Terminal Illness: Mental Health Support

Connor Rand Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered mental health support for people with terminal illnesses.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I am here today because of my constituent Mike, who I am pleased to say is in the Gallery to watch the debate. In 2019, Mike experienced the devastating grief of losing a partner, but out of the trauma he is pushing for change and campaigning for better mental health support for those with terminal cancer. I pay tribute to Mike: he is a remarkable man. I thank him for bravely sharing his story with me, and I will try my best to do it justice today.

In 2016, Mike’s wife, Sarah, started to suffer with terrible pain in her back, and by the end of that year she was in constant agony. In early 2017, they found out that Sarah had lung cancer, which had spread to her spine, and she was given six months to live. A course of gruelling treatment followed, including major spinal reconstruction surgery and targeted therapy. In September 2019, Sarah succumbed to her illness, passing away a week before her 53rd birthday.

Sarah lived more than a year longer than doctors had initially predicted, and in that sense her treatment was a success, but that does not tell the whole story. There was a gaping hole in Sarah’s treatment: the lack of appropriate mental health support. Not having that support had a huge impact on Sarah’s quality of life, as well as her family and her family’s quality of life. Following her terminal diagnosis, as the devastating impact of cancer started to take its toll on her body, Sarah became deeply depressed and suffered with anxiety.

We know about the physical symptoms of cancer, such as nausea, crippling pain or a loss of mobility, and just how horrendous those symptoms are, but we talk less about the mental health effects, even though they are as common and sometimes the most crushing consequence of this awful illness. That was certainly the case with Sarah. A previously happy, outgoing and vibrant woman, who loved design, gardening and reading books, she became a shell of her former self—unwilling to go outside, not even to sit in the garden she had so lovingly cared for. She cried every day, sometimes all day, and could not eat, could not read a book and did not know what pleasure felt like. As Mike said to me the very first time we met, “Sarah disappeared into herself.” I cannot begin to imagine how hard that was or the toll it took on Sarah, Mike, her entire family and her friends.

Shamefully, Sarah never saw a psychologist or psychiatrist, and she never had a serious or rigorous mental health assessment. Sarah was offered counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy by Macmillan Cancer Support and local NHS services, but we all know the issues with those services. Waiting lists can be months long, and when Sarah did get therapy, it was often for just a few weeks at a time, before she was back on another waiting list.

Too often, as in this case, the kind of therapy offered is not appropriate for the needs of the patient. Sarah would leave her CBT sessions clutching leaflets that she was supposed to go away and read, even though she could not even look at a newspaper. She was once told to go and do some gardening when the debilitating effects of her cancer had already taken that big joy out of her life. What was needed was treatment by a psycho-oncologist—someone who would offer specialist psychological care for someone affected by cancer—but the one psycho-oncologist at her local hospital was badly overstretched and the appointment never came.

As Mike has so eloquently said, this is not a criticism of our dedicated NHS or care staff. They are not to blame for a health culture that has always been more interested in the physical than in the psychological. That deficiency, in reality, is unlikely to change without more scientists and funding bodies devoting time and cash to researching therapies to support the mental health of those with terminal illnesses. From my perspective, there seems to be precious little work being done in this area; I spoke to Macmillan and other charities ahead of this debate, and they said the same. That deficiency is despite the fact that 17% of cancer patients will be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but almost half will not receive the treatment that they need—that must change.

I ask the Minister to seriously consider the policy suggestions made by Mike: more funding to map service provision across the national health service to identify good and bad practice, including an assessment of the effectiveness of current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on mental health support for the terminally ill; more funding to recruit more psycho-oncologists to work in our palliative care system; a commitment to an immediate baseline mental health assessment for patients upon their diagnosis with a terminal illness and, if needed, a clear pathway for referral to an experience psycho-oncologist on diagnosis of terminal illness. I believe that those are practical and, I hope, achievable steps that could make a real difference to cancer patients.

