Opening Webinar – 10.30am, 8th June 2021
Human rights & health data of older people key themes of NPC Annual Convention Rally
The 2021 NPC Annual Convention will open on Tuesday 8th June with an address by TUC President Gail Cartmail and major speeches on threats to older people’s rights.
The virtual ‘Rally’ is the first of four, free-to-view webinars in June*(see below), hosted by the National Pensioners Convention, featuring an impressive list of guest speakers, including world-leading health expert Professor Sir Michael Marmot (21st June).
The opening event will include a presentation by the Directors of data watchdog Foxglove, Rosa Curling and Cori Crider, on their bid to stop NHS Digital extracting everyone’s personal health records without consultation from UK GPs on 1st July.**
Equality and Human Rights Commission Director Jackie Killeen will also discuss how the pandemic highlighted devasting breaches of older people’s rights, including ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ signs being assigned to elderly patients without consent.
Urging people to register for the 2021 online sessions (links below), NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt said: “The National Pensioners Convention is the largest campaigning organisation for older people in the UK, and the Annual Convention is an important event in our calendar. Although it will be quite different this year, all of our webinars are very much relevant to our policies and campaigning remit and feature an impressive range of expert speakers, led by TUC President Gail Cartmail.
“Our founding principles are that: ‘every pensioner has the right to choice, dignity, independence and security as an integral and valued member of society’ - we shall be discussing the many serious issues that currently threaten these values.
“We hope as many people as possible attend our Annual Convention webinars – whether they are pensioners today, or the pensioners of tomorrow, which is all of us.”
The NPC’s Annual Convention – previously known as the Pensioners’ Parliament – is normally a chance for members to get together in person. While the pandemic has moved the event online this year, it is hoped it can be held as normal in 2022.
The 2021 webinars will discuss major issues and concerns affecting older people, from pensioner poverty and the UK’s unequal state pension system, to the threat of the NHS Bill on the future of health and care.
* DATES and TIMES - NPC 2021 Annual Convention
Please note, you will need to register in advance, for each webinar, in order to attend. If you have any difficulties trying to register, email info@npcuk.org to let us know.
All the webinars will also be live streamed to the NPC YouTube channel
You can find the registration links below for each date.
· June 8 - 10:30 - 12:00
Annual Convention Opening Rally
Chair:
Ron Douglas - President, National Pensioners Convention
Speakers:
Gail Cartmail, President TUC
‘NPC – the pensioners’ champion.’ The TUC President discusses the important role of the NPC in fighting for the rights of older people, and the need for intergenerational co-operation to protect pensioners’ rights.
Jackie Killeen, Director, Compliance, Equality & Human Rights Commission
‘Age & The Equality Act – Defending Your Human Rights.’ The EHRC Director will discuss how the pandemic highlighted endemic ageism in society, and what legal rights older people have to defend themselves.
Rosa Curling and Cori Crider, Directors, Foxglove (data-watch group)
‘The NHS Digital data ‘scrape’ – a plea for a public consultation.’ The data watchdog directors will outline fears over NHS Digital’s plan to extract all personal health records from GP’s, with hardly any consultation or publicity – and what the dangers are in them doing so. (The last date anyone can opt-out of the data extraction - online only - is 23 June).
Jan Shortt - General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention
Round up of the session.
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YfOUNvb5SNu-159QIZUwPw
June 18 - 10:30 - 12:30
State Pension Inequality & Pensioner Poverty
Chair:
Brian Sturtevant - NPC Pensions & Income Working Party Chair
Speakers:
Daniela Jenkins, Pensions Advisory Group, Women’s Budget Group,
Jack Jones, Pensions Officer, TUC.
Bob Pinkerton, Pensions expert, NPC.
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fqflph6FRACT1c4UqOng9w
June 21 - 14:00 - 16:00
Who Cares? The Future of Health and Care
Chair:
Jan Shortt - General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention
Speakers:
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Prof. Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
Tracey Jarrett, Lewisham Pensioners Forum
Cat Hobbs, Founder, We Own It.
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HSxUDouuRqGpnBy-o1eejg
June 29 - 10:30 - 12:00
Generations United: Bridging the Age Gap
Chair:
Ron Douglas - President, National Pensioners Convention
Speakers:
Denise Burke, Director, United for all Ages.
Judith Ish-Horowitz MBE, Founder Apples & Honey Nightingale Nursery for Toddlers and Older People.
James Lynch, Young RMT activist who supports intergenerational initiatives.
Jan Shortt - General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention
Joy France, Pensioner Poet & ‘Battle Rapper.’
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lbA-GFM8TQaxTkoxVaBKFg
ENDS
You can download the press release below
**INFORMATION ON NPC and NHS DIGITAL & HEALTH DATA EXTRACTION
The NPC is calling on the government and NHS Digital to halt their plans to extract all personal health records from GP practices from 1st July 2021, to allow for a full consultation process. NHS Digital – the national provider of ‘information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care in England’ – says on its website the collection of GP data, which will be anonymised, ‘will support vital health and care planning and research.’ At the moment, the main way to stop your personal GP personal records or data being extracted by NHS Digital from 1st July, is to complete by 23rd June one or two online ‘opt-out’ forms –
But with many older people not having access to a computer or the internet, the NPC worries they will not even know this is happening.
Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the NPC said: “While the NPC appreciates the importance of health data being shared for vital research and planning, it is the process by which this sharing is happening that causes concern, with genuine fears over lack of real transparency and our democratic right to choose how our information is shared and used. The NPC is extremely concerned that there appears to have been little or no consultation - or publicity - about people’s health data being moved to NHS Digital. Most of our members will have no idea that this is about to happen to the highly personal information currently held on file with their GP’s. A good many older people are either rarely - or indeed never - online, so there is no way they will have found information about it on the NHS Digital website.”
ENDS
*The National Pensioners Convention was set up in 1979 to champion the rights and welfare of the UK’s older people. It now represents more than 1.5 million people in over 1,000 different organisations across the UK and holds an Annual Convention – a pensioners’ parliament - to debate issues affecting older people. www.npcuk.org