SEND Provision: Hampshire

Debate between Jim Shannon and Mark Hendrick

Thursday 31st October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. As the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) and I were walking down to Westminster Hall, I asked if he would be speaking and he said he was. I know that the debate is about Hampshire, but I always want to come along to support hon. Members who are bringing forward critical issues. I also want to add comments from a Northern Ireland perspective.

I am pleased to see the Minister in her place; I always look forward to meeting her and I know she clearly understands the issues that the hon. Member presented. I want to support him and his parents group, which has come here today. On the way here, he mentioned that those parents are the reason he secured the debate, and parents should be in everything that we do. These things are about our constituents and about what we can do to help them and give their perspective.

I spoke on this issue just last week; indeed, like almost everyone here, I have spoken in every debate on SEND education since we came back after the election. As I said, I want to give a Northern Ireland perspective, if I may.

I welcome the Budget, which allocated extra money to the SEND education system, as the hon. Member mentioned. I am always hopeful that some of that allocation will come our way through the Barnett consequential, which results in us gaining from investment here on the mainland.

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

Order. The debate pertains to Hampshire. Although you raise issues that are common, the subject is aimed in the direction of Hampshire. Can you please make the main points and try not to veer off the subject in terms of specifics in your own part of the UK?

[Jim Shannon]

I will make sure that whenever I mention Northern Ireland, I mention Hampshire as well. That will hopefully keep the perspective right, because what the hon. Member said happens in Hampshire happens in my constituency as well. I want to illustrate that and make some suggestions on how we can provide better help in the system. What we do back home in Northern Ireland can help those in Hampshire with how they move forward.

We have a clear teacher funding issue, especially in the SEND sector. One of my questions to the Minister, which I hope will be helpful for the hon. Member for Basingstoke and for the wider debate, is this: what has been done to ensure that there are more adequately trained people to respond to this issue?

I also speak in this debate because this matter is personal for me. I have six grandchildren, and three of them unfortunately have some difficulties with autism, learning and speech issues. I will not mention their names, because it would not be appropriate, but that is why this is personal.

Whenever I come here to make a contribution, it is clear to me what I am asking for: for the same things that have already been done back home. I will give a couple of examples of how things have happened and, by doing so, show what has made the situation better. I know that the hon. Member has referred to that.

A teaching assistant back home told me that she did a level 3 qualification on specialist support for teaching and learning in schools. If she lived here in England, she would fully qualify as a substitute teacher; in Northern Ireland, further training is necessary. That is an example for us back home. With the same system here, someone qualifies, but with the system back home, they do not. That clearly highlights the issue.

Across Northern Ireland—the hon. Member’s contribution has convinced me that this is similar to what is happening in Basingstoke and Hampshire—we have autism assessments, and some 66,000 pupils have some form of SEND. That is 20% of the population—the figures are similar to what the hon. Member referred to. Children fight for a diagnosis from the day they enter school, but unfortunately there are detrimental educational psychology delays, which coincide with delays in our health service. Even though we are focusing on SEND and education, will the Minister, when she responds, consider that there must also be a tight relationship between education and health? That is important and I hope she will respond in a positive fashion.

As I said, this issue is a personal one: three of my six grandchildren unfortunately have autism and speech therapy needs. I want to give an example of what has happened. I have mentioned diagnosis; get the diagnosis done early and we can change the child’s life—wow! I will give an example that is personal, because it happened in our family. One of the grandchildren—one of the boys—was quite boisterous and seemed to have difficulty expressing himself. Unfortunately, the result was that when he was at nursery and early school, he was hitting out at other children and became quite a difficult child. It was nobody’s fault; it was just that he was not able to express himself in the way he wished to.

We got the early diagnosis, and with the early diagnosis came the speech therapy, and with the speech therapy came an absolute change in that wee boy. When we were going to my son’s house for Christmas, I said to my wife, “Sandra, there’ll be some goings-on the day, when we get there,” and she said, “You’ll see a difference.” I had not seen my grandson for a while, and what a difference there was in that wee boy because he had got the diagnosis and the speech therapy—you could not have kept him quiet. What a change in that wee fella because the system had worked and helped him.

I give that as an example of what can happen if we have the right strategy and the right way forward. The opposite is now true of the wee boy: he never keeps quiet. It is lovely to have a wee boy in the corner who is so boisterous and alive and so respectful—we heard so many pleases and thank yous. There can be such a difference as a result of the system when it works. We now have two others coming through, and the provision of an early diagnosis has to be the same for them. The hon. Member for Basingstoke has asked for that, and I am sure the Minister will respond.