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for giving us an opportunity to talk about this incredibly important issue. I agree 100% with the recommendations that he is making. I also point to the important work that hospices do. A lot of hospices, such as Weldmar and Julia’s House in West Dorset, provide mental health-led hospice services to communities, yet, at the same time, are under extraordinary funding pressures. Weldmar has a £1 million deficit; Julia’s House gets just 8% of its funding from the NHS, yet it is relieving pressure on the NHS. Does the hon. Member think that, along with his recommendations, a sustainable funding model for hospices providing the kind of care that he is talking about is important?

[Mr Rand]

I am sure that there is recognition on both sides of the House of the incredibly important work that hospices do to support patients in our communities. I am sure that the hospices that the hon. Member mentioned will be grateful for the recognition of their important work. Of course we need to ensure sustainable funding. As he will be aware, this Government have already invested a significant amount in hospice care, but I appreciate the pressures that many hospices still find themselves under.

I would be grateful if the Minister would meet Mike and me to discuss Mike’s policy recommendations in more detail and to see if they could form part of the Government’s welcome review of palliative care services and the framework that has been announced. It feels particularly pressing at this juncture, as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill progresses through Parliament. Although I support that legislation, I worry about the prospects of those with a terminal diagnosis. I am sure that the Minister will want to reflect on that in his response.

[Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for sharing the story of Sarah and Mike—he did it justice. It is really important to think about the whole care of people going through a terminal diagnosis—both the patient and their loved ones. We should make sure that the mental health of those people who are supporting the person going through a terminal illness is also considered in this conversation.

[Mr Rand]

I could not agree more that throughout treatment we need a whole-person approach. It is the stated aim of the Government to develop that offer in our communities and in our national health service. The extraordinary toll it takes on friends and families is something that our health system should think more about, and we should give more consideration to.

The issue is so important that if we do not get it right, as I think Members across the House would reflect, the consequences may be tragic for people going through their most difficult times and experiences. For Sarah and Mike and the countless other people touched by cancer, I urge the Minister to work with me and Mike on improving mental health support for those with a terminal diagnosis.

[Sir Jeremy Wright (in the Chair)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for opening the debate. I say this mostly for the benefit of those in the Public Gallery, but we are expecting votes in the main Chamber soon. If that happens, I will suspend the sitting and we will reconvene when the votes are complete. I call Jim Shannon.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Jeremy Wright (in the Chair)]

The hon. Member for Altrincham and Sale West may have a very brief word.

[Mr Rand]

I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate in a really constructive way, and I hope that we can work together on both sides of this House to tackle this important issue. I am incredibly grateful to the Minister for his response, and for offering a meeting with myself and Mike. Of course, my last thanks go to Mike for sharing his story with me in such a personal and considered way.

[Sir Jeremy Wright (in the Chair)]

I am very grateful to the hon. Member.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered mental health support for people with terminal illnesses.

Budget Resolutions

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare) (Lab)]

I rise to welcome the Budget. We know that we have experienced difficult economic times of late, but despite that we have a Budget that is both solid and fair. Wages have grown more since the start of this Parliament than since 2010, and interest rates have gone down five times since the general election.

I particularly welcome the measures that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has taken to help with the cost of living and energy bills—and, of course, the decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap and raise half a million children out of poverty. Earlier this year I hosted a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders in Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare. Housing providers, Citizens Advice, food banks and others came to Merthyr Town football club to meet me and my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern), who was at that time the Employment Minister and consulting on the child poverty strategy.

The key message from that event was that the single most important thing the Government could do to alleviate child poverty was scrap the cap. I am so pleased that the Chancellor listened and took action. In my constituency alone around 2,590 children face a better future and will have better life chances due to this decision.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

Like my hon. Friend, I have heard relentlessly from organisations about this. Trafford South food bank, G-Force and other organisations in my constituency, and national charities, have all spoken about the importance of lifting children out of poverty and the impact that the measure will have, including for 1,000 children in my constituency. Does my hon. Friend find it surprising that Conservative Members have not heard those calls from their constituency organisations?

