's fracture. After a car accident,
:31:53. > :31:57.June was placed on incapacity benefit. Two years late e Labour
:31:57. > :32:01.replaced this benefit with the employment and support allowance.
:32:01. > :32:08.Shifting everyone across to this new benefit is a long process that
:32:08. > :32:15.is expecting to last until 2014, when June's turn to be reassessed
:32:15. > :32:19.came, she was devastated by the verdict. They said you have been
:32:19. > :32:24.awarded zero points and I cracked out laughing to the man on the
:32:24. > :32:28.phone. Do you realise what's wrong with me? How can you award me no
:32:28. > :32:35.points? Bear in mind this a year ago when me mental health weren't
:32:35. > :32:39.so good. I wasn't washing, I wasn't getting clean, I was losing weight.
:32:39. > :32:43.In the report she said I was an average build, I was clean and
:32:43. > :32:49.presentable and didn't have problems. She listed things that
:32:49. > :32:52.she were only a nurse. Making it harder to claim benefits is a
:32:52. > :32:57.Conner stone policy for the coalition Government. Disability
:32:57. > :33:01.charitys say this is a farce and warn things are about to get worse.
:33:01. > :33:05.Last month Parliament passed the welfare reform Act, from now on,
:33:05. > :33:09.those receiving the benefit who have had a job and paid national
:33:10. > :33:12.insurance will only receive it for a year. Those who have never had a
:33:12. > :33:18.job and never paid national insurance contributions, can
:33:18. > :33:21.receive it in definitely. Hundreds of people in our region who
:33:21. > :33:25.received the benefit for more than a year have been told their
:33:26. > :33:29.payments will be cut off this month. When you pay your national
:33:30. > :33:34.insurance contributions into the system, that is like an insurance
:33:34. > :33:39.policy and I expect something in return. Like June, Mark in another
:33:39. > :33:45.part of West Yorkshire, worked his entire adult life, before an
:33:45. > :33:50.accident in 2009, in which he almost lost an arm. We're not using
:33:50. > :33:55.his real name, because he is still fighting the Government decision to
:33:55. > :34:00.stop his benefit. They're pulling the carpet from under me feet.
:34:00. > :34:04.People say it's a good lifen benefit. I'm not having a good life.
:34:04. > :34:09.But I have been used to working. When the Government do come up with
:34:09. > :34:14.these ideas, they are playing with people's lives. A report by
:34:14. > :34:19.Sheffield Hallam university says regions like ours will be hardest
:34:19. > :34:22.bit by the reform. There are more people in Yorkshire claiming
:34:22. > :34:25.employment support allowance than in the south of England and the
:34:25. > :34:31.figures show that people forced into finding employment will finds
:34:31. > :34:41.jobs harder to come by up here. The Sunday Politics contacted the
:34:41. > :34:48.
:34:48. > :34:51.department for work and pensions The UK spends �135 billion on
:34:51. > :34:57.disability benefits over the last decade. The Government says that
:34:57. > :35:05.figure has to come down. But as the coalition's measures tighten, are
:35:05. > :35:10.the right people being made to pay? We jb joined by Stephen Fothergill
:35:10. > :35:14.who, wrote a report about the reform. But first, Stuart Andrew,
:35:14. > :35:19.the claim here is that people who have paid national insurance all
:35:19. > :35:24.their lives can only get this new allowance for a year and people who
:35:24. > :35:30.have paid nothing can get it. Is that fair. There are two aspects.
:35:30. > :35:32.One those that can work or might be able to work will go into one
:35:32. > :35:36.able to work will go into one category.. If they have been paying
:35:36. > :35:42.national insurance that will come to an ends at the end of year and
:35:42. > :35:46.if they have savings or income, they will have to rely on that, if
:35:46. > :35:50.they haven't they will go on to the other part of the benefit. So there
:35:50. > :35:53.will be support there and there will be other benefits available.