Another example is about how education can help. This is an example to help the Minister, because I think the great advantage of these debates is that we can give examples of where things have been going the right way and thereby exchange ideas on ways forward and how we can do things better. Movilla high school in my constituency increased its enrolment from 401 to 600, because the education authority enabled it to extend the special provision for pupils with autism to include 10 and 11-year-olds, and it has established what are called nurture classes. It is not a novel idea, but it is a good idea in terms of helping to move forward education and mainstream education in particular.

Those are just two of the points I want to raise: early diagnosis and the nurture classes that we have in my constituency of Strangford. I do not know what the reason is, but in the last number of years—the last 10 to 15, in particular—I have certainly seen more children there who have difficulties with autism and other issues. More should be done to create specialist nurture units within mainstream schools and to support specialist training for teachers of all ages. There must be the capacity for us to do our best for pupils who require additional support; they should not have to suffer because of a funding crisis.

I look forward very much to hearing the Minister’s thoughts and those of the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild). Around this room, we have people with incredible knowledge, and I look forward to all their contributions. I hope the Minister can undertake further discussion with the devolved nations on this matter. I said earlier—I mean it, and it is true of any debate I come to—that there are always lessons that can be learned regionally, and we can then share them in this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There is that benefit that comes from regional knowledge, which may be specific, but which can help us all to do things better. With that, I commend the hon. Member for Basingstoke for bringing the debate forward. I hope my contribution kept exactly to the line that you asked me to keep to, Sir Mark. Thank you so much.

New Hospital Programme and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Debate between Jim Shannon and Mark Hendrick

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a real pleasure to speak in this debate, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) on securing it on this issue. He is indeed a hardy, dedicated and assiduous MP. I say that in all honesty, because I think the good people of Hammersmith have an excellent MP, and they should be very proud of the efforts he makes on behalf of his people in the Chamber and Westminster Hall.

This debate is about the new hospital programme, which applies to the UK mainland. I have come along to add my support to the hon. Gentleman, as I do for many right hon. and hon. Members, here and in the main Chamber. That is my purpose for being here. I am also here to discuss the new hospital programme, which was announced at the 2019 Conservative manifesto launch and would have delivered 40 new hospitals in the UK by 2030. I understand the reasons for the delays—the covid pandemic has focused attention elsewhere and taken away much of the funding—but there is a real need, and hon. Members have made that case today on behalf of their constituents.

I also understand the position of the hon. Member for Hammersmith on the refurbishment works at Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. As MPs, we want the best of care, access and opportunities for our constituents, and delays to any work are often frustrating, so I understand the request very well, and support his position and his ongoing commitment to his constituents.

I am pleased to see the Minister in his place. He responded to the first debate in Westminster Hall this morning on cancer very well. If he answers hon. Members in the same way in this debate as he did in that one, they will be more than satisfied. With the support of the new hospital programme, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is beginning the next phase of redevelopment planning work for its three main hospital sites, all of which are included in the 40 new hospitals that the Government have committed to building by 2030.

I will quickly give a Northern Ireland perspective: what is happening here is also happening back home. It is important that we all remember that the demands for hospital care and better hospitals are not just in London; they are across the whole of this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has around 3% of all hospitals, with 40 across the Province.

In a constituency neighbouring mine, Belfast East, we have Ulster Hospital, which is the main hospital for us and is currently undergoing a £261 million revamp being done in stages. I believe that we are now going into section C of this refurbishment. So far there have been developments to a 30,000-square-metre in-patient block that is six storeys high, with a day surgery unit, an endoscopy unit, an angiography unit, and a cardiac investigation unit, with 12 in-patient wards. It is very much a modern hospital and very much of the modern programme that we have in Northern Ireland. The Minister is not responsible for that, but I just wanted to put it on record.

In order to clear our waiting lists, it is crucial that we do all we can to update outdated and old facilities. For a modern society and a fully functioning working hospital, things need to be modern and up to date. That is what the hon. Gentleman has asked for, and that is important. Hospital waiting lists in Northern Ireland are supposed to be banished by 2026—that is pie in the sky, in all honesty—according to a roadmap set out by the former health Minister, Robin Swann. More than 330,000 people are on some sort of waiting list in Northern Ireland and the new elective care framework proposes a £700 million investment over five years. It is important that the Government are committed to the requests of the hon. Member for Hammersmith and the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck), and to other requests that will follow.