[Gerald Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend and could not agree more. All I can say is, we see that every day in our constituencies, so they must be walking around with their eyes closed and their ears shut. Action needed to be taken, and I am so glad that this Labour Government have taken that action. In addition, freezing fuel duty, increasing the minimum wage and the living wage and increasing pensions by 4.8% in April will help reduce the pressures on many of my constituents.

Over many months, I have been working with dozens of my constituents and the coalfield group of MPs to make the case for changes to the British Coal staff superannuation scheme. The £2.3 billion transferred back to the pension pot will mean about £100 a week for around 376 BCSSS members in Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare, building on the decision in last year’s Budget to right a similar injustice with the mineworkers’ pension fund. Mineworkers powered our country and many Welsh communities for decades. I am proud that this Labour Government are doing right by them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

I am very pleased that the measures we have taken have provided financial support. I absolutely recognise the challenging financial position, and I would of course be more than happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss that further.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to improve cancer care.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

We are committed to transforming cancer care, having already invested £70 million in new radiotherapy machines to help patients to be treated more quickly. We are investing £26 million in the NHS, opening community diagnostic centres in the evening and at weekends to catch cancer early, and our national cancer plan will have patients at its heart—from referral to diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care.

[Mr Rand]

My constituent Mike lost his wife to cancer, but as well as battling the physical symptoms, she faced devastating mental health effects, becoming deeply depressed after her terminal diagnosis. Despite that, she never received appropriate mental health support, and this significant issue for cancer patients should be addressed as part of our welcome reforms to palliative care. Could the relevant Minister meet me and Mike to discuss his campaign to improve mental health support for those with a terminal diagnosis?

[Karin Smyth]

Of course, I am sorry to hear about the loss of my hon. Friend’s constituent’s wife, and our thoughts are with him and his family. My hon. Friend raises an excellent point, and we are supporting people with cancer who are experiencing poor mental health care by expanding access to psychological therapies through NHS talking therapies. I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), will be happy to talk to him as she develops her cancer plan to ensure that these issues are incorporated.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Kinnock]

We have the interim reforms, and our response on those will be published very soon. We are working on the long-term reform of the NHS dentistry contract with the British Dental Association, and I would be happy to keep the hon. Lady updated on our progress.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

T8. I am proud that this Government have invested record amounts into our national health service. In Altrincham and Sale West, the results are clear: waiting lists down 10 months in a row, extra investment in local GP surgeries and, most recently, a new skin cancer diagnostic centre at Altrincham hospital, ensuring early intervention at the heart of local healthcare. Does the Secretary of State agree that this is exactly the change we were elected to deliver?

International Men’s Day

Connor Rand Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

It is great to contribute to this debate and follow so many powerful speakers. I commend the Government for marking International Men’s Day by launching their men’s health strategy. This initiative will not just change lives but save lives. As part of International Men’s Day, like many of my hon. Friends I have been working with the group Dad Shift, which is campaigning to improve the UK’s paternity leave offer—which quite frankly is itself a bad joke as the worst in Europe.

Speaking of bad jokes, I will follow on from some of my hon. Friends, though I have to admit to being slightly hesitant to include a dad joke in my speech, because the last time I tried a joke it went badly wrong. It was a joke about Chewbacca, but I messed it up. It was Wookie error, and one that I will not repeat. [Laughter.] I know what Members are thinking: “Stick to the day job!”

I am lucky enough to have two amazing jobs. One is being the Member of Parliament for Altrincham and Sale West, and the other is being a dad to two young boys. The latter was made so much easier by having access to paternity leave. It meant that in those early, formative and precious—and slightly less precious—moments that come with fatherhood, I could be there as a new parent for my boys and my partner Catherine. We were a team on that journey together.

However, one third of new dads do not take any leave at all when their children are born, and we have to be frank and honest about why that is. It is because they cannot afford it. Our statutory paternity leave of just two weeks at less than half the minimum wage, and with nothing for the self-employed, shows a system and a settlement that is fundamentally broken. I am delighted that this Government have the chance to fix that, through both the Employment Rights Bill, with the granting of the day one right, and the parental leave review. We must fix it for mums, who are shouldering an unequal caring burden and responsibility, and we must fix it for dads, who are having to lose out on time with their new children.

