The short duration of post holding is a long standing feature of UK Government - The case for keeping ministers in post longer and it would be a mistake to overly invest expectation in the contribution of a single Health Secretary (for non UKers - Government hierarchy puts 'Secretary' above 'Minister').
The exigencies of the current political situation probably mean that Javid is in post until the next election, however although we know the final date by why which a General Election must be held - 24 January 2025, the Prime Minister can choose any date prior to that and the somewhat febrile state of UK politics may mean an election sooner rather than later. There is though the possibility that Javid will be in post for a further 2.5 years which would seem to bode well for ME/CFS standing in the Department of Health.
Continuity of support depends on two things - agreement across the political spectrum that key priorities will remain in place beyond any change in Parliamentary arithmetic, agreement within Government that key priorities cannot be disproportionately negatively affected by Treasury decisions.
Agreement across the political spectrum requires consistent effort and I think only ForwardME is in a position to provide that, however once it has become clear what substance there is to Javid's proposals, letters to the main political opposition Parties - Health and Treasury spokeswomen/men from individual orgs (including S4ME ?) asking them to commit to long term support of Javid's initiative would be appropriate.
The UK Civil Service (the permanent staff who make the Government work) is generally competent, impartial and not corrupt, given a clear political lead it will follow and stick to that course until told by Government to change it. The main vulnerability for service departments like Health is from the Treasury which holds the purse strings and can wreck anything at the stroke of a pen. Once there is a clear cost implication of what Javid is proposing, a public campaign to have broad Government support for the proposals, including from the Treasury, might help secure Health department commitment in the face of what are likely to be increased budget constraints in the run up to the election whenever that comes.
I don't doubt that Javid is sincere in his concern but it's important not to be seduced by a well constructed and highly polished political story only half of which is about health. The meaty half (everything about ME/CFS is 'proposals' so meatless) is the Health Secretary being 'dynamic', 'sympathetic', 'caring', 'a family man' etc - just the sort of stuff his PR team would recommend following some less than sympathetic revelations a few weeks ago. Politics can be like social media - "if you are not paying for the product, you are the product".