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

Order. Health is devolved in Northern Ireland, and the focus of this is very much on—

[Jim Shannon]

That is what I have done in my comments, Sir Mark. I just want to give you the example of Northern Ireland—

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

But it is not a speech about the Northern Ireland health service, surely.

[Jim Shannon]

I have every hope that the Department of Health and Social Care will be able to give us timely updates on hospitals in England. This is a discussion I always have with those in the devolved Assemblies. We must—I conclude with this—do our best for our constituents and ensure that the collective facilities are in place to serve their needs. I hope the work in the constituency of the hon. Member for Hammersmith will commence soon as some reassurance for his constituents. He put his case forward—the Minister, I am sure, will respond—and I support him in what he has requested.

Home Insulation

Debate between Jim Shannon and Mark Hendrick

Wednesday 24th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Mark Hendrick (Preston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I rise to bring to the Government’s attention their approach to detrimental home insulation issues. I am pleased to have secured the debate to talk about the terrible conditions suffered by some of my constituents who live in the Fishwick area of Preston. The source of their complaints is work first carried out between January and June 2013.

The work was a Government scheme aimed at improving the thermal efficiency of homes by providing wall insulation. The aim, of course, was to lower heating bills in properties where many people were likely to be suffering from fuel poverty. The Fishwick area is one of the poorer areas of the city of Preston and the success of this scheme should have been very important to improve the lives of these people. The funding for this scheme was secured in September 2012 from InterGen, the managing agent for the scheme was Anesco, and the contractor for the scheme was called Ecogen. In total, 387 properties in Fishwick had work carried out as part of this scheme.

As I said earlier, the work was completed in June 2013, and in October that year, tragically, Ecogen was liquidated. By December 2013, the complaints started to flood in. By January 2014, the complaints were referred to the managing agent, Anesco. By March 2014, the complaints were referred to Ofgem.

Between March and December 2014, Ofgem undertook an investigation into the scheme. In December 2014, Ofgem decided to issue an enforcement order to have the work rectified. By April 2015, independent surveys were carried out by the energy partnership with a view to rectifying the work. By August 2015 a second set of independent surveys were carried out and, at the same time, the entire scheme was referred to what was then the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This was complemented by the Bonfield review, which was launched in 2015 by DECC in the wake of the failure of the green deal. The purpose of the review was to examine and make recommendations about how consumers can be protected and advised when installing energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in their homes.

By this time, of course, it was clear that the residents of the 387 homes in the Fishwick area had been living in substandard conditions for three years, with properties suffering from damp, fungus and mushroom development on the walls at various times throughout the year. They were living in extreme humidity because of the way in which the cladding attached to the building had contained water and allowed it to accumulate for long periods inside the building. Quite apart from the humidity and smell being extremely uncomfortable for the residents, it was also a health hazard that resulted in complaints of illness from various residents of the properties.

On 5 February 2016, I was made aware of these problems for the first time at a public meeting held at the Sahara community centre in Fishwick, following which I emailed the right hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Amber Rudd), who was then the Secretary of State at DECC, to ask her to make funding available as a matter of urgency as well as an emergency fund to deal with water ingress. I then received a response from the noble Lord Bourne, who said in his letter of 17 March 2016 that in such cases complaints should be referred to a local citizens advice bureau or Ofgem. It is understandable that Ofgem should be involved, but how on earth can the citizens advice bureau help? It was clear from my letter to the Secretary of State and the attachment that the contractor, Ecogen, had been liquidated and it was therefore not just a simple case of going back to the contractor and getting them to put the work right. Special help was required to help put right the defective work.

