Parents and Carers of Infants: Support

Mark Logan Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Westminster Hall

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered information on support available for parents and carers of infants.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Henderson. As vice chair of the all-party parliamentary group for conception to age two—the first 1,001 days—and mother to three adult children, I know how important the early days are. There is a wealth of evidence that the critical 1,001 days from conception to the age of two have a significant impact on the health, wellbeing and opportunities of babies and children throughout the rest of their lives.

The arrival of a new baby can bring huge joy to families, but it can also be a time of stress and anxiety as parents and carers adjust to the new responsibility, which can be overwhelming. There is no rulebook in parenting, and all families need some help to give their babies the best start in life. Parents are always learning and adapting to the different needs of growing children. We are all fallible. Help comes from family, friends, healthcare professionals or volunteers. There is often a huge variety of support and services available, but as my right hon. Friend the Minister found when she led the early years healthy development review, it is not always easy for families to access information about what support is available. That can make it hard for families who are juggling the demands of caring for a baby to find the support they need when they need it most. That is why I introduced the Support for Infants and Parents etc (Information) Bill on 6 February.

Before I continue, I thank the Chamber Engagement Team for their work in engaging the public on the Bill, and the Department of Health and Social Care for its advice. Interestingly, in feedback to the Chamber Engagement Team, many responders said that they were given very little information, especially on breastfeeding, and that lots of parents were paying for information from private providers, or mainly got information from online communities. Others had more mixed experiences, often saying they were given better information ante, rather than post, natal. Only a minority had much better experiences. Most people centred their responses on improving the dissemination of more consistent information. Increasing the numbers of health visitors and midwives was also a popular theme, and many said that they had heard of the family hub network, and the Start for Life programme.

My Bill is intended to support a baby’s cognitive, emotional and physical development during the 1,001 critical days from pregnancy up to the age of two by making information on the support available easier to access.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. In my constituency, there is an organisation called Family and Babies Bolton. Elaine put together the organisation over a number of years. It deals with breastfeeding and breastfeeding support and information for new mothers. Does my hon. Friend agree that this debate is a great opportunity to recognise the work of those organisations, not only in Bolton but across the country, which ensure a better future for our babies and infants?

Procurement of Evusheld

Mark Logan Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2022 Westminster Hall

[Daisy Cooper]

The hon. Lady is right. I will set out not only that the scientific evidence backs up the case for Evusheld, but that there is strong political consensus for it. Of course, the voices of those affected must be heard.

There is nowhere that is safe for these people: not shops, not schools, not supermarkets, not buses, not even the very GP surgeries and hospitals that they need to visit to manage the conditions that make them vulnerable. They are at extreme risk of hospitalisation and death, and they have been left with no choice but to lock themselves away from family and friends for two and a half years. Many now face a third winter of shielding.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I agree with the hon. Lady’s sentiments. I have a constituent who has been shielding for 30 months—a 26-year-old who is the son of Mrs Rehana Patel. Along with the hon. Lady, I plead that the Government continue to give serious consideration to the use of Evusheld to help those thousands of clinically vulnerable people across my constituency and the rest of the UK.

[Daisy Cooper]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention.

Let us move on to the facts. Is Evusheld safe and effective? Yes, it is. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved it in March, seven months ago. Is there enough scientific evidence? Yes, there is ample evidence.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Logan Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

The west midlands is more affected than many regions of the ambulance service. There are a number of causes, the first of which is that we are living with covid, which has not disappeared. If we look at the in-patient rates, we see that they have increased significantly; last month, they were 17.9 per 100,000 and they are now up to 24.4 per 100,000 in the west midlands, which is experiencing significantly higher rates than other parts of the country. [Interruption.] If the shadow Secretary of State wants to hear this, I can tell him that we also have a significant number of staff sicknesses from covid; this time last year, it was about 4% of staff but when I spoke to some trusts this weekend I heard that it was up to 6%. That has a knock-on effect on acute and emergency services and ambulance services being able to respond.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

Derek Taylor came to my surgery as his late wife Lynda had tragically passed away in Moses Gate country park while they were out walking together. The ambulance was unable to access the park due to barriers impeding entry, and he will never know whether Lynda’s life could have been saved. What steps can the Minister take to ensure that all public parks are accessible to ambulances in cases of emergency?