:35:53. > :35:58.It is not an easy decision. We have gone through a difficult recession,
:35:58. > :36:04.we have a huge debt and we have a limited amount. It is important we
:36:04. > :36:09.get it to those who don't have any means to support themselves. Barry
:36:09. > :36:14.Sheerman we couldn't carry on paying the benefits at that level,
:36:14. > :36:19.do you accept there must be winners and losers? The shock is this is
:36:19. > :36:24.the cut off after a year. I don't think that is what was planned by
:36:24. > :36:27.the previous Labour Government. The medical tests was a Labour
:36:27. > :36:32.initiative and I would be the first person to say we have to cut our
:36:32. > :36:36.cloth to suit the time we're in. But the fact is that we want to
:36:36. > :36:42.make sure that benefits go to the people that need them and what we
:36:42. > :36:46.see here is I think a disjunction between policy and how it impacts
:36:46. > :36:50.on the regions as many of these policies do. Jeanette Sunderland
:36:50. > :36:56.when you're campaigning in Bradford, ahead of the elections and people
:36:56. > :36:59.say the coalition's cutting my benefits, what do you say to them?
:36:59. > :37:05.They can always tell me about the person getting the benefit that
:37:05. > :37:10.shouldn't receive it. That is an interesting take. But should people
:37:10. > :37:15.with a disability be stopped from work and consigned to benefit
:37:15. > :37:19.system? I don't think. So that noise t the world most people want
:37:19. > :37:25.the live in. Where we're is in a difficult situation. What I find
:37:25. > :37:30.odd is in a year's time benefits reform will change again and a lot
:37:30. > :37:37.of this difficulty will disafear peer. Stephen Fothergill how will
:37:37. > :37:41.the changes affect our part of the world? Well Yorkshire's exposed to
:37:42. > :37:49.the changes, because there are parts of Yorkshire in the
:37:49. > :37:53.industrial areas that have large numbers of people out of labour
:37:54. > :37:58.market on incapacity benefit. We are sometimes talk of 10% of all
:37:58. > :38:02.adults of working age have been parked on these benefits for many
:38:02. > :38:07.years. So is you're introducing reforms that will drive large
:38:07. > :38:12.numbers o' off benefit, it will affect disproportionately on the
:38:12. > :38:16.weakest local economys and the places where it's hardest to absorb
:38:16. > :38:21.people back into the labour market. You're not easily going to find
:38:21. > :38:25.another job if you're in Barnsley or Rotherham or Doncaster. These
:38:25. > :38:30.are difficult labour markets. There are plenty of other people ahead of
:38:30. > :38:36.you in the queue for work, people with no health problems, never mind
:38:36. > :38:43.better skills. You accept we can't carry on paying �135 ball year for
:38:43. > :38:47.people not to work? The long-term solution is to create the jobs.
:38:48. > :38:52.Being ill has never been an absolute bar to working. What we
:38:52. > :38:59.can see in the figures, in those parts of southern England, where
:38:59. > :39:02.the economy is strong, even now, we haven't parked large numbers of
:39:02. > :39:06.with ill health on bet fits. They have found work. In the difficult
:39:06. > :39:11.labour markets, particularly the older industrial areas of the north,
:39:11. > :39:15.that is where we have hidden unemployment and now by putting the
:39:15. > :39:22.squeeze on those individuals, we're not necessarily going the get them
:39:22. > :39:29.into work. Unless there are jobs. It was �135 billion over ten years.
:39:29. > :39:35.Not a year. Stuart Andrew it is about creating the jobs. We did see
:39:35. > :39:41.a fall in unemployment in Yorkshire, but many people say the jobs still
:39:41. > :39:46.aren't there. No, we're having to build on those and the figures are
:39:46. > :39:51.encouraging, but we have a long way to go. I think that is, that has to
:39:51. > :39:55.be coupled, this benefit changes, has to be coupled with as many
:39:55. > :39:59.policies as possible that distribute wealth and rebalancing
:39:59. > :40:04.our economy from the south to the north has been part of what the
:40:04. > :40:08.Government are trying do. We need to see more of it. Stephen
:40:08. > :40:13.Fothergill isn't the Government on the right track, do you applaud
:40:13. > :40:18.what it is doing to try create jobs? We're a long way from
:40:18. > :40:23.creating a sufficient number of jobs. Yes, rebalancing the economy
:40:23. > :40:28.is necessary, whether the present set of policies will deliver that,
:40:28. > :40:34.deliver it in the right places, places like ours and on the right
:40:34. > :40:39.time scale, I have got to say is still questionable. We have to
:40:39. > :40:41.leave that particular topic, thank you. In recent times more and more
:40:41. > :40:43.schools have opted out of local authority control and become
:40:44. > :40:46.academies. In many areas, that's meant better facilities and
:40:46. > :40:51.improved exam results. But in some cases it's prompted questions about
:40:51. > :40:53.the way public money has been spent. Sharon Edwards now reports from a
:40:53. > :40:55.Lincolnshire academy where the Chief Executive has just resigned
:40:55. > :41:05.from his �200,000 a year post, following a Government
:41:05. > :41:12.
