Giving Every Baby the Best Start in Life

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 9th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Members for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) and for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) and, in particular, the right hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom) for sponsoring the debate. I know that the right hon. Lady has pursued this issue in the House for many years, and I am pleased to see the culmination of her championing of it in the funding that the Government have set aside. Congratulations and well done.

As the proud grandfather of five children—Katie-Leigh, Mia and Austin, and two so-called lockdown babies in one-year-old Max, and Freya, who is one-and-a-half—I believe that our babies and our young families have never needed more help and, like others, I have a fervent desire that we in this place get it right. We must consider the pandemic’s effect on lockdown babies who have never attended a mother-and-toddlers group, never learned to play and share with another child, and never sung a nursery song or a rhyme in a group. I believe that will have a huge impact that they will carry into their early years at school. Others have referred to that, and I want to refer to it as well.

I have spoken in this place about the pandemic’s academic effect on schoolchildren and its mental effect on children. It is right and proper that we also address its effect on babies. We can simply do better. The debate may be England-centric, but the problems faced in the UK mainland mirror those faced by parents and babies in Northern Ireland. I am hopeful that proper funding streams in the mainland will be replicated when the Assembly allocates the Northern Ireland funding received for the levelling-up agenda. It is important that we in Northern Ireland also receive that assistance through the levelling-up agenda.

Action for Children has stated that, in 2018-19, only 57% of children from poorer backgrounds were ready for school at age five compared with 74% of their better-off peers. Its “Closed Doors” report found that, between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the number of children using children’s centres decreased by about 18%. That is a worrying trend, as it is that the numbers fell fastest in the most deprived areas. Those statistics give us concerns and show us that the debate must focus most on the deprived areas where the problems are.

Action for Children’s most recent report found that 82% of parents of children in the nought to five age bracket struggled or were unable to access vital non-childcare and early years services. Some 78% of parents who were unable to access services were worried about potential impacts on themselves or their children. The most common concerns were about children’s development and parents’ own mental health and wellbeing. Other speakers have referred to that, and the fact that we are all saying the same thing based on our constituencies tells us that these issues are clear and real, so the work that Action for Children carries out is essential for giving babies the best start in life.

I am a great supporter, and always have been in all my years as an elected representative, of Home-Start in Northern Ireland. It knows that well trained volunteers complement the early years workforce, significantly contributing to the support that families receive and enabling them to access services when those are most needed. More than 1,500 families are being supported by 300 Home-Start volunteers in 16 communities in Northern Ireland. Newtonards, the main town in my constituency, has a Home-Start facility. During the dark days of the pandemic, more than 200 families were supported by the volunteers, and that was really significant and important work at a critical time. Although volunteers are helping out, funding is needed to enable their work to continue. Funds must be available to charities such as Home-Start to make a real and practical difference to the lives of the most vulnerable—our babies, who are what this debate is really all about.

Some 59% of respondents to a Home-Start inquiry admitted to feelings of loneliness and isolation, and 23% said they needed help with their mental health. After help, 94% said they were more able to cope, so it is clear that intervention can make a difference. The money that the Government have set aside for this strategy and these schemes over the next period can and will make a difference. The next debate is about a separate issue, but some of it will also refer to education and mental health issues.

It is my humble opinion that funding should be allocated to such streams, which allow trained and interested volunteers to go into homes and help with practical issues. The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) referred to going to a home where the deprivation and the problems were incredible and hard to take in, but these volunteers help households to find mechanisms to better cope with the pressures of young children. The UK mainland also uses the Home-Start charity, and I am sure the Minister will have cognisance of this great charity and the wonderful work it does.

Time is short, and I am very clear about what you said earlier, Madam Deputy Speaker, so I will come to the crux of my comments. Time has prevented me from talking in depth about the wonderful work carried out in churches. It is no secret, but I want to put it on the record, that what churches do at parent and toddler groups in community halls throughout the country is incredible. We all know those groups, and I have a large number in my constituency—indeed, I think that every church is actively helping parent and toddler groups.

One of my local churches, Newtonards Elim, had to go ahead and open its group again, and it has had massive numbers of parents and childminders simply desperate for company, desperate for their child to talk with others and to interact with them, and desperate for normality. However, if more churches and community facilities are to do these things, more expensive protocols need to be put in place. Perhaps a one-off grant would encourage more churches to take the same step, which can be somewhat daunting due to the way things are. We cannot neglect, we cannot forget and we cannot ignore what churches do and the commitment they give to our constituents.

In conclusion, I believe that we can now safely meet, and if we can, we must. The characters of our little ones are formed in this time, and people need people—children need children, and mums need mums. In this place we need to support, encourage and facilitate the essential component of early years development. Levelling up has promised it, but let us make sure that that levelling-up process reaches out to all parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The levelling up starts here, today, through this debate.