[Maria Caulfield]

I am very sad to hear of the experience of my hon. Friend’s constituent and he is right to say that emergency services need to be able to access public areas. I am happy to talk to him about that afterwards to see what more can be done.

Covid-19: Government Handling and Preparedness

Mark Logan Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

As I said, we have answered this question many times before. What I would add to those answers is that it is another example of constantly learning about the virus. As we learned the impact of asymptomatic transmission in particular, we changed the protocols in care homes over the summer and put in place the winter plan that led to a greater degree of protection in care homes over the second peak. We are constantly looking to make sure that we can learn as much as possible and work with the sector to help people to stay as safe as possible.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con) [V]]

Mr Speaker,

“When it comes to the Health Secretary, I’m a fan.”

Those are not my effusive words; they come from some of the highest levels among our health team in Bolton. Like colleagues on both sides of the House, we have been on countless calls with the Health Secretary, with upwards of 100 MPs on many occasions. As he has done today, he has taken the time to respond or come back after each and every interaction with helpful advice and solutions. I say this in private, I say it in public, and I say it—this is a plug—in the “Red Box” in The Times today: these last two weeks, he has thrown his Department’s kitchen sink at Bolton to help us through the recent variant-driven spike. Can he provide an update on the current situation, as well as giving a continued commitment to work hard for Bolton?

[Mr Speaker]

I presume it’s your red box the hon. Gentleman refers to, Secretary of State.

Covid-19 Update

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

If I just explain the data to the hon. Gentleman, I am sure that he will understand. The measures of the case rate per 100,000 are influenced by the amount of testing that is done in any country, and there is not nearly as much testing in Pakistan or Bangladesh as there is in India. As I said in response to the right hon. Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth), the rate of positivity of people coming from Pakistan was three times higher than that of people coming from India, which was at that time quite low. We have to be careful with the raw data, and we have to look at the underlying positivity. One of the advantages of testing everybody at the border is that we now effectively have a global surveillance system to understand the positivity of travellers from any individual country. As I said, the decision was taken on the basis of the fact that the positivity was three times higher from Pakistan than from India.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con) [V]]

In Bolton we are battling the Indian variant, with the rate currently standing at 274 per 100,000. The heroes of Bolton jabbed 6,200 people this weekend. Well done to the Health Secretary and his Department. Will he pay tribute to the Bolton team—Councillors Greenhalgh, Baines and Morgan, Dr Lowey and Dr Wall? Will the Government commit to first-dosing the whole of Bolton before the end of May and getting the second dose out to more vulnerable groups at a similar pace? Finally, what would the Health Secretary like to stress to Boltonians as we open up today with the rest of the country?

[Matt Hancock]

There is one other person who my hon. Friend did not add to the list, probably due to modesty, and that is himself. He has worked incredibly hard over the last few days to get the message out to people across Bolton, and I am very grateful. My message to everybody in Bolton and Blackburn is: take these steps, but please take them safely. Get a test and get yourself vaccinated as soon as you are in one of the eligible groups. It is incredibly important that we get vaccinations to anybody over 50 who has not had a jab yet, so please come forward now. Anybody over 50 who has had one jab eight weeks ago or more should come forward for their second. Crucially, get a test.

I pay tribute to all those my hon. Friend mentioned. Councillor David Greenhalgh, the leader of Bolton Council, has worked incredibly hard, as have his whole team. We are working cohesively together, and I very much hope that with that effort, we can get this sorted.

Covid-19 Update

Mark Logan Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I work very closely with the London leadership, cross-party, to tackle the problems and to ensure that there is testing available according to the clinical priority. In the hon. Gentleman’s area in the last week, there have been over 3,000 tests. I am sure that he welcomes those, but we absolutely work so that there are more, not least in the public health and NHS systems, as well as through the pillar 2 Lighthouse lab approach.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I have four asks for the Secretary of State. No. 1 is to fix the national portal. A constituent of mine failed to get a test in Bolton, but then she tried using a Wigan postcode and succeeded in getting a test for Bolton. No. 2 is to remove the backlog on testing results. People are having to wait too long before getting results. The third is to ramp up contact tracing. The senior leadership at my local authority inform me that they do not have the resource to deliver what is needed. Finally, what specific actions is his Department taking right now to help bring down the numbers in Bolton?

[Matt Hancock]

The situation in Bolton is very serious, and all four of the requests from my hon. Friend are rightly made. He is pressing the case, as he should, and perhaps I should meet him to see what progress we can make on all these cases.