Some 90% of dads want to play a more active role in their children’s lives, but as polling from More in Common reveals, too many men believe that a life where hard work means security for their family is out of reach. What better way to tackle disillusionment than by improving paternity leave and showing that Governments not only listen but can make the lives of men across our country better? Supporting dads to be the best parents that they can be will go some way to creating the role models that younger boys need when growing up. In a world of Andrew Tates, online misogyny and grievance politics, that feels more important than ever. We should want young boys to grow up with fathers who are active in their lives, who are comfortable enough to embrace being a truly equal co-parent and who feel like hard work brings rewards, support and security for their family as part of the social contract in our country. The Government have a responsibility to help to create these conditions.

On International Men’s Day, I pay tribute to all the dads out there doing their best, to all the organisations across Altrincham and Sale West, such as Andy’s Man Club and Home-Start, and to all the organisations across our country who are helping dads to be the best they can be. I urge us all to work together on creating a society to support dads to be the best possible role models for their children.

Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) on securing this debate and—if he will permit me—on his strength and resilience as a parent.

There have already been many profoundly moving contributions, and I think everyone here understands that the care and support for those with eating disorders, and for their families, are not good enough. The average wait of three and a half years between onset and start of treatment is not acceptable. In the Government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, where we are delivering record investment and groundbreaking reform, we must ensure that eating disorder services are part of that agenda.

There are great services out there, leading the way in showing what change for patients could look like. I am fortunate to have one of those in my constituency. The ABBI eating disorder clinic in Altrincham is an outstanding facility offering specialist day care and intensive out-patient services. It is an alternative to far more costly in-patient care, and in practice it means that patients remain at home with their family support networks around them. That is what patients want and what their families want—and it is what works. Such services change lives and save lives, but they face huge issues with highly fragmented commissioning. This disjointed commissioning creates significant inefficiencies; we need a change in commissioning to ensure proper pathways for patients and early intervention.

In this debate, we must also look at what young people are exposed to online, with one in three adolescents saying that they have engaged in disordered eating behaviours due to social media content. I look forward to hearing the Minister set out in more detail the good work the Government have already done, and what we will be doing to build on that success to prevent tragic deaths caused by eating disorders.

Resident Doctors: Industrial Action

Connor Rand Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

We all know how vital resident doctors are to the functioning of our national health service. In the light of that, will the Secretary of State join me in once again urging the BMA resident doctors committee to get back around the table to engage in serious talks and to take up his offer to meet in the interests of all NHS staff and patients, so that we can rebuild the national health service in the way the public expect?

[Wes Streeting]

Quite aside from the fact that I offered to meet the entire resident doctors committee back in January, although it has never taken me up on that offer—I would definitely be outnumbered in that meeting— I can reassure the House, in all seriousness, that I met its co-chairs on Tuesday afternoon, immediately after the publication of the ballot result. I followed up in writing yesterday morning to reaffirm what I said in person, which was to express our willingness to meet immediately, without preconditions, to avert this strike action. That offer remains, and I am very happy to meet them on that basis.

Infant Feeding

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He is right that Northern Ireland scored the highest in the report card format on the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, which I will come to. In comparison, England scored a paltry less than 50, which was very much due to scoring zero on infant feeding and HIV.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this Adjournment debate on such an important topic. She spoke of some of the difficulties she had at the start of her breastfeeding journey, which my partner Catherine also experienced. When my partner had those difficulties, she accessed a breastfeeding support clinic in my constituency at Meadway health centre, which was a huge source of support and benefit to her. Does the hon. Member agree that it is important to protect and support access to such services, ensuring they are there for every woman who wishes to breastfeed?

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

It is as if the hon. Member has lifted my words directly off the page in a timely manner. The reason I managed to carry on was that I attended a peer support group in my local church hall every Monday morning, aptly called Milk. It was not about the professional support that I had while I was there—although that was great, and I give a shout-out to the wonderful Julie who supported all the mums—it was meeting the other mums who were going through the same things and the ability to ask each other questions and offer advice, as well as the amazing trained peer supporters, who were volunteers. I give a quick shout-out to Holly, who showed us that we could and would survive those difficult first few months and come out the other side, just like she had.

