Early Childhood Development

Debate between Sarah Champion and Fiona O'Donnell

Thursday 30th January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)]

I apologise for my late arrival. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom) on securing, with her friends and colleagues, such an important debate. It is excellent to have the opportunity to debate these important matters at length under your chairmanship, Mr Weir.

Hon. Members might be surprised to see a Scottish MP contributing to the debate, because Scotland and England have such separate and distinct approaches to child care, maternal care and paternal care, but there are lessons that we can learn from each other, and that is why I was keen to make a contribution today. In addition, I have been working closely with two third-sector organisations, the National Childbirth Trust and Bliss, on problems that arise when babies are born prematurely, and I want to focus on the needs of children, parents and the wider family when babies are born prematurely.

I have personal experience of the strain that that causes, having given birth to twin boys eight weeks prematurely when I also had a two-year-old and a four-year-old. When anyone asks me how I do the difficult job of Member of Parliament, I assure them that it is a piece of cake compared with being a mother of four children under four. My first-born—my daughter—has cerebral palsy, and when my twins were born I was living in rural Oxfordshire and not driving, so I faced multiple barriers to making that important bond with my premature babies. It is an awful experience for a mother to arrive home when it is more or less obvious that she has given birth—it is especially evident when twins have left the uterus—but because the babies are not with her, no one comes up to ask what happened. The mother is deprived of the opportunity to celebrate the birth of her children.

There is constant worry and strain over whether those children will grow up healthy and well, or even make it through that dangerous period in their lives, and parents have to take each day at a time. I pay tribute to the staff in the special care baby unit in Banbury who brought my babies—who are now 6 feet 2 inches and feet 3 inches and making a useful contribution to society—through that time. The right hon. Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) had newly been elected, and while my twins were still in the womb, I marched in protest to keep the special care baby unit open, not realising that they would soon be using the unit’s services.

There are particular strains for working parents. I was not a working parent at the time, so I did not have to make choices about maternity pay. People frequently do not understand that a baby who is born significantly prematurely often does not catch up, in terms of age and stage development, until they are at least two years old—I believe that it can take longer than that, and it certainly did in the case of my boys—and maternity pay does not allow for that. A mother is faced with the difficult choice of whether to take paid maternity leave while her baby is in hospital and possibly critically ill, or wait until the baby returns home. I would like the Government to look at that, because it puts such a strain on parents.

The hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) spoke about the need for other Departments to be involved. Given its responsibility for maternity and paternity leave, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should be part of a joined-up approach. The Department for Work and Pensions must also be part of that, because although poverty and deprivation are certainly not the only factors that contribute to a lack of secure attachment or the health and well-being of parents and children, they can make a huge difference. In my case, we suffered from the combination of four children under five and huge financial pressure on our family, and we were at risk of losing our home. I started childminding the children of wealthy parents, so that they could have piano lessons and beauty spa treatments, to try to make ends meet. That puts a huge strain on a family, and for a mother or father at home, the child is often the only outlet for that frustration.

My hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) rightly raised the issue of Sure Start centres. We do not have them in Scotland, but like many Members, I have watched at least two episodes of “Benefits Street.” When a Sure Start worker worked alongside some parents, it was incredibly inspiring to see how empowered the mother was. She was talking about the need to create a calm atmosphere and be consistent. It was the most inspiring and optimistic thing to see a parent given such skills. The way to do that is not by punishing them or withdrawing benefits, but by getting alongside people, showing them that we are on their side and understand, and giving them the necessary skills. I very much hope that the children from that family will grow up happier, healthier and able to contribute to society, and that they will not need that kind of support when they are parents. Investment in the early days is so important and can make such a difference to children’s outcomes.

[Sarah Champion]

I was surprised, and quite shocked, that 26% of babies in the UK—that is 198,000—are estimated to live in a traumatic family environment, and the effect on their well-being is considerable.

[Fiona O'Donnell]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. It is so distressing—no child chooses where it is born. No child is born bad; bad things happen to children. It is really depressing to face the idea that a child’s outcomes should be determined by the streets they were born between. At NCH, which is now called Action for Children, I worked with children who were at risk of being removed from their family. I always felt that that was an ironic term, because the best thing for some children was to be removed from their family, as it was for the parents, too. For those children, there was really no opportunity. Many had suffered emotional and, at times, physical and sexual abuse.

I urge the Minister to look at the excellent children’s panel hearing system that we have in Scotland, because it works well. It is great, because the child is absolutely at the centre of the process. This is not about what happens in the first 1,001 days, but seeing a child finally disclosing the abuse they have suffered, with us all having to leave the room until they felt able to tell their story, was the most remarkable thing, as was knowing that, hopefully, it was the beginning of a process of survival and recovery from that abuse. It was desperately sad to hear a 10-year-old boy say to me, “I know I can never be a parent, Fiona, because I couldn’t be trusted.” It is unthinkable that children should have to face such choices. As the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire said, we must educate health workers, teachers, nursery workers—everyone involved in a child’s care—to spot the early signs of abuse and not be frightened to raise concerns.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response, as well as that of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger), particularly on the issue of parents of premature babies. We know that breastfeeding brings huge benefits to babies. I am a mother of premature twins.