Delivering our Plan for Change for workers
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-08)

The Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting spoke at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) Annual Conference in Blackpool.

It’s great to be here in Blackpool.

Paddy (Lillis), you stood in the tradition of the greatest leaders of our movement, who believed it was not enough to walk through the streets demanding change, but that we had to walk through the corridors of power to deliver it.

I also want to say thank you to Dave (McCrossen) for his leadership as Deputy General Secretary.

Paddy, Dave, what you and your team have achieved in Usdaw is truly remarkable.

Given the challenges facing retail and food distribution and the high turnover rates in the sector, maintaining your membership is a tough enough challenge, but with your leadership, Usdaw has grown.

With the switch to online shopping and the decline of our high streets, accelerated by the pandemic, others would have thrown in the towel.

Instead, your Retail Recovery Plan is helping the sector to come back stronger.

Usdaw is an example to the trade union and labour movement:
- to focus on the issues that matter most in the workplace
- to keep our heads screwed on and our feet on the ground
- to always champion the interests of working people
Paddy, Dave, on behalf of everyone here and on behalf of the Prime Minister and the government, thank you for everything you’ve done for Usdaw and for our country.

I’m also delighted to welcome Joanne as Usdaw’s new General Secretary. Joanne, you made history as Usdaw’s youngest regional secretary and now you’ve made history as the first woman to become general secretary - and the youngest, too!

It’s clear the whole conference is excited to see what you do in the role. Congratulations and good luck!

I owe so much to Usdaw.

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And having had my life saved by the NHS when I had kidney cancer at the age of 38, I can think of no better way of repaying the debt I owe to the NHS than by saving our National Health Service.

We should be in no doubt about the threat to our NHS.

When we came into government, we took over an NHS going through the worst crisis in history:
- waiting lists at historic highs
- patient satisfaction at record lows
- people struggling to see a GP
- dental deserts in huge swathes of the country
- ambulances not turning up on time
- A&E departments full to bursting
- doctors on picket lines, instead of the front line
- that founding promise, that the NHS would always be there for us when we needed it, broken
The NHS was broken.

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Broken, but not beaten. Because every day there are amazing people delivering outstanding and compassionate care, despite all those challenges.

Not beaten, because as Nye Bevan is often quoted as saying: “The NHS will last as long as there’s folk with faith left to fight for it.”

Well, every day since I became Health Secretary, I’ve gone into work fighting for our NHS.

To restore that basic founding principle that the NHS should always be there for us when we need it.

With our Plan for Change, we’ve hit the ground running.

As our first step, we promised 2 million more appointments in our first year.

Promise made, promise kept:
- we delivered our promise 7 months early and we’ve smashed our target - delivering not 2, but 3 million extra appointments since July and rising
- we’ve got waiting lists down 6 months on the trot, including during peak winter pressures
- we ended the strikes within 3 weeks and delivered an above-inflation pay rise for NHS staff
- we’ve invested an extra £26 billion in health and care
- we’ve recruited 1,500 more GPs - and agreed a GP contract for the first time since the pandemic
- we’ve delivered the biggest investment to hospices in a generation
- the biggest expansion of Carer’s Allowance since the 1970s
- a massive boost for older and disabled people through the Disabled Facilities Grant
- the biggest real-terms increase to the Public Health Grant in nearly a decade
- we’ve given pharmacies the biggest funding uplift in a generation
- and last week we froze prescription charges for the first time in years
A lot done, but there is more to do:
- our bill on smoking and vapes will protect children and the most vulnerable and make this generation of kids the first smoke-free generation
- our Mental Health Bill will stop the disgraceful incarceration of learning disabled adults
- the ban on junk food advertising targeted at children will be a first step in addressing the growing problem of childhood obesity
- we are working with health unions, councils and employers to deliver the first ever fair pay agreement for social care staff
- and Louise Casey is leading a Commission on Social Care which will finally get a grip on a system that is broken for too many families
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We will always defend our NHS as a publicly funded, public service, free at the point of use, so that when you fall ill you never have to worry about the bill.

Our job is twofold.

First, to get the NHS back on its feet and treating patients on time again.