Department of Health and Social Care

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

Fourteen years of Conservative Government left our national health service on its knees, with waiting lists at record highs, patient satisfaction at record lows and millions living in pain and fear, suffering without the treatment they need.

Turning that around is a mammoth challenge, but thanks to this Government, the green shoots of recovery are there. In my local NHS trust, waiting lists have fallen now for four months in a row. We promised an extra 2 million appointments in our first year, and we have delivered 3.6 million. We have hired an extra 1,700 GPs over the past year and provided much-needed extra investment, including for the Village surgery in Timperley, in my constituency.

However, there is still so much further to go, and the spending review and the settlement it gives the Department is a recognition of that. In delivering a £29 billion increase in annual NHS day-to-day spending over the next four years, the Chancellor has acknowledged the mountain there still is to climb to ensure that our health service is there for us when we need it. Accepting the scale of the challenge and putting forward the money needed to meet it separates this Government from the Opposition parties, which either want to abandon our national health service entirely or forget their record and wish away its problems.

The difficult decisions that this Government have taken have given us the space for record investment, and I am pleased that the Government also acknowledge that that must come with much-needed reform. We have seen it with the scrapping of NHS England and the efficiency savings that will generate, and we have seen it with the £10 billion investment in NHS technology over the next four years.

As part of that effort, may I suggest that, following my conversations with the Secretary of State on this topic, the future of Altrincham Hospital in my constituency is considered very carefully? We lost our minor injuries unit because of the Conservatives’ failure on NHS staffing, and the temporary skin cancer diagnostic hub that occupies its space must be turned into a permanent diagnostic centre.

To conclude, we finally have a spending review settlement that recognises the scale of the challenges facing our national health service, and we finally have a Government who are serious about fixing the problems it faces. Residents across Altrincham and Sale West are already feeling the benefit of that, with more to come. We have saved the national health service before and, thanks to this Government, we are going to do it all over again.

Care Settings: Right to Maintain Contact

Connor Rand Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Dan Carden]

I am sure my hon. Friend’s constituent will be grateful—as am I—that she has come to add her voice to this campaign. Families are still living with the trauma of that separation, yet even now, people in care settings are still being denied essential human contact.

In those early days, we all understood the need for swift and serious measures to protect public health. But not enough was done to balance that need against the harm of isolation on mental health and wellbeing. Somewhere along the way something vital was lost: the right to connection; the right to love; and the right not to die alone. Let us remember what that meant in real human terms. Elderly people were confined to their rooms in care homes, with no familiar face and no hand to hold. Sick and disabled people were denied a trusted advocate when they needed them the most.

Ahead of this debate, Val wrote to me. She told me how she was forced to watch her mother’s health decline through the pane of a glass window. Her mother lost weight, she lost the ability to walk and to feed herself, and in time she became deeply depressed and withdrawn. However, when visits were allowed again, Val saw a transformation. With regular contact, and with care and love from a family member, her mother began to return to herself. Val told me that:

“It wasn’t the dementia or covid that got her. It was loneliness, isolation and abandonment.”

Gemma also shared her story. She described how her mother was kept in solitary confinement-like conditions. When Gemma’s mum’s partner died suddenly, she had to break the news over a stuttering video call, with no family there to comfort her mother as the grief landed. Those stories represent a pattern of suffering that should never have been allowed and must never be repeated.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

I would like briefly to mention the case of the Priestman family in my constituency. Paul Priestman, a military veteran, suffered a stroke in 2019 and now requires care. That is being provided in a care home in Rochdale, many miles from the family home. The family have serious concerns about the quality of Paul’s care, but find they are routinely ignored by the care home. Does my hon. Friend agree that the stories he cites and this debate show that, rather than being viewed as essential to the wellbeing of the person in care, families are too often dismissed, ignored or considered an afterthought by care providers?