:41:12. > :41:17.investigation into financial mismanagement. Remember this place?
:41:17. > :41:22.A �2 million French education centre owned by a chain of academy
:41:22. > :41:27.schools in Lincolnshire. Or the all new Olympic-sized sports facilities.
:41:27. > :41:32.In October we brought you the story of the Priory federation of act
:41:32. > :41:37.plees and the millions -- accused Meirs and the millions invested in
:41:37. > :41:42.it by the Government. We reported on the Priory federation and the
:41:42. > :41:46.chain of schools. Following that report, the Government conducted
:41:46. > :41:56.its own investigation into financial management. Three weeks
:41:56. > :41:59.
:41:59. > :42:03.ago, Richard Gilland resigned from the Priory federation. For now the
:42:03. > :42:06.investigation investigation -- information is going treated with
:42:06. > :42:10.secrecy. Academies are not under local authority control and there
:42:10. > :42:12.are claims they're not being properly monitored. Under a local
:42:12. > :42:16.education authority, this could not happen. There are checks and
:42:16. > :42:20.balances in place. This is what worries me about the academies
:42:20. > :42:24.programme, that we're putting our faith in individuals and there is
:42:24. > :42:29.no guarantee that these individuals will deliver or whether these
:42:29. > :42:36.individuals are the right person to deliver. And this is what really
:42:36. > :42:43.worries about about the whole issue of the academy programme. This week
:42:43. > :42:48.a Parliamentary spending watchdog raised concerns over what it called
:42:48. > :42:52.an ineffort tabl lack of accountability and say we're
:42:52. > :42:58.concerned that complainants may be bounced between between the act Mey
:42:58. > :43:02.and group head quarters with recourse thereafter only to the
:43:02. > :43:05.Secretary of State. This mother from Lincoln, who doesn't want to
:43:05. > :43:09.be identified, wrote to the Government to complain about one of
:43:09. > :43:14.the Priory schools, because she didn't feel the staff or trustees
:43:14. > :43:19.dealt with her properly. As a parent, I don't feel comfortable
:43:19. > :43:27.having a child at a school that is not accountable to the local
:43:27. > :43:37.council. Why? Because I feel they are making their own rules and they
:43:37. > :43:39.
:43:39. > :43:43.are unchallengable. In a statement Pressure on the Government to
:43:43. > :43:47.publish the results of investigation is mounting, even
:43:47. > :43:54.though Lincoln MP doesn't agree. this stage, no I don't think it
:43:54. > :43:59.should be made public. I think the federation trustees need to do the
:43:59. > :44:03.response they have to do. And I think that due process should p
:44:03. > :44:08.allowed to take place and it may be that certain aspeblgts of the
:44:08. > :44:15.report are made public. I would have thought Karl McCartney as MP
:44:15. > :44:18.for the area, a lot of people go to Priory federation schools. I would
:44:18. > :44:23.are have thought he would want to make sure this information is out
:44:23. > :44:29.in the public domain. The schools enjoy some of the best exam results
:44:29. > :44:34.in the country, the Department for Education says its investigates
:44:34. > :44:38.focuses on financial management. But with the coalition pushing for
:44:38. > :44:46.record numbers of academies, questions of transparency are
:44:46. > :44:51.continuing to be raised. Barry Sheerman, Labour launched the
:44:51. > :44:55.programme. Is there enough accountability when it comes to
:44:55. > :45:01.these academies? No, you have to remember the original idea was
:45:01. > :45:08.those schools in areas that were, people were not getting a decent
:45:08. > :45:12.education in the most deprived communities, from 200 and moving to
:45:12. > :45:16.400 out of over 3,000 schools, that was the idea. The most challenged
:45:16. > :45:21.schools were given the chance to have that independence. Of course
:45:21. > :45:25.now the new Government have inverted that and all the most
:45:25. > :45:30.successful schools are become academies. What you don't have, you
:45:30. > :45:32.don't have localism, you have centralism and this powerful
:45:33. > :45:40.education department we have ever had with individual schools having
:45:40. > :45:44.their own powers, but reporting to the Education Secretary. Michael
:45:44. > :45:48.Gove is the most powerful Education Secretary in history and the
:45:48. > :45:53.problem here is - and I don't want to comment on this particular
:45:53. > :45:57.school - but there are challenges about governance, because no one is
:45:57. > :46:03.there to hold the ring. Local authorities used to hold the ring,
:46:03. > :46:08.now no one does. Jeanette Sunderland, Bradford has many
:46:08. > :46:14.academies. What are parents saying to you? Bradford has been ahead of
:46:14. > :46:17.the game on lots of things, including having its education
:46:17. > :46:23.authority outsourced, because it was not capable of holding the ring.
