Autism

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

It is an honour to speak in this important debate. My constituent, 14-year-old Zachary Saunders-Love, has a severe intellectual disability, autistic spectrum disorder and sensory and communication issues. Zachary is a wonderful young boy, physically strong but often unco-ordinated and unco-operative. The week before Christmas, he made a clumsy grab at one of his teaching assistants at his special school, and accidentally fractured her collarbone. It was an awful thing to happen, for Zachary, his family and the teaching staff. As a result, Zachary was permanently excluded from his special school. Since then, he has been stuck at home, being cared for by his father, Mark, who is losing hope of finding a suitable alternative facility nearby able to handle children of his size and with his complex needs. Mark told me:

“My son and many like him have a life limiting condition that will last for their entire time on Earth. Many won’t improve. None of them will get better. They will never be numerate or literate and they will never give back to society in real terms. Because of this they are not welcome in schools who are ultimately in competition with each other for results, and resources.”

A recent Ofsted report showed that Bedford Borough Council had significant challenges with special educational needs and disability provision. I know that it is working hard to make the necessary improvements, and I will be meeting with local authority leaders as soon as possible to discuss this important issue. I was pleased to hear the Secretary of State addressing the all-party group on autism recently about the need for a review of the shockingly high exclusion rates among SEND children. Will the Minister update us on when this review will take place, and will she agree to meet with Mark Love, who only wants to give his son the education he deserves and has some fantastic ideas for easing the burden on the SEND service?

NHS Winter Crisis

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Wednesday 10th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

I will concentrate on my main point in the 90 seconds being given to me.

NHS staff have said that this winter crisis was predictable and preventable. Bedford Hospital NHS Trust was one of the 24 trusts that issued a warning saying they were at full capacity. Patients, including many elderly and frail people, are routinely stuck in the back of ambulances in logjams waiting to get into A&E. The NHS is coping with an increase in demand, while being severely underfunded. We have also learned that Bedford walk-in medical centre in Putnoe is now under threat. Some 40% of our walk-in centres nationwide have closed under the Tories since 2010. Commissioners take decisions in response to budgetary constraints and cut services that are on the face of it costly to provide, but the human costs of such cuts are catastrophic, especially in places such as Bedford, whose hospital is already struggling to cope.

I finish by thanking all the staff who worked hard over Christmas and gave their time, when they could have spent it enjoying time with their families.

Social Care

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Wednesday 25th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

It is an honour to follow my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous).

Before my election in June I was the portfolio holder for adult services on Bedford Borough Council. I saw the strain that my team of officers was placed under every day, in trying to meet rapidly growing demand with rapidly diminishing resources. The “solution” to this crisis that the Government put forward during the election campaign was astonishing. The dementia tax is not a good idea that was unpopular; it is a terrible idea that did nothing to address the immediate problem of severe underfunding.

Despite already making cuts of £90 million since 2010, Bedford Borough Council needs to identify further cuts of £27.5 million by 2020. In 2015 the grant received from central Government was £30.1 million; that will fall to £5.8 million by 2019-20, and is falling by £6.8 million next year alone. The social care precept is not a proper solution at all, and it is not nearly enough to bridge the gap. It is an inadequate sticking plaster for an ongoing funding shortfall, and a token gesture that pushes the responsibility away from where it really lies, which is with central Government.

A report published last year by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund on cuts to social care for over-65s found that access to care depends increasingly on what people can afford and where they live, rather than on what they need. The report found that underinvestment in primary and community NHS services is undermining the policy objective of keeping people independent and out of residential care. It also found that the Care Act 2014 has created new demands and expectations, with no extra funding to meet them.

The report also said that local authorities have little room to make further savings, and most will soon be unable to meet basic statutory duties. Bedford Borough Council is close to not being able to meet those duties. Fining local authorities for delayed transfers of care will do nothing to help address the problem, and will worsen the funding crisis. The Government’s response to the social care crisis that we know exists in every local authority area up and down the country is hopelessly inadequate to deal with the levels of demand.

The Government have no answers to the social care crisis they have created. The only change needed now is a change of Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

May I apologise to the hon. Gentleman if he has not had a prompt reply to any letters to me or my Department? I will look into the issue that he raises and ensure that he gets a rapid response.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

Yesterday the private ambulance service that provided non-urgent patient transport at Bedford hospital ceased trading, leaving the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust to pick up the pieces. Will the Minister order an inquiry to establish what went wrong, and does he agree that using private companies to run key services for our NHS is simply not working?

[Mr Dunne]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that private and independent providers of patient transport services provide services all across the country and support the ambulance services in that work. I will look into the case that he raises in relation to Bedford and write to him.