Six months to decide. No deadline to even reply.
We read the government's own call-in rulebook: once a minister acts, everything freezes and a six-month clock starts — but there's no deadline to answer a request. That's the gap our kids are stuck in.
We did our homework. We sat down and read the government's own rulebook for call-ins — the statutory guidance ministers published for themselves in January 2024. It's all there on GOV.UK. And what we found explains everything about the silence we've been living with.
The power is real — and it freezes everything
Under rules in force since 31 January 2024, the Health Secretary can "call in" any NHS reconfiguration and take the decision out of local hands. And here's the part that matters most to us: the moment a call-in direction is issued, the law says the NHS body "must not take any further steps" on the proposal except those the minister allows. Nothing irreversible. No contracts. No building work.
That is exactly what we're asking for. Press pause on the £33 million move of our children's A&E from Ormskirk to Southport — before anything is signed that can't be unsigned.
Once they act, a clock starts ticking
The rules are clear: once a proposal is called in, the Secretary of State must take a decision within six months, must give our council the chance to make representations, and must publish the decision — with reasons — on GOV.UK. A proper process. A deadline. A paper trail.
But here's the catch.
The gap our kids are stuck in
There is no deadline for ministers to answer a call-in request. None. The guidance sets no timeframe at all for responding to the people asking. So when Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee — every party, voting as one — asked the Health Secretary in late March to call this decision in, the rules allowed that request to sit in a Whitehall inbox. It has now sat there for more than three months. And until a call-in actually happens, nothing is frozen — the planning for the move can simply carry on.
It gets worse. The same 2024 changes removed councils' old power to refer decisions directly to the Secretary of State. Our council used to have a statutory route that demanded an answer. Now it can only ask. And wait. And so can we.
If not this case, what case?
The government's own guidance says ministers should consider a call-in where there are concerns about the process or concerns a decision is not in the best interests of local health services. Look at our file: 7,840+ consultation responses, keeping the children's A&E at Ormskirk the most popular option, Southport named as "preferred" before the public was even asked, and a unanimous cross-party scrutiny committee asking for intervention. If this doesn't meet the bar for "exceptional", nothing does.
What we're asking for
One letter. That's all it takes to start the process the government designed. Call the decision in, freeze the work, and spend six months looking properly at the evidence. If the case for moving our children's A&E is as strong as the decision-makers claim, it will survive the scrutiny. If it isn't, our kids deserve better than a decision nobody is allowed to check. Answer the request.
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