DWHC meeting 19 June 2018 minutes
Minutes of DWHC Planning Meeting held 19 June 2018
at Archway Methodist Centre
1. Present – Jem (Chair), Shirley, Alice, Martin, Valerie (note taker), Phil, Linda
2. Apologies – received from Gary, Rosemary, Steve,
3. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The minutes were accepted. Valerie was thanked for recording the complicated issues
of the last meeting.
Matters arising:
i) The open letter to the Board about Rydon has been sent. Linda was warmly
thanked for her expertise and the information she’s given us at the last meeting
and since.
ii) Unions still to be contacted for funds. Unions to be asked for £200 each. Agreed
that Funding/Finance should be a standing item on the agenda.
ACTION: Jem to approach Unite the Community and UNITE, Martin to approach
Islington NEU (NUT), and Alice to ask Gary for contact names of other unions in
Islington.
4. Campaign update.
i) The open letter (see above) was sent to the CEO and Chair of the Whittington
Board, with a covering note asking that it be discussed at the next Board meeting
(June 2018). A copy of the letter was sent to all Islington Cllrs; Islington, Haringey
and Camden MPs; Chair of Islington Joint Oversight & Scrutiny Ctte; NHS
Improvement; local and national journalists; and to Momentum. NHS
Improvement replied saying that they would pass it on to the relevant Region.
Agreed the letter needs to be more widely disseminated.
ii) Grenfell Silent March – several members of the DWHC joined this very emotional
march.
iii) DWHC members took our banner ‘Keep Rydon out of Islington’ to the Grenfell
March on 16 June.
iv) GDPR – a standalone ‘opt-out’ email was sent to everyone on our mailing list.
Only 40 people have unsubscribed, leaving us still with a very extensive list. Items
covered under matters arising, but noted need to raise profile of the campaign.
Huge thanks were given to Jem for all her work on this.
v) Jem attended ‘Homes for All’ meeting.
vi) Linda offered to find out about when contracting out for public services began to
get underway.
5. Campaign plans
The current plan is three-pronged:
i) Expand use of the open letter. Agreed to send current letter to Haringey and
Camden Cllrs; to adapt the current letter, by including an explanatory open
2
paragraph) to send to other public bodies; and to send a letter to the national
press.
ACTION: Valerie & Jem to sort Cllrs addresses and mail out; Shirley to draft
adapted letters.
ii) Raise visibility of the campaign.
a) To continue approaching celebrities to get their involvement in publicising
the campaign. ACTION: Martin to approach Tom Foot re: possible contacts.
b) We agreed the broad design of a sticker for general use. It will read ‘Get
Rydon out of the NHS’ and to include a drawing of Grenfell Tower. Stickers to
be ready by early July. ACTION: SF to circulate to draft design; Alice to sort
printing.
c) Website –we need someone to update it, including uploading all minutes and
putting in new banner headline, and to maintain it. Martin offered to follow
this up with a contact.
iii) Explore further the legal and financial aspects of the Rydon/Ryhurst agreement.
This will include finding out more about the procurement process and private
links with related companies. ACTION: SF to find out about the procurement
process.
6. NHS Demo 30 th June – members to go with banner.
7. Whittington Health Celebration 5 th July. The hospital is holding a celebration from 2-7 on
Mandela Road entrance. DWHC members to go along if possible, with petitions and
stickers.
8. Liaison with other groups. SF spoke to Homes for All. We acknowledged the difficulties
groups are having in keeping up with wide range of issues, which may be inhibiting
promoting each other’s campaigns. Suggestion to talk to Islington Keep Our National
Health Service Public, just to update and identify shared activities. We noted that as a
wide range of groups is already on our mailing list that many are keeping informed of
the DWHC campaign.
AOB
Date of next meeting – 6.30, 26 July 2018 at the Archway Methodist Centre. Jem felt it was
time to change over chairing the meetings. She was thanked for her brilliant chairing over
last few months. Martin agreed to chair next time.
VL 21 June 2018
