What do David Harewood and Wes Streeting have in common?

I am just back from the UK Labour conference in Liverpool. With Labour newly elected to government the CSP successfully expanded the physio presence there this year.

We met with the new health secretary Wes Streeting and health ministers Stephen Kinnock, Andrew Gwynn and Karin Smyth. Liz Kendall the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones also met with us to hear about how rehab can support people back to work and save the taxpayer money.

We also shared the importance of rehab for patients, and actor David Harewood tried out our new augmented reality rehab experience at the CSP conference exhibition stand.

Promoting physiotherapy

Physiotherapy is a very special profession. Physios and physio support workers transform people’s lives. Physiotherapy can address many of the challenges facing the healthcare and benefits systems. So, the CSP goes to party conferences to tell our political leaders why they should be investing in rehab and physios.

The CSP is politically independent, so we engage with a range of parties. But we are mindful of using members money, so we have a particular focus on governing parties or those who have most influence where there are not majority governments. The SNP and Labour conferences have been a particular focus this year.

Scotland

At the SNP conference Kenryck Lloyd-Jones, CSP's public affairs and policy manager for Scotland, shared a platform with the RCN and BMA to discuss the workforce change across the NHS in Scotland.

We are stepping up our lobbying in Scotland as we are concerned that parliament is showing signs of stepping back from previous commitments on right to rehab and on the physio workforce.

Labour

Our England public affairs lead, Brynnen Ririe, organised a really impactful CSP programme for the Labour Conference. The mood in Liverpool was positive and the desire to make good many of the challenges the country faces was evident, even against a backdrop of a challenging and distracting media focus on football boxes and gifts from a wealthy Labour member of the House of Lords.

Labour’s policies are encouraging for the profession, although it is early days for a new government. They have committed to expanding community physiotherapy, modernising the NHS and have had early discussions with health unions including the CSP over pay. But there is an ongoing debate about how much additional funding they can find to fund their and our ambitions.

Labour pledged in their manifesto not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT. Not everyone will think they were right to do so, but there is a lot of polling evidence to show that many voters feared they would tax working people more when many are still struggling with the cost of living. There are other ways to raise more income from the wealthy. Labour committed to both sound public finances and no return to austerity. We will see how Chancellor Rachel Reeves squares the circle in the budget.

The economic case for rehab

Making the economic case for physio is therefore as important as making the clinical case. The CSP had a rehabilitation themed stand at the Labour conference where we were promoting the savings rehab offers the taxpayer, as well as using the augmented reality experience to show the patient rehab journey.

Rehab is something CSP members have consistently told us they see as central to physiotherapy and is something they want the CSP to be actively championing. So being member-led that is what, alongside addressing workforce issue and pay, we are raising politically and with the media.

We spoke to many many key people at our stand (see the list of politicians we spoke with, listed below). The rehab experience was an eye opener for many including actor David Harewood who Tasha Owusu, CSP policy lead, secured as a visitor. But ministers, special advisers and MPs were equally impressed with our promotional wallet shaped leaflets, which showed the billions of pounds of savings which could be made if we get rehab right.

Getting the work and pensions secretary and the chief secretary to the Treasury to hear our message was highly unusual and, we hope, a signal that the government is beginning to understand the economic case for rehab investment and transformation.

Rehab champions

Many of the delegates and politicians we spoke to had had their own personal stories of rehab and of successful physiotherapy. However, we also heard of problems accessing NHS care, of lack of patient choice about how to access physios and of limits to the amount of support provided. This reflects the variability of what is commissioned and funded in different areas.

We signed up a number of politicians to be rehab champions. Rehab champions are politicians who have agreed to take a special interest in rehab. You can help us champion physiotherapy by contacting by your MP, MSP, MLA, AS, MHK or States Deputy to ask them to sign up as a rehab champion. Click here for details .

