Tony Danker

As NHS Confed says in its latest report, fundamental, system wide change is indeed needed to scale up pockets of best practice into a new neighbourhood health service. Interesting focus on investment in capital assets – just last week we were speaking to a pioneering service transformation lead who’s offering one-stop-shop community hubs that are cutting waiting times, and improving patient outcomes, but can’t cater for all conditions without the physical space to do so. You also need the right people in place to deliver the service, and we will be pushing for community services – including rehab - to get a renewed focus from funding to commissioning and incentivising. Because everyone deserves the right to rehab. And it's how we move care from hospital to community also known as closer to home. https://lnkd.in/eqSwCpH8

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📢 Calling SMEs in Torfaen📢 The #SouthEastWalesBusinessClimateCoalition, Business Wales - Busnes Cymru & Torfaen County Borough Council are excited to present this carbon reduction workshop for businesses based in Torfaen County Borough Council. This workshop will be split into three sections each focussing on the following: ✅ Networking and chance to discuss specific decarbonisation issues in your local area ✅ How to Successfully Communicate your Decarbonisation Actions ✅ GHG Emission Calculations and Carbon Reduction Plans By attending this workshop, you will: ◼️ Discover the range of support available from Business Wales, the South East Wales Climate Coalition, and your local authority to assist you on your carbon reduction journey. ◼️ Receive practical insights on effectively communicating your carbon reduction goals ◼️ Develop a solid understanding of the fundamentals of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting, including an overview of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and the data required for accurate emissions calculations. ◼️ Explore practical steps you can implement to reduce your GHG emissions. ◼️ Begin calculating your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and drafting a comprehensive Carbon Reduction Plan ◼️ Sign Up to Business Wales Green Growth Pledge This workshop is for SMEs (from all sectors) based in Torfaen County Borough Council. More information and registration can be found below. https://lnkd.in/eew5x88W

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Looking forward to chairing this session for PLMR Genesis colleagues next week, with an expert panel discussing what may happen in the polls coming July 4th & what the East of England needs from a new administration. Sign-up details below if you want to listen in! #politics #policy #publicaffairs #eastofengland

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👉UNBELIEVABLE… …to him, but entirely believable to others🤷‍♂️🫤 This opening statement by the ex-Chair of Royal Mail, Allan Leighton, evidenced in the ongoing Post Office Inquiry offers important insight to our ‘belief systems’: 1 The inadequacy of them; an inadequacy that can prove to be fatal for you, and others 2 The need to widen them in order to prevent inadequacy becoming normalised 3 The need for independent professional support to help you widen them 4 How we continue to deceive ourselves and harm others until we take responsibility for them (1-3 above refers) This link to a conversation about self-responsibility and belief systems with Professor MacLennan who can help you widen them may prove helpful: https://lnkd.in/ef2WutnT This link to ‘Wilful Blindness’ which promotes an understanding as to why Allan Leighton said what he meant may also help: https://lnkd.in/e7YZ9nWs Margaret Heffernan Prof Nigel MacLennan Leadership Coach and Integrity Campaigner 🎶Crack The Shutters🥰✈️ https://lnkd.in/eis9UeWR https://lnkd.in/e7dG4mpD

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Please see below the opportunity to pitch for up to £1m of investment. It's a timely post by Tracy Sherratt BB Cert as we just ran a Finance and funding Big Business Breakfast event this morning where we heard from a number of funders including Ryan Cartwright, Mark Savill and Michael Lowe (DipAF). If the timescales below are a bit tight for you i'd encourage you to speak to any of these three about how to secure finance to help your business grow. They will cross refer you to the most appropriate funding. #businessgrowth #businessfinance

