In-patient Mental Health Services (Children and Adolescents)

Debate between Andrew Percy and Alan Johnson

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alan Johnson]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. YoungMinds, the charity that deals specifically with child and adolescent mental health, makes exactly the same point. We need early intervention, and if we are cutting back on tier 3 there will be a bigger problem with tier 4. If the problems are not addressed anyway, we are stacking up a host of problems, and costs, never mind the tragedy to the individuals when they reach adulthood.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the changes have nothing to do with improving care, and everything to do with saving money. The closure of the West End unit has had a profound effect. I have a constituent who is a single mother, who works for the NHS as a staff nurse, whose 13-year-old daughter suffered a severe mental breakdown two years ago. Her daughter spent nine months at West End, which opened at weekends specifically to accommodate her needs. Her mother believes that the treatment given by the excellent staff at West End saved her little girl’s life.

When my constituent’s daughter needed further treatment this year, after West End had closed its in-patient facility, she was first of all sent to Leeds, 66 miles away, where the inability of her mother and five-year-old brother to spend as much time with her, led to a further deterioration in her health. She was then incarcerated with young offenders in Cheadle, 103 miles from her home. Her mother, coping with a five-year-old son and a job in the NHS, spent nine hours travelling to have just one hour with her daughter. For the rest of the time she was forced to listen to her deeply unhappy daughter sobbing at the other end of a phone. Is this what the NHS has come to? Is this the kind of treatment that any of us would accept for our children?

[Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)]

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. Obviously, this is a matter that affects my constituency too. He is right to raise the issue, but sadly this is nothing new. In 2008, my constituency saw all its in-patient mental health beds go, resulting in patients having to travel much further, often to Hull, and their families struggling to be near them, so I agree with him entirely on this point. Does he agree that it is important that people are treated in the community as much as possible, but where necessary, treated at in-patient units in their localities?

[Alan Johnson]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. He is talking about the closure of adult in-patient services, which had to move from Goole to Hull. The irony is that in-patient mental health facilities for adults exist in Hull. Providing care close to home is important for adults, but surely it is even more important for six, seven and eight-year-old children. The further away they are from their parents, the more their mental health situation is likely to deteriorate.

BAE Systems

Debate between Andrew Percy and Alan Johnson

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Percy]

The point is that this has not been a political debate.

I want to discuss the impact on east Yorkshire and my constituents in north Lincolnshire, a number of whom work at BAE Systems. It was brought home to me on the day of the announcement when my secretary, whose husband works at BAE, contacted me distraught about what was happening. Practically everyone who lives in east Yorkshire knows somebody who works at, or is connected to, the factory. As my colleague and near neighbour, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East will attest—we were two boys at Hull comprehensives—when we went to school in the ’80s and ’90s if someone wanted an apprenticeship, they got one either at BAE Systems or at Saltend with BP. The vast majority of my compatriots and friends at school did not go to university but, like their parents, worked—and continue to work—at BAE Systems.

As Members have said on both sides, the company is rooted in east Yorkshire, and the impact of its leaving will be indescribable not just on the work force but because of the work it does in local schools and through pairing with universities and colleges. As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) said, the Humber economy is in a pretty poor state, and has been for a long time. Over the past 10 years, we have lost private sector jobs along the Humber at a time when the rest of the country was growing private sector jobs. We are in a bad state, and the consequences of losing these 800 jobs will be indescribable.

The Minister used the word “disingenuous”. That is what we all feel about BAE Systems’ actions. As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East said, when we met BAE Systems in July—the unions and everyone who has spoken have attested to this—we were told that although things were tough, the company was expecting Hawk contracts and that the most recent round of redundancies had secured the site and the business for the future. We expected those contracts to be landed and those jobs to be secured.

[Alan Johnson]

Does the hon. Gentleman recall that the specific criterion on which BAE let staff go in the last round of redundancies to which we agreed was that it would retain those with the capability to build Hawk? That was as recently as this summer. Would it not be strange for BAE not to be aware at that time of the decision it announced in September?

[Andrew Percy]

Absolutely. None of us can explain how in just six weeks the whole world was turned on its head. We have sat through BAE presentations and been shown projections going years into the future—although oddly the line always ends about 2016 and we never get to see the line beyond. Despite these predictions, however, in six weeks the world was turned on its head. Members and people watching can read into that what they wish.

We have talked about the legacy issues. It is unacceptable for BAE to think that its role is simply to secure work for the Brough workers elsewhere in the country. Constituents of mine who work at BAE Systems, including the former mayor of Goole, do not want to leave the local area or uproot themselves from their families; they want to stay working in east Yorkshire. After all, along with north Lincolnshire, it is the best part of the country to live in—so why would they wish to leave? They want to remain on that site.

I say to BAE—I hope that the Minister will listen to this message and take it forward—that it has a duty to do everything in its power, even if it hits it in the pocket, to ensure that manufacturing remains on that site, if not through the production of Hawk and other aircraft, through securing other companies and third parties on the site. It cannot walk away from Brough. It cannot say, “Well, we’ve done everything we want to do. We’ll help to find them jobs.” It has a duty to secure that site, and we, as local Members of Parliament—and, I hope, with the support of the Government—will do everything that we can to ensure just that.