Apprenticeships

Julie Minns Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) for securing this important debate. Bendalls Engineering in my constituency of Carlisle can trace its route back to 1894. Founded as a family-run business, Bendalls can lay claim to having manufactured the body parts of Donald Campbell’s Bluebird cars and boats in the 1920s, and in the 1950s the company became one of the first suppliers of bespoke equipment to Britain’s first nuclear facility. I was therefore delighted to learn that the latest chapter in Bendalls’s history of innovation is to be an on-site skills academy managed by Lakes college.

My constituency brims with companies like Bendalls—from international firms such as Pirelli, and locally headquartered companies like Grain broadband, to other family-founded business, including the haulier Wm Armstrong, industrial supplier Thomas Graham and agricultural machinery provider Rickerby. All are committed to building a pipeline of talent through their apprenticeship programmes, which is complemented by the excellent array of apprenticeship programmes offered by Carlisle college.

In geographically remote places such as my constituency, with low inward migration and an ageing population, these apprenticeship schemes are the lifeblood of our local economy. What a shame then that, under the previous Government and in slight contrast to the rosy picture painted by the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), fewer and fewer people embarked on apprenticeships. Indeed, between the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017 and 2023, apprenticeships fell by 31%, while the number of skilled job vacancies more than doubled.

[Wendy Morton]

I set out my case during my speech, but since the hon. Lady is so passionate about apprenticeships, perhaps she can explain how the Government’s interest in employer national insurance will help with the creation of more apprenticeships. They cannot simply keep pushing and pushing business, and squeezing their profit margins, and expect them to be able to invest in employment opportunities and training.

[Ms Minns]

I thank the right hon. Member for that intervention. We are having a debate on apprenticeships, and the fact that I put forward is that, under the last Government, they fell by 31%. I think it would be welcome if Opposition Members started to own their record in government. This Government, by contrast, are committed to making apprenticeships work for employers, apprentices and our country, closing regional growth gaps, targeting the skilled jobs that the country is crying out for and giving businesses like Bendalls more flexibility on the courses that are funded.

Education, Health and Care Plans

Julie Minns Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

Thank you for accommodating me, Dr Huq.

Education should not be this devastating or exhausting, but that is what all our constituents feel when it comes to finding adequate provision for their children with specialist needs. I will talk about one specific aspect. It is not about the exhaustion of actually getting an EHCP, although that is devastating for families. When armed with an EHCP, as in the case of one of my constituents, the exhaustion began in trying to get the school where their child was enrolled to agree to the one-day-a-week provision they had identified as being suitable for their child. It was the first step in getting their child back into that school, yet the school could not or would not agree to allow that provision to be paid for under the EHCP.

This is about not just fixing the bureaucracy around EHCPs, but ensuring that the support and encouragement are there for our schools to meet the educational needs that parents know are right for their children.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Julie Minns Excerpts

Thursday 24th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

The hon. Gentleman tempts me into commentary on next week’s Budget, in which I cannot indulge him.

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

I speak both as a parent whose child was badly failed in SEND provision under the last Government, and as an MP whose surgeries have been visited on every single occasion by a parent who is struggling not just to get an EHCP but to get from a school the flexibility that matches their child’s need. I say respectfully to Opposition Members—including the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds)—that until and unless you have walked in my shoes and the shoes of your constituents, you should show a little humility and decorum in how you respond on this issue. In the review, will the Minister encourage schools to be more flexible in their SEND provision for children who need it?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I remind Members that when they say “you”, they mean me—and I do not want responsibility.