NHS reform more important than ‘pouring’ money in, Labour’s Wes Streeting to say

Reform of the NHS is more important than “pouring” money into a health system “that isn’t working”, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said.

The frontbencher told Labour conference warn that Britain’s health service faces bankruptcy unless it is overhauled as he sets out plans to “turn the NHS on its head”.

Mr Streeting insisted that a Labour government will not waste “money we don’t have” – shifting the focus from hospitals to providing more care in the community, from sickness to prevention.

The senior figure also talked up greater use of technology as Labour’s conference in Liverpool draws to a close, a day after Sir Keir Starmer’s keynote speech was disrupted by a glitter-throwing protester.

The Labour leader, who promised to “bulldoze” his way through planning restrictions to build a new Britain with new towns, will continue to set out his stall on the airwaves on Wednesday morning.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson also addressed the gathering’s final day to pledge that Labour would tackle the “chronic cultural problem with maths” by making sure it is taught better to children from a younger age.

Mr Streeting said Labour’s changes to the NHS will provide a better service for patients while securing better value for taxpayers’ money.

“Be in no doubt about the scale of the challenge. In the longer term, the challenge of rising chronic disease, combined with our ageing society, threatens to bankrupt the NHS,” he said.

“Pouring ever-increasing amounts of money into a system that isn’t working is wasteful in every sense. A waste of money we don’t have. A waste of time that is running out. A waste of potential, because the NHS has so much going for it.”

He vowed to create “a neighbourhood health service as much as a National Health Service, pioneering cutting edge treatment and technology, preventing ill-health, not just treating it”, adding: “Achieving our mission will take time, investment, and reform. Reform is even more important than investment.”

Labour has unveiled details of its NHS reform agenda at the conference, including paying staff overtime and providing extra scanners in a bid to bring down record waiting lists. Conference fringe events featuring the 40-year-old Mr Streeting were routinely packed.

In her speech, Ms Phillipson set out Labour’s plans to boost “real world” maths teaching in primary schools and early intervention to encourage stronger lifelong numeracy.

The proposals centre on upskilling primary school teachers so they can deliver high-quality maths teaching, and Labour would also launch an expert-led review to drive high standards in education.

The party said it would task its Curriculum Review with bringing maths to life and directing teachers to show children how numeracy is used in the world around them – such as through household budgeting, currency exchange rates when going on holiday, and sports league tables.

This would include bringing elements of financial literacy into maths teaching, such as using the concept of Individual Savings Accounts to teach about percentages.

Labour’s intervention would seek to target problems with childhood numeracy that persist into adulthood – such as the inability to analyse basic graphs and calculate the value of supermarket offers.

Ms Phillipson said: “I am determined that Labour will bring maths to life for the next generation. I want the numeracy all our young people need – for life and for work, to earn and to spend, to understand and to challenge. I want that to be part of their learning right from the start.”

It comes after Rishi Sunak announced plans to introduce the Advanced British Standard (ABS) – a new single post-16 qualification which will eventually replace A-levels and T-levels.