As a result of my persistence, in early June 2016, I received an email from the National Energy Action fuel poverty charity that stated that a total pot of £2.5 million could be made available to Preston City Council to assist people trapped in the scheme if Preston City Council was prepared to take on the role of managing the remedial work. Unfortunately, the NEA had to contact me on the matter because it had yet to receive any response from the city council. I later found out that one of the council officers had sat on the letter from the NEA and not referred the matter to either the chief executive at the time, Lorraine Norris, or the councillors for the Fishwick ward. I believe that this was because the council officer concerned was reluctant to take on the role of managing the remedial work and therefore did not pass on the correspondence from the fuel poverty charity.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman is raising a specific point about his constituency, but I want to refer briefly if I may to Northern Ireland, where the fuel poverty figures have dropped by some 22%. That is in no small part due to the Northern Ireland sustainable energy programme, or NISEP, which ring-fences some 80% of funding specifically to help vulnerable and low-income families install efficiency measures in their homes. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that working alongside housing associations in Northern Ireland and with NISEP would be something the Minister could consider and an excellent way of ensuring that vulnerable people could install efficiency measures in their own homes and get the help to which he is referring?

[Sir Mark Hendrick]

I concur with the hon. Gentleman. Whether it is with Northern Ireland authorities or with our own Government, there is no reason why there should not be good co-operation and good insulation schemes. That is what I would have expected with these 387 houses in my constituency.

In the meantime, I requested a meeting with the Secretary of State on the matter, as a matter of urgency. Except for a very brief encounter in the House of Commons Tea Room, when the Secretary of State said that she was looking into the matter as she passed me by, she seemed uninterested in the case and reluctant to discuss the matter. She did, however, refer me to an official, who then assured me that Preston City Council was working with the NEA fuel poverty charity. However, what the Department did not know was that this was the case only because of my direct intervention and contact with the chief executive of Preston City Council at the time, because, as I said earlier, the council officer had sat on the letter from the NEA.

By July 2016, the chief executive was indicating that she needed extra funding in order to carry out surveys to get a “detailed picture of issues”, so clearly the £2.5 million was not enough to deal with the problems, and in fact was only to be targeted at those homes which had complained about the work—62 of the 387 homes. That did not take account of the fact that many of the other homes had problems, but because the residents thought that people in other properties were complaining on their behalf as well, they did not come forward and make their direct complaints. Therefore, the fact that work was to be carried out on the 62 properties only, neglected all the work that needed to be carried out on the other affected properties, whose residents, for a variety of reasons, had not come forward and made their own complaints. That was, in my view, totally unjust and short-sighted.

On 24 November 2016, I emailed the Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills—the right hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark)—to ask what assurances and safeguards were in place to ensure that the properties would be safe, dry and warm, and that any installations would be done in a professional manner. In December 2016, BIS responded, asking for more detail. In January 2017, my office contacted BIS to ask what detail it required. My office staff were told that the policy team would get in touch. We waited and waited, and the policy team did not get in touch. However, work was already under way on the 62 properties, which were designated as phase 1. Those properties that were left were designated as phase 2 and the residents were told that they would be surveyed. However, there was no indication from any organisation as to how or if funding would be made available for phase 2.

In the meantime, I received an email from Councillor Martyn Rawlinson of Preston City Council, telling me that the management of the repairs on the 62 houses was as bad as the original work that was carried out. Some of the houses had been left half done for several months. E.ON originally said that all repairs necessary would be done, but E.ON was then saying that homeowners should get their own insurers to get the work completed, which was outrageous—an absolute disgrace—and by then the residents had been putting up with this nonsense for four years, with many of them having work done twice to their property, and still not to their satisfaction.

By 29 November 2017, I was ready to let E.ON know about my concerns over the progression of the remedial works, and asked it for a timescale setting out when all the works would be carried out and completed, and for a point of contact to be established for the residents. My office chased E.ON for a response for over a month, and a month later—January 2018—we finally received correspondence. E.ON confirmed that it was trying to divert attention from its responsibilities in the matter towards Preston City Council, which had no direct responsibility, and still has no direct responsibility, for the work to be carried out. It is E.ON that surveyed the houses in August 2017 for phase 2 of the repairs. I am told that those so-called “surveys” were in fact not proper surveys, but door-knocking exercises to ask people whether they were having problems, or had had problems previously; nothing at all was done of a technical nature, and certainly nothing that could generate a work order to remedy what problems they were having. In addition there is not, and has not been, any indication from the Government or E.ON of how the rest of the work for the 300-plus houses will be financed. We are seeing good will, but nothing in the way of resources to complete the work.

On 11 February I received an email from Councillor Martyn Rawlinson, with photographs of some horrific scenes within houses due to the damp issues. It is inconceivable that people should be left to live in such conditions, with no one apparently willing to rectify the problems as soon as possible.