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Labour has just delivered its first budget in 15 years, a totemic moment for the new government that will define their whole parliamentary term. Alongside the major headlines of a significant expansion in spending - especially on the NHS and on investments, funded by massive borrowing and a £40 billion tax hike - the highest since 1993, there are also notable policy signals underneath it. This includes the likely broadening of the sugar levy on drinks and the expansion of breakfast clubs, an effective cut on international development aid, which will disappoint both charities and many Labour MPs and a huge injection on spending on green energy infrastructure. From a comms viewpoint, Labour needed to land two messages: going for growth and it won't hit working people. There may be frustration therefore that both of these were undermined by the independent OBR watchdog. The OBR has projected growth later in parliament to be sluggish, and well below Starmer's hope for a 2.5% GDP annual growth rate and the hike in employers national insurance to be mostly passed on to workers. The radical departure of the message of caution and limited tax rises during the General Election may also hurt them. Labour do have time given they are still at the beginning of term with a huge parliamentary majority. They will hope the improvement in key public services will pay dividends and calculated the accusation of austerity 2.0 was too fatal for their core support. Nevertheless, this is a major gamble for Labour. The government has thrown a lot of money at seeds which may not sprout for many years. Tax rises (which are near Corbyn 2017 manifesto level) could drag economic growth, which could be fiscally and politically disastrous. The high borrowing leaves the treasury exposed: the fiscal headroom is small and could erode quickly if markets decide to increase the cost of borrowing. Looking ahead, the Treasury will face a multi-year spending review in Spring, which sets the budgets for Departments for 2026–27 onwards. And in two years - a lot of the front loaded spending will level off - if there is no uptick of growth to bring in fresh cash, the Treasury will face fresh pressure to find more ways to raise revenue to commit to ever demanding public services. We won't know the full impact of this budget for years to come - but it will be felt by all of us. You can see more insights in the blog below! ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eC2fHkWd

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Another election means another business manifesto from Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce - published today! It has been a real privilege to advise on the development of this prospectus for the next UK Government in conjunction with many of the fantastic businesses that make up AGCC's 1,300-strong membership and some great input and insight on the challenges and solutions from a range of sectors represented on AGCC's Policy Chamber. This edition covers how we can build a more conducive environment for doing business, ensure a successful transition to net zero, build a city and region we can proud of and put the right infrastructure is in place to support development, economic growth and high-quality jobs. Hopefully it provides some food for thought for all candidates from all parties as as they set out their stall over the coming weeks. #GeneralElection #policy #manifesto #economicgrowth

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📢 📢 So pleased to see some great commitments in the election manifestos to support SMEs, most notably tackling late payments, support for digital invoicing and the role of open finance to help SMEs access credit. Sage has been advocating for these types of initiatives for some time, as set out in our Blueprint for Digital-led Growth, where we made the case for digitalisation as a key lever to address late payments and improve cash flow. 📈 👉 For the UK to thrive in the twenty-first century, every business in every part of the country needs to be empowered to make the most of technology. We’d like to see the next Government put in place a clear digital adoption plan with the right incentives and regulations, like e-invoicing to help small and mid-sized businesses adopt digital tools and reap the benefits of AI. Adam Prince BEM Jessica Jensen Klaus-Michael Vogelberg Terence Trench Ayesha Ansari Benjamin Robinson Natasha Thomas Natalie Sweet Neal Watkins Chris Downing Amy Lawson David Ginivan Natalie Falkous Katie Thomas https://lnkd.in/eJWCEJjs

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👀 Huge opportunity, and calling collaborators - What do we want our country to look like in 2050? How should we develop the national vision and strategy for the UK? 👀 At the Apolitical Foundation conference this week, Catherine Day of the Cabinet Office and Robyn Scott of Apolitical Foundation, with the support of others including Involve launched an ambitious cross-sector initiative. We seek ideas for the development of a national programme of strategy setting for the UK. Share your details in the form below, if you'd like to contribute ideas and expertise! Why a UK strategy? I believe we must define our national goals - and it can't be just governments who define them. It's exceptionally hard to do - just look back at the last 10 years and the shocks and surprises we met - strategy has to account for change and complexity. But setting the vision has to be done, because with shared goals, we can tell whether we're succeeding, and whether we are building a country that is on the right track. Without a shared direction, people and governments can become increasingly disaffected with each other - the people go unheard and fall prey to populism and short-termist solutions, and governments take wrong turns and work diligently on the wrong things. Everyone has a stake, the public, businesses, civil society. We all need to collaborate to create this vision and share it so we have something worth hoping, working and fighting for. But how should we do it? Two principles underpin this call... 🤲 The design has to be for a truly national, at-scale, deep engagement, including deliberative and participative approaches 🏛 Whatever the strategy, our institutions need to change to help us design and deliver on this vision. I'll be putting forward Involve's point of view on all these and helping where I can to convene and discuss collaboration. Get in touch!