[Dan Carden]

My hon. Friend totally grasps the seriousness of the issue. It is why campaigners are fighting for a legal right—Gloria’s law—to maintain contact. That would put into law the right to at least one care supporter, a trusted loved one, to provide support and advocacy in all health and care settings, so that no one is ever alone when they need help the most. The campaign is supported by cross-party MPs; more than 100 organisations, including covid-bereaved groups from all four UK nations; charities; disabled rights groups; and bodies such as the National Care Forum.

In response to pressure, the previous Government amended Care Quality Commission regulations to make facilitating visits part of the fundamental standard of care. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) who steered that through Government in the previous Parliament. The newly inserted regulation 9A requires that in-person visiting in care homes, hospitals and hospices and accompaniment to appointments should always be facilitated by providers in line with people’s needs and preferences. Only in exceptional circumstances should that be restricted.

Although that is a welcome step forward, it has fallen short. Just like the guidance that preceded it, regulation 9A lacks clarity, oversight and accountability. In practice, it is too often misunderstood, misapplied or outright ignored. This past winter, Rights for Residents received hundreds of calls from distressed families who were blocked from seeing their loved ones. Outbreaks of flu or norovirus were being used as justification to deny all access, in some cases for more than two weeks, despite regulation 9A being in place.

I will give a couple of examples. Tina’s mother, who has dementia, was in hospital being treated for pneumonia, when a blanket visiting ban was imposed due to an outbreak of norovirus. It took days of trying before Tina received any update on her mother’s welfare. Days later, she received a voicemail of her mum’s frail voice whispering, “Don’t give up on me, Tina.” Her mental and physical condition deteriorated rapidly during that time, which Tina believes was exacerbated by their separation.

Amanda’s mother, who lost mobility after a brain haemorrhage, depends on family support for personal care and emotional wellbeing. During another blanket ban, Amanda, despite quoting regulation 9A, was told that her mother’s right to contact was not worth the risk. By the time visits resumed, her mother had lost weight and become visibly withdrawn.

Many similar experiences have been reported to Care Rights UK’s advice line, from people denied access to their friends and family, including when the care provider was aware of regulation 9A, but still chose not to comply with it. For example, the charity recently supported someone living with dementia who had had visits stopped as part of a settling-in process in their care home. The provider failed to recognise the importance of maintaining support from familiar loved ones as a key part of dementia care.

To understand the scale of the problem, Rights for Residents ran a national survey between February and May this year. The results are deeply concerning. Four in 10 respondents had never even heard of regulation 9A. One in four reported care settings implementing complete visiting bans since April 2024. Even when family members were aware of and cited regulation 9A, in more than a third of cases that had no effect on visiting arrangements. Many care settings continue to regard regulation 9A as guidance only, which can be ignored without consequence. As Rights for Residents put it:

“These findings indicate that the introduction of CQC Regulation 9A has not been effective or sufficient in upholding the visiting rights of those using health and care settings, and that as a result, people are experiencing avoidable harm from unnecessary visiting bans.”

The conclusion is clear: without a clearly defined legal right to maintain contact, access will continue to be patchy, precarious and far too easy to deny. The postcode lottery of uneven implementation was unacceptable during the pandemic and is unacceptable now. I stress that this is not about unlimited access. Care supporters would be subject to the same appropriate safety precautions as staff. It is about protecting the principle that the connection with loved ones is not an optional extra, but essential to dignified care. No member of staff, no matter how professional or compassionate, can replace the bond between a parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, or with a lifelong friend or partner. Loved ones are more than companions. They are vital safeguards. They are the eyes and ears that notice what others might miss. They protect against neglect, spot subtle signs of distress and speak up when something is not right.

To leave this matter to the discretion of individual managers, without clear legal underpinning, is to leave the most vulnerable at the mercy of arbitrary decisions that could severely impact their wellbeing. It is not only a matter of compassion; it is a matter of rights. We all have a right to a family life. That right should not disappear behind locked doors when someone requires care. That is why we are calling on the Government to guarantee the right of every person in a care setting to have at least one essential care supporter—not just guidance and not tinkering around the edges of regulation, but a right, protected in law. During the general election, my party, Labour, promised to make that change in government. That promise must now be delivered. It said:

“We will guarantee the rights of those in residential care to be able to see their families.”