On 8 March this year, I wrote to the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs Wheeler), describing my disappointment with the then Secretary of State and the Department, and appealing for help. On 27 March I received a response from the Under-Secretary telling me that the responsibility had moved from her Department to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

I tabled a series of parliamentary questions to BEIS about the use of cladding on properties. That culminated in a letter from BEIS indicating that remedial work on 62 of the properties should be completed shortly, and that E-ON was in discussions with National Energy Action to help other households. In the meantime I received a variety of complaints from the residents, one claiming to have spent £1,500 after a ceiling caved in after wet weather. In a separate case, an elderly homeowner had to leave her property and move in with her son because the damp was affecting her health.

Since then, the Minister for Energy and Clean Growth has responded to my parliamentary question, PQ177184, indicating that the retrofit on 62 of the properties was completed in the summer of this year and that work has been carried out to estimate the extent of the work that is necessary to sort out the work required to the other properties. As I said earlier, that resulted in questions being asked on the doorstep. In addition, talks have been taking place between Ofgem, BEIS and the energy suppliers in an attempt to secure funding for the remaining houses.

This saga has been running for six years, from 2012 to where we are now, in October 2018. It has been an absolute tragedy for those living in those 387 houses, who have been trying to put up with substandard housing and great inconvenience. The result has been unsafe properties with associated health risks. In the meantime, I am reliably informed that in many cases the cladding has been removed, but properties have been left with holes in the walls. The landlord has said that they will be finishing off the work, but will only repair the holes and paint the brickwork. They are not prepared to install any new insulation. One of the complainants wonders where the money has gone for the work that should have been done to her property. The landlord has told her that she should speak to E.ON or Preston City Council.

Let me tell the Minister that I recall spending three years in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Environment Secretary, the right hon. Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett). During that time, when my party was in government, we dealt with fuel poverty issues through the Warm Front scheme, which was applied to about 10,000 homes in my constituency, particularly in the area of Deepdale. The scheme focused on energy efficiency by installing new central heating boilers and providing loft insulation and double glazing for terraced housing that was not too different from the housing that we see in Fishwick ward. It was extremely effective, and popular with residents.

May I ask the Minister why the more recent schemes that are using cladding of the type mentioned in Fishwick are being employed when the detriment to both property and residents is known? Why has it taken six years to get to where we are now for the residents of Fishwick? Are the Government willing to help to direct the residents to a satisfactory and available source of finance to rescue what is, in fact, a Government scheme?

Israel and Palestine

Debate between Jim Shannon and Mark Hendrick

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mark Hendrick (Preston) (Lab/Co-op)]

On 29 November, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status to non-member observer. The Assembly voted 138 to 9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining, including the UK. The USA supported Israel and voted against upgrading Palestine’s UN status.

The vote should be welcomed as a symbolic milestone in Palestine’s ambition for statehood, rather than as “unfortunate and counter-productive”, as the US Secretary of State has chosen to describe it. Enhanced UN status brings Palestine closer to the international community, its organisations and values. The Palestinians can now take part in UN debates and potentially join bodies such as the International Criminal Court.

By abstaining in the vote, Britain has made itself less relevant to meaningful engagement in the search for peace. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Mr Alexander) warned the Foreign Secretary before the vote:

“Abstention tomorrow would be an abdication of Britain’s responsibilities.”—[Official Report, 28 November 2012; Vol. 554, c. 231.]

The UK did not stand on the side of progress but instead chose the politically expedient option. I would be interested to know what the Minister believes was achieved by the UK abstaining from the vote and how that strengthens the goal of a two-state solution.

In response to the vote, Israel announced on 30 November that it will build 3,000 new housing units in the west bank and East Jerusalem and withhold more than £75 million in customs duties. Israel’s response to the perfectly legal move of upgrading Palestine’s UN status is an illegal move to try and ruin a two-state solution and withhold Palestinian money. The proposed housing units would be built in the Ariel, Elkana, Efrat and Karnei Shomron settlements in the west bank, and in the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Gilo in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Ministry of Housing and Construction. In the words of the Foreign Secretary, if implemented the plans would make the two-state solution “almost inconceivable”, because in effect they would largely cut off occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied territories.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It might come as no surprise that I have a slightly different opinion. Does the hon. Gentleman feel that if there is to be peace in the middle east between Palestine and Israel, recognition of the state of Israel has to come first?

[Mark Hendrick]

Yes, I do. It is important that Hamas recognises Israel and that Israel is there to stay.