If Formula One teams want to shave a few milliseconds off a pit stop they could do no better than study Aaliyah getting up in the morning and going to work.
The alarm pierces the morning. She rolls out of bed, into the shower. From under the duvet her husband, Sam, groans a grumpy groan.
Clothes on, with the precision of a model changing outfits to walk back onto the catwalk.
The kettle with just enough water for a coffee, mug-ready in the time it takes to feed Ginger, schmoozing around her legs.
Bag, coat, out of the front door, just in time to see the bus turn the corner.
Aaliyah smiles at the driver… ‘morning’… and sits watching the ghost-town, high street with its empty shops and shutters slip by…
… and tries to do some mental arithmetic.
Because of the budget the bus-fare-cap was going up, from £2, to three. There and back, two pounds a day, five days a week. That’s a tenner more.
Aaliyah tried to think what ten pounds would buy from the weekly shop. Forty pounds a month. Taking away days off and holidays, that’s about £400 a year…
She arrived at the hospital and put the mental arithmetic out of her mind.
A conversation with Sam would have to wait for later.
Just in time she clocked in for her shift as a cleaning supervisor. Passing up a holiday this year might be the reality.
On the other side of town, Dave had already parked his BMW in the car park, and was at his desk, pounding a calculator.
He’d seen on the news the amount a business pays in NI on an employee earning £30,000 will increase by £865.80. He had 43 employees and 39 of them earned over £30k.
Where would he find £34,000? He’d have to talk to his accountant. Did he qualify for a £5k exemption? Who knows?
Dave had taken on running the business after his father the founder, died last year. They make, calibrate and import medical devices and clinical consumables. Rising costs, competition from low-wage economies overseas, regulation, inspection… now this.
A conversation with his Dad would have been good.
Passing on costs to the NHS is next to impossible and dealing with the private sector is even more cut-throat. Dave though he might be better off working for someone else.
It’s easy to think of the budget as an event at Westminster. See MPs as some sort of celebrities that fill the airtime.
The reality is the budget touches the lives of real people and most MPs are detached from that reality.
The reality is for the people we work with, or neighbours and family. The people who run the businesses that employ the people we work with, or neighbours and family.
Think of all the Aaliyah’s going to work as you are reading this. Perhaps you are one of them?
The mean average weekly wage in UK, including bonuses, is £689 gross
Think of all the Dave’s and their companies.
Small businesses have up to 49 employees and make up the majority of UK businesses, 99.2%.
They’ll be having teatime discussions. They will be talking to their accountants.
The discussions won’t be about doing more, expanding, creating, generating. They will be about cutting back and doing less.
The budget is a problem for them and a big problem for the NHS.
The budget Red Book says NHS employers can expect some reimbursement for the cost of NI, it’s not clear how much. But…
… don’t forget the hospices, the domiciliary care companies, Macmillan and the scores of charities we rely on, every day.
The supply-chain, with all its intricacies and contractors working to keep the NHS going.
A budget is not a collection of numbers, it is an expression of beliefs, values and aspirations.
It tells us what we value, what we want more of and how we see the future.
Budgets are not just on the telly, ethereal, or dainty, they come at you with big boots and the people wearing them should be careful where they tread.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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