Social Care (Local Sufficiency) and Identification of Carers Bill

Debate between Diana Johnson and Laura Sandys

Friday 7th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Laura Sandys]

Legislation is important and is part of what the Government are doing to get a grip on the situation. The forthcoming social care Bill is extremely welcome and it is important that these measures be considered and incorporated in it. I do not question the importance of legislation.

Humanity is also important, however, and that is about education, understanding and people being able to identify the problems in front of them. On the long-term care issue, let us consider the system operating in Torbay. That did not need legislation. It needed common sense and an understanding of how to integrate the provision of care. It needed agencies to talk to each other and to think about how to deliver service to individuals and families, rather than thinking of themselves as institutions.

[Diana Johnson]

I am listening carefully to what the hon. Lady says. She points to examples of good practice, but those often require a champion who sees young carers as an important issue that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, however, not all head teachers, heads of colleges or vice-chancellors take the same view about young carers or student carers, so having legislation to underpin what is required of those institutions is important, as too are champions.

[Laura Sandys]

I do not dispute the need to ensure that everybody within these institutions has a responsibility towards carers. There is no question about that. They also have responsibility for the welfare of children. They have to understand that this is bigger than just the responsibility of carers. It also involves attainment at school and young people’s mental health. It is interesting and a bit concerning that some teachers do not even know that there is such a thing as a child carer. I find that remarkable, but solving that problem does not require legislation; it requires the education of the educators. This private Member’s Bill is part of the way to ensure that we start to normalise what is required from these organisations and institutions.

We have an opportunity here. Perhaps we, as the Bill’s sponsors, should be making representations to the Select Committee on Health, which will be doing the pre-legislative scrutiny of the forthcoming social care Bill. We should ensure that the Committee appreciates the importance of the measures in the private Member’s Bill and puts in its report provisions to ensure that the Government respond not only to this debate and the private Member’s Bill but to the Select Committee’s report.

There is also an opportunity, in this legislation and the wider general practice of local authorities, in respect of the health and wellbeing boards. Health and wellbeing boards and the doctors’ commissioning units need to be focused not just on the patient who walks in the door but on the person looking after that patient. I am sure that many of us in the Chamber—and, I hope, beyond—always, as I do, say to the doctor, “You look at the patient, but do you always ask, ‘How is the carer? How well is that carer?’” Sometimes the carer will be less well than the so-called patient, but they will not present to doctors. It is crucial that doctors take the initiative and understand that if the carer ends up in hospital, we end up with two people in crisis, not just one. I would welcome clear statements from the Secretary of State and the Minister that GP commissioning and what I call practices of humanity need to be drilled through the health service in order to address these problems, which will present themselves and which will cost everybody in money and suffering.

I am very supportive of the provisions in the Bill, and I urge the Government to consider them as part of their overall legislation. The hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South is a member of the Health Committee and I am sure she will be a great advocate, but it would be useful if proponents of this legislation were also to put in a submission to the Committee. I hope that this Bill will be encapsulated in the forthcoming Government Bill.

Green Economy

Debate between Diana Johnson and Laura Sandys

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for South Thanet (Laura Sandys) on securing the debate. When the coalition came to power, it talked about rebalancing the economy, including moving from services to manufacturing, moving from London and the south-east to the regions and moving towards a more low-carbon economy. In my area of the world, the Humber region, the green economy is one way in which we can see growth brought back into the local economy.

I understand that three of the world’s largest offshore wind farms are around the UK and Hull is particularly well placed for the third round, as we have the Hornsea and Dogger Bank areas of the North sea. I want to talk about the benefits to my area of the green economy and about why it is important that the Government are clear in their approach.

At the moment, the Hull and Humber area is working up a proposal for a green port at east Hull. The proposal is for Siemens to come to the port and set up a wind turbine manufacturing site for turbines that could then be used out in the North sea. We are well placed because of the deep channels in the Humber estuary and the sailing time to the proposed Hornsea and Dogger Bank wind farm areas. At the moment, we are talking about a £250 million investment in Hull, with the further investment of £100 million through the supply chain that we hope will come to the city when Siemens arrives. I must say to the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr Lilley), who is no longer in his seat, that my understanding was that a financial package was available to support such investment in the city in recognition of how important the development was not just to my city but to the wider economic situation in the Humber and around the United Kingdom.