And second, to reform the service for the long-term, so it is fit for the future.

This summer we will publish our 10 Year Plan for Health:
- shifting the focus of healthcare out of hospital and into the community, with more investment in primary and community care
- bringing our analogue health service into the digital age, arming staff with modern equipment and cutting-edge technology
- turning our sickness service into a preventative health service, to help people live well for longer and tackle the biggest killers
This cannot be done by one man sat behind a desk in Whitehall. We will only succeed if this is a team effort, from the Prime Minister to the 1.5 million people who work in the health service. And the millions of us who use it taking the decisions needed to live healthier, more active lives.

Mental health

I know Usdaw have long campaigned on the impact poor mental health and stress can have at work. And your ‘It’s good to talk’ campaign is helping to overcome stigma and offering practical support to members who may be struggling.

Failing to take mental health seriously doesn’t just have an enormous impact on people. Absences take their toll on businesses, our NHS and our economy as a whole.

In the NHS, we’re expanding talking therapies. Last year, we provided almost 70,000 people with the support they need at work, up more than 60% on the year before.

We know a timely intervention on mental health can save anguish and distress further down the line, and to deliver this we need to expand the mental health workforce so everyone can access the right people, with the right support, at the right time.

That’s why our manifesto promised an extra 8,500 mental health staff: tackling mental ill-health and the causes of mental ill-health.

New deal for working people

Central to good health and good mental health are good jobs.

So while I’m focused on fixing the foundations of our NHS, the whole government is working hard to deliver our manifesto promise to deliver the new deal for working people.

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Last month, our landmark Plan to Make Work Pay passed the House of Commons. It will mean:
- jobs that are more secure and family friendly
- a real living wage people can live on
- going further and faster to close the gender pay gap
- sick pay for the lowest earners
- day one rights from unfair dismissal
- ending fire and rehire
- and banning exploitative zero-hour contracts once and for all
Conference, this will be the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation.

Campaigned for by Usdaw, delivered by this government.

Of course change - real change - takes time. As I said to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC over the weekend, I’m pretty sure when I talk about falling waiting lists, there are people shouting at the telly: “What are you talking about? I’m still waiting!”

Both things are true. Waiting lists are falling and are over 200,000 lower today than they were when we came into office. But if you’re one of 7 million cases still on the list, you’re not feeling it yet.

Similarly, the decisions I took within weeks of taking office that allowed us to employ 1,500 GPs are making a difference, but there will still be people going bananas trying to get through at 8am tomorrow morning after the bank holiday.

If the Chancellor were standing here today, she’d also report that interest rates have fallen 3 times and wages are finally rising above inflation. But that doesn’t wash away the cost of living crisis.

People are really struggling at the moment.

Not living, just surviving.

It’s not good for our health and it’s not good for our country.

We were elected with a simple promise: change.

It won’t be enough for people to see it in the statistics - you need to feel it in your lives.

Is my family better off?

Is the NHS there for me when I need it?

Do my kids attend good schools?

Are my streets safe?

Am I getting a fair wage for a hard day at work?

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Those are the questions we as politicians need to help you as union reps answer.

I want all of you to know that, in government, all of us feel that pressure to deliver the change people voted for. We don’t want to let you or our country down.

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At the weekend, I asked people to give us the time we need to deliver as we grapple with an enormous breadth and depth of challenges.

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But day by day, week by week, step by step, we will rebuild our economy, rebuild our public services and rebuild trust in politics.

There’ll be bumps in the road and we won’t get everything right.

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This government has already:
- increased the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage, giving over 3 million workers a pay rise
- delivered breakfast clubs at 750 primary schools, so that they start the day with hungry minds instead of hungry bellies
- scrapped the wasteful Rwanda scheme and launched our Border Security Command
- overhauled apprenticeships through a new Growth and Skills Levy
- and switched on Great British Energy
We’re:
- bringing the UK’s railways back into public ownership
- banning no-fault evictions and introducing new protections for renters
- delivering the New Deal for Working People
- and cutting NHS waiting lists
Lots done, so much more to do.

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Change has begun and the best is still to come.

Thank you.