:46:23. > :46:28.There is no real answer to say we need an LEA doing everything. But
:46:28. > :46:33.there are no secrets to what makes a good quality school. What is
:46:33. > :46:36.missing from the model is good quality local governance. And I
:46:36. > :46:40.would as a Liberal Democrat put that in the hands of councillors
:46:41. > :46:48.and local councillors being able to hold schools to account. Stuart
:46:48. > :46:54.Andrew, we're seeing more schools becoming academies and these new
:46:54. > :46:58.free schools, how do we know that public money is being well spent?
:46:58. > :47:01.What is important at the start when we are looking at the schools, is
:47:02. > :47:06.they bring out with the children are leaving, have the best
:47:06. > :47:10.qualifications. We're seeing already that those schools are that
:47:10. > :47:14.are academys are bringing out excellent results. But we need to
:47:14. > :47:21.make sure that there is a form of checks and balances to make sure
:47:21. > :47:24.that money y is being spent properly. If we can watch this as a
:47:24. > :47:28.rolling programme, if there are needs to tighten up that. That can
:47:28. > :47:33.only be a good thing. Free schools are offering opportunities for
:47:33. > :47:38.parents with children with learning difficulties. I have one that will
:47:38. > :47:41.open in my constituency. For parents that need some specialist
:47:41. > :47:46.education for their children. That wouldn't have been available
:47:46. > :47:50.without the free school policy. I think we have got to have a real
:47:50. > :47:55.balance in this argument. Barry Sheerman does it bother you that
:47:56. > :48:02.the head of the accused Meirs are being paid more than �200,000 a
:48:03. > :48:07.year. -- academies. It seems absurd that schools can get that out of
:48:07. > :48:11.kilt we are what ordinary people know as a reasonable salary. But
:48:11. > :48:18.you know that one thing that will happen if you have a powerful head
:48:18. > :48:24.or chairman of govors that thinks they don't have to be responsible
:48:24. > :48:27.to the public for public money. So we do need good governance and the
:48:27. > :48:35.hole in this is here is a Government that believes in
:48:35. > :48:38.localism and we have centralism. Before we go, I want to touch on
:48:39. > :48:41.another subject. Just before we go, an update on the long-awaited
:48:41. > :48:44.decision over the fate of children's heart surgery in Leeds
:48:44. > :48:50.will be decided in July, following a Court of Appeal ruling in London
:48:50. > :48:53.on Thursday. The impact of the ruling is that the review of heart
:48:53. > :48:56.surgery in the north of England continues and it could be that the
:48:56. > :48:58.centre at Leeds General Infirmary closes and is replaced by
:48:58. > :49:06.facilities in Newcastle. Stuart Andrew has championed the continued
:49:06. > :49:12.existence of the Leeds unit. What are you going to do to try and do
:49:12. > :49:15.that? I think the court case ruling was disappointing, but we have got
:49:16. > :49:20.evidence from an independent panel that back everything that we have
:49:20. > :49:25.been saying, that patients from soth u south and West Yorkshire
:49:25. > :49:28.will not travel to Newcastle and will not be able to reach this
:49:28. > :49:32.magic 400 operations a year and if you have closed Leeds, Newcastle
:49:32. > :49:36.will close and that would leave the whole of the north of England with
:49:36. > :49:42.just one unit. That gives power to our argument for keeping the centre
:49:42. > :49:47.in Leeds open and we have to make that case. Do you think people in
:49:47. > :49:51.Bradford will join that campaign? think they have. It is part of same
:49:51. > :49:59.problem that, London and the south- east is increasingly powerful.
:49:59. > :50:05.Almost everything ends up there. It is the cities fought back.
:50:05. > :50:08.would you address that?? More resource, more independence and you
:50:08. > :50:16.have to counter balance that the south-east all the time is
:50:16. > :50:19.increasing in power and influence. Are you optimistic? I am, we have a