[Laura Sandys]

I think the regional growth fund has given support to many of those companies as they open up their investment, to secure investment in Hull as well as in Sheerness. Perhaps the hon. Lady could provide clarification on that point.

[Diana Johnson]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her intervention. I will talk about the regional growth fund, but under the previous Government funding was made available for ports so that they could develop projects such as the wind turbine manufacturing that I mentioned. We need to recognise that not only the previous Government but, to give them some credit, this Government have taken steps to support the green economy through wind turbine manufacturing. I think it is a combination of the two things. I do not think we can deny that the previous Government did a lot around the green economy, with the very important legislation in the Climate Change Act 2008, which was the first of its kind in the world. I will come to the regional growth fund in a moment.

The North sea has been called the “Saudi Arabia of renewables”. There is huge potential for growth in the economy. Work on Green Port Hull is going exceptionally well and we are moving steadily, I hope, towards Siemens actually signing on the dotted line later this year. I pay tribute to the Associated British Ports manager, Matt Jukes, as well as Lord Haskins, who has been the chair of our local enterprise partnership, Councillor Steve Brady at Hull city council and Ian Kelly at the chamber of commerce. This has been an example of the public sector and the private sector working successfully together on the green economy. There are potentially 300 construction jobs on the Siemens site building the manufacturing factory. There will be 700 permanent jobs at Siemens and up to 10,000 in the supply chain working alongside different companies around the Hull and Humber area.

Let me put that into context. My constituency has 43.6 people chasing every job vacancy, so jobs are the key issue for my city and people who live in north Hull. At the moment, more than one in 10 young people in the city are not in education, employment or training, so it is important to do something fairly dramatic to ensure the regeneration of what was once a great city. Hull has the potential, with the opportunities offered by renewables, to become a world centre of excellence. We need to recognise the investment that is going not only into the green economy and the manufacturing side of turbines but into the wider economic benefits for areas such as mine. That is so important during a double-dip recession, and the green economy is growing at a rate of about 4%. I am sure that all parties would recognise that we need to do everything we can to support job creation and this particular industry.

I want to give the Government their due regarding the regional growth fund, through which £25 million was made available to work on the supply chain infrastructure that needs to be put in place to support the work that Siemens will, we hope, bring to the city. We also have enterprise zones on both banks of the Humber. I am waiting to see exactly how they are going to work, but the Government have given us the largest area of enterprise zone in the country. So, we hope that we are set, with a fair wind, to move forward, with Siemens coming to the city and with that renewables hub being developed.

Let me make two points about the Government’s approach. First, I am very concerned that any decisions the Government make on energy policy should be evidence-based. The hon. Member for South Thanet made this point in her opening remarks. We need clarity and transparency in policy and I am for ever asking the Government, in relation to all sorts of areas, where the evidence is that what they propose will work. It would be very helpful if the Minister, in his response, set out a commitment to provide reassurances about energy policy being evidence-based. The industry is looking for that and is keen to know why certain decisions are made. We also need to consider that, with investment now, the costs will come down in future. We know that the costs of the offshore wind industry will come down over time—the supply chain will ensure that—and that subsidy will reduce over time.

My second point is about the Government’s announcements, which need to be very clear and quick. The drip-drip of different possible announcements is very unhelpful. I also think that procrastination is a problem. Things need to be got on with. These mixed messages are a problem and I have to say that the Treasury seems to be causing the biggest problem. The Chancellor seems to have indicated in the past that he will not allow economic growth to be held back by green considerations, but clearly most of us in the Chamber today would say that green issues could drive the economy.

Finally, I understand that the consultation on the banding for renewables obligation certificates has taken us up to only 2017. Even with a fair wind and a relatively quick start, the green port in Hull will not begin until 2015, which will only give the industry two years of certainty about its returns. We have to look much more to the long term when we are asking industry to make huge investments.

I hope there is cross-party support for the motion. Labour introduced the Climate Change Act. We are committed to a green economy, and I very much hope that the Conservatives will fulfil their promise to be the greenest Government ever.