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Further to my posting today's article in the Sunday Times highlighting the challenges to hospice charities in matching NHS pay awards, this was the Government's November 2023 announcement of £1.5bn to help non-NHS organisations, including charities, meet the cost of earlier 23/24 pay awards. While the then Health Minister is quoted as saying that the creation of this pot "will ensure hardworking healthcare staff and the organisations they work for are not financially disadvantaged as a result of the NHS pay deal", literally only a tiny handful of charitable hospices were eligible to apply, because of the requirement to show that "their staff are employed on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts". In layman's terms, this means mirroring not just NHS pay levels, but all of the Terms and Conditions. In part because of the precariousness of our funding model, almost every hospice Board in the UK has decided it would be too risky to offer "dynamically linked" contracts to their hospice employees. But they do nevertheless match the salary increase. Mature Government policy and decision-making should be about learning lessons, often incrementally. It is clear that the intent of this November 23 announcement was highly positive and supportive. I would also be pretty sure that the DHSC / NHS would have assumed at the time that they would be helping hospices, unaware of how few could tick the "dynamically linked box". But unfortunately almost no hospice was able to access any of this funding. Hence, surely a fairly obvious solution identifies itself? A second and very much smaller funding pot, this time only open only to hospices, to allow those that missed out on the 2023 pot to receive the kind of support that the Government hoped at the time. Eligibility should begin and end with the hospice being able to demonstrate how much extra the pay awards to its care staff have cost over the past two years. https://lnkd.in/epeZjr_A

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A week today we’ll be hosting the latest in our series of MPs Question Time events sponsored by Woodland Group. In the run-up to a General Election - and with many economic headwinds still prevailing - there's never been a more important time to ensure that Doncaster’s politicians are appraised of the challenges and opportunities facing your business. For those that have attended these events in the past, I’d also note that we will be giving it a bit overhaul, based on your feedback, to emphasise interactivity and be less reliant on pre-submitted questions. Hopefully, this subtle reboot will produce more spontaneous discussions and give you more of a chance to have your say.   On that note, I’ll personally be facilitating this session and will asking the attending politicians one question only before then going to floor for direct input from the business leaders in the room. We’ll also be asking attendees to contribute to a few anonymous polls on the day to ask how delegates are feeling about what they’re hearing and what’s going to influence their voting intentions. Despite the understandable frustrations that we all have with politics from time to time, the more businesses that attend events like these, the louder our collective voice is. If you’ve not yet booked on, get your voice heard by signing up here: https://lnkd.in/ePRVPdpq. Fabian Braithwaite, Andy Morley, Jim Carley, Jade Dyer, Rebecca N., Vicki Brooks, Laura Hemstock, Luke Fermor

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Social Outcomes Contracts support highly vulnerable people with complex overlapping needs - a fact recognised by Gordon Brown, in his foreword to our report on how social investment can drive better public services. Our report is based on new independent research showing that Social Outcomes Contracts have delivered £1.9b of public value in the UK, or £9 of value for every £1 spent by government. Greater government commitment to outcomes-based commissioning will lead to #OutcomesForAll - especially the most vulnerable in our society.