We also held a fringe meeting on community rehab. Fringe meetings are where politicians and conference delegates hear from ministers and expert organisations. We were joined by the Richmond Group which is an umbrella organisation for the main health charities, the King’s Fund CEO and influential MP Anna Dixon. CSP assistant director Sara Hazzard, who is also co-chair of the community rehab alliance, spoke on our behalf.

Northern Ireland and Wales

The conversations were not just about England. Tom Sullivan, CSP’s public affairs and policy manager for Northern Ireland, had come to Labour straight from the DUP conference. He spoke to the Northern Ireland Minister Fleur Anderson about raising the state of rehab with the administration at Stormont and also with Calum Eastwood the SDLP MP at the stand. The SDLP is regarded as a sister party by Labour.

Meanwhile, Calum Higgins, CSP's policy and public affairs manager for Wales, met Welsh Office Minister Nia Griffith and Ruth Jones, a former physio and now Chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. Calum will be off to the Plaid Cymru conference in October.

Workforce

It wasn’t just rehab we spoke to politicians about. For example, we had a great conversation with Andrew Pakes MP who is launching a review of apprenticeships. He is keen to learn about physio apprenticeships and to find ways to make it easier for small businesses, such as independent physiotherapy providers, to support apprenticeships.

Next, the CSP policy team will be off to the OUP and UK Conservative conferences. We will have a smaller presence at the Conservatives than at Labour. The outcome of their leadership election may result in a reshuffle of their frontbenchers. Whoever ends up with the health brief we will, of course, be seeking to speak with.

Get involved

If you are interested in helping to promote the profession please contact your country or regional CSP team via cre@csp.org.uk

We are always looking for members who are willing to host MP visits, email elected representatives or who are active in political parties.

Politicians CSP staff spoke with at the Labour conference included:

Ministers - Wes Streeting MP. Baroness Merron, Karin Smith MP, Andrew Gwynn MP and Stephen Kinnock MP Other Ministers - Liz Kendall MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,  Darren Jones MP Treasury, Nia Griffith MP Welsh Office, Fleur Anderson NI Office, Emma Hardy DEFRA, Lord Coaker Defence AND Angela Eagle MP Home Office. 

East Midlands - Lee Barren MP Corby & East Northants, Lord Coaker, Michael Payne MP Gedling and Liz Kendall MP Leicester West.

East of England - Andrew Pakes MP Peterborough, Peter Prinsley MP Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, Chris Hinchliff MP NE Hertfordshire, and Josh Dean MP Hertford & Stortford.

Guernsey - Deputy Heidi Soulsby

London - Wes Streeting MP Ilford North, Rupa Huq MP Ealing Central & Acton, Fleur Anderson MP Putney, Daniel Francis MP Bexleyheath & Crayford, Liam Conlon MP Beckenham & Penge, Lord Dubbs and Krupesh Hirani AM Brent & Harrow (London Assembly Health Committee chair).

North East - Luke Akehurst MP for North Durham, Chris Macdonald MP Stockton North, Mary Foy MP City of Durham, Liz Twist MP Blaydon and Alan Strickland MP Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor.

North West - Andrew Gwynne MP Gorton and Denton, Dame Angela Eagle MP Wallasey, and Ashley Dalton MP West Lancashire.

Northern Ireland - Colum Eastwood MP (SDLP) Foyle and Fleur Anderson MP NI Office Minister.

Scotland - Graeme Downie MP Dunfermline and Chris Smyth MSP South of Scotland.

South West - Karin Smyth MP Bristol South and Darren Jones MP Bristol NW Wales - Dame Nia Griffith MP Llanelli, Ruth Jones MP Newport West and Stephen Kinnock MP Aberfan Maesteg West Midlands - Jodie Gosling MP Nuneaton, Sonia Kumar MP Dudley, Rachel Taylor MP North Warwickshire and Bedworth and Cat Eccles MP Stourbridge.

Yorkshire and the Humber - Emma Hardy MP Hull West, Rachael Maskell MP York Inner and Anna Dixon MP Shipley.