The only way to guarantee that right is through the law.

The review of regulation 9A is due shortly and, from 30 June to 31 July, the covid inquiry will hear evidence on experiences of the care sector during the pandemic. As families relive the trauma of that period, the Government have the opportunity to show them that they have been heard, that lessons have been learned and that action will follow. If we truly believe in dignity and compassion in care, that cannot be delayed any further. We owe it to every family torn apart. We owe it to every patient or resident still facing the risk of being isolated. We owe it to every one of our constituents who fears that when the time comes, they too might be left without a loved one’s hand to hold. This change will cost the Government nothing, but for those it protects, it means everything.

Speech and Language Therapy

Connor Rand Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

I echo the congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) on introducing this important debate, and to all the campaigners who work tirelessly on this issue. I thank everyone who signed the petition, especially the 124 people in my constituency of Altrincham and Sale West: we contributed more signatures than any other constituency. That reflects the great number of conversations that I have had on this issue with local residents since being elected.

Other Members have spoken powerfully about the fundamental nature of communication to human life. It is clear that speech and language therapy can be transformational for those who experience it— approximately 76% of people who have had therapy say that it has materially improved their life—but it is a service that is far too hard to access. NHS England figures show that in September last year, over 64,000 children were on a waiting list for speech and language therapy, and 41% of them were waiting more than 18 weeks.

In my local NHS trust, there are about 154 speech and language therapists working full time. If we speak to any family with a relative affected by a communication or language difficulty, they will tell us that that simply is not enough. I have spoken to many school leaders locally, especially primary leaders, who are having to make stretched budgets stretch even further to fill in the gaps. The picture we face is stark and reflects the huge crises in our national health service and our special educational needs system.

In 2023, a report by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists identified significant failings over many years in planning for the speech and language workforce. Alongside significant cuts to early intervention services under the previous Government, those failings were reported as driving factors behind the waiting lists for therapy, which in turn piled pressure on other parts of the system and ultimately resulted in a demoralised workforce leaving the job they love and in the public going without the support they need. Ofsted, the Education Committee and the Care Quality Commission have all published similar reports, which should frankly have set alarm bells ringing in Government, but the truth is that not enough has been done.

Neither funding nor the numbers of speech and language therapists have kept up with the 64% increase in the number of children identified as having communication needs since 2015. Tragically, with adults, we have seen a steady decline in the amount of speech and language therapy received after a stroke, and effectively no dedicated adult service for those with long-term speech conditions. The challenge for this Government is that we must reverse these trends, not just because it is absolutely the right thing to do, but because improving access to speech and language therapy is essential to this Government’s missions for change, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) outlined. Whether that is breaking down barriers to opportunity in education or getting the NHS back on its feet, giving people the support to communicate effectively is critical.

Given the impact that speech and language therapy can have on giving people the ability to return to work, it is hugely important to our national effort to boost economic growth. I know that some important steps have been taken, and taken quickly, by this Government, not least the record funding increases set out for the national health service in the Budget. I know that there is no ringfenced central funding for speech and language therapy and that service delivery is in the hands of the integrated care boards, but I would like to know from the Minister, if possible, what work the Government are doing with ICBs to ensure that that extra funding feeds through the system and is being felt by individuals affected by communication and speech issues.

If possible, I would also like the Minister to address how the Government will improve the planning for the whole speech and language therapy workforce and what provision there is for that in the NHS workforce plan, which I know the Department of Health and Social Care is currently looking to update. That is desperately needed across our national health service. Finally, I will be extremely grateful if the Minister sets out the progress in delivering early language support for every child pathfinder project, so education settings can increase their ability materially to support speech, language and communication development.

These are big challenges for the Government to address, but that is why Labour Members like me have been sent here. We were elected on a mandate of changing and rebuilding our public services, so that they can be there for those who need them. We should never lose sight of the role that restoring speech and language therapy provision must play in the driving missions of this Government.