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We have a brilliant line up for the Institute of Economic Development conference this autumn, coming at a pivotal time for influencing the future shape of UK economic development after the General Election. Join us and some brilliant minds to be part of influencing future government strategy and the impact of our profession. Full details below>> #localgov #econdev #regeneration #investment #prooperty #RICS #RTPI

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The Chancellor’s first budget is out! I do want to say that alongside ambitious plans for growth and resilience, it was great to hear how Rt Hon Rachel Reeves is recognising the milestone and taking her role as the UK’s first female Chancellor seriously – showing up as a role model for women everywhere. Inspiring to see leadership like this in action! 💪✨ From her announcements, this is what stood out for us at Welsh ICE: 🔹 National Insurance & Capital Gains Changes: Employer NIC is rising, and capital gains rates will now be 18% and 24%. If you’re an entrepreneur reinvesting gains, now’s probably the time to explore alternative ways to maximize cash flow and consider how these changes fit into your growth plans. 🔹 Funding for Innovation & Infrastructure: With £100bn in capital investment and £20bn for R&D, we’re looking at great opportunities for enterprise hubs and grassroots businesses, especially with the additional £1.7bn for Wales. If you’re in R&D or tech, definitely look out for grants and funding streams to drive your projects forward! 🔹 National Living Wage Increase: The rise to £12.21/hr is fantastic news for workers. For small business owners, this will mean adjustments – now's important to find ways to streamline operations while keeping your team as motivated and supported as possible. 🔹 Business Rates Relief for High Streets: A 40% relief is coming for retail, hospitality, and leisure – great news for high street businesses! If you’re considering a high-street presence, 2025-26 could be the perfect time for you! Perhaps trial a pop up shop opportunity like ours in Ffos Caerffili now! As a practical takeaway to our network of entrepreneurs - start planning now! Consider how these changes impact your business roadmap and reach out if you need guidance. Welsh ICE is here to help you navigate, adapt, and make the most of new opportunities. In fact, we have a workshop coming up soon with Alexis Charkiw covering "Implications of the Autumn Budget on your Business": https://lnkd.in/eUwVVd3m The chancellor sells this budget as seizing opportunity amid change. What’s your take? Let’s break it down together – please share your thoughts below 💬 Let's chat! #Budget2024 #WelshICE #Entrepreneurship #PracticalTakeaways #Community #HighStreetRevival https://lnkd.in/emph_HPR

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The theme of 2024's Black History Month (albeit we're conflicted about the need for one at all) - is 'Reclaiming Narratives', a theme which is powerfully resonant within the Rape Crisis movement. We see and hear daily - as do our centres - that the needs of women and girls, and particularly those who face multiple intersecting inequalities, are overlooked as a result of misinformation, myths and distorted narratives. One of RCEW's core values is that of empowerment. This means supporting women and girls to be experts in their own lives, to have agency, autonomy and freedom of choice, and to take control of their own narratives. One of the most significant aspects of our identities are our names. A Race Equality Matters poll found that 73% of people have had theirs mispronounced - something which I have plenty of experience of, and which I know can send the message that who you are simply isn't important to those around you. That's why I'm participating in the #MyNameIs campaign, aimed at empowering colleagues to include the phonetic spelling of their name in their email signature. You can find out more about #RaceEqualityMatters and this campaign here: https://lnkd.in/eTT5eqWk

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A big turnout for a big Budget. Great to have political, market and media heavy-hitters giving their analysis of Labour’s fiscal statement at MHP Group HQ this morning. If you missed it, read our top five takeaways here: https://lnkd.in/eWReUnXb

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This feels like urgent, important work in the context of global changes afoot at the moment. When America's information ecosystem is all but lost, how can we protect and renew what is left of ours? We will be looking at 1, new threat research to understand the implications of the Trump administration here, 2, new regulation, 3, new ways to safeguard traditional news, 4, government communications, and 5, citizen empowerment. So we can't do it alone and want to involve partners - see how to get involved below. Brilliant work by Elizabeth Seger Hannah Perry and team, with support from William Perrin OBE FRSA

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Such a change from the March Budget when there was very meagre pickings for solving the affordable housing crisis. My blog on today's Budget headlines and next steps for #ukhousing is incoming, but meantime, as just one example of why today is important, the rent settlement consultation in England has been published alongside today's #budget24 (link in comments).

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