National Cancer Plan
Sarah Smith Excerpts(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Andrew Gwynne
The right hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. I have certainly had a number of roundtables with the pharmaceutical sector in the UK about how we can support it, how we can grow our life sciences sector and how Britain can be at the cutting edge of new treatments and clinical trials. Indeed, we had a Delegated Legislation Committee yesterday on regulations to make it easier to carry out clinical trials in this country. Some of the latest advances in pharma are quite remarkable; I think particularly of the work being done on mRNA technology to look at having specific cancer treatments pertinent to a person’s genomics—it could be a game changer.
Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)
Hyndburn is home to the incredible woman Lorraine Hargreaves. She established the charity Milly’s Smiles after her daughter Milly died of leukaemia, and each year she supports thousands of families whose children have cancer. Can the Minister reassure her that this plan will also improve outcomes for children? I know that Lorraine will welcome the announcement on the re-establishment of the taskforce, but would the Minister consider meeting her to discuss the lack of support and grief groups for families who go through the unimaginable tragedy of losing a child to cancer?
Andrew Gwynne
I cannot even begin to think what it would be like to lose a child full stop, but to lose them to cancer would be horrific for their parents. I pay tribute to Lorraine for all the campaigning she has done on this. I am more than happy to meet my hon. Friend and Lorraine to talk about this, but the whole reason for putting the taskforce back on an operational footing is so that we can make the changes that she and Lorraine want to see.
Speech and Language Therapy
Sarah Smith Excerpts(3 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)
It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) for opening the debate, and I pay tribute to Mikey. I have been privileged to work with young people for many years, putting them at the heart of leading change, and it is always brilliant to see that happening. I congratulate Mikey, and hope that he will start to see actual results. We have heard that he has been working on this for a long time, and is perhaps frustrated that he has not seen change happen more quickly.
It is not an exaggeration to say that high-quality speech and language services can transform lives because supporting a person to communicate can open a whole new world of opportunity for them. As we have heard, communication is an essential aspect of life for all ages, including for adults who have experienced major setbacks due to medical events. However, I will focus my comments on the need for excellent speech and language provision for children and young people.
A vital part of this Government’s mission is to break down barriers to opportunity for all children, and to help ensure that a record number of children start school ready to learn. A key component of our approach will be better identification of those children who may need additional support with their language and speech development. Speech and Language UK has found that 1.9 million children struggle with talking and understanding words, which demonstrates the scale and importance of this issue. I hope that the investments that this Government are making into increasing the availability and standard of pre-school childcare and into family hubs will lead to more opportunities to support young children with their early language development, at an earlier stage. However, many of those children will need access to high-quality speech and language therapy to help them progress, and their families need support to know how best to encourage and aid their child’s development.
I recognise that, often, parents feel left out in the cold and unclear on how they can best support their children when they face challenges. That support will be crucial to ensuring that no child is left behind in their educational progression because we know that language skills are the foundation for literacy development and further learning. I was delighted to see at first hand, in schools that I have worked with, the impact of the decision already taken by the Secretary of State for Education to fund a further year of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme. I hope that the Education team will continue to support that as one means to tackle this bigger issue. I ask the Minister, how are the Government further working alongside education colleagues? We know that it is by working together that we can enable children who need formal speech and language therapy to access it without the horrifically long waiting times that they currently experience.
There are specific challenges within the north-west, and it is no surprise that the majority of constituencies with a high level of signatories to the petition are in that region. In the north-west, in November, around 45% of children and young people who were waiting for speech and language therapy had been waiting for over 12 weeks, compared with 28% of those on the waiting list in the east of England. The latest available figures show that 2,672 children and young people in the Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care board area were waiting for speech and language therapy. That is a damning statement on the inheritance that we received from the Opposition, and that inheritance is further demonstrated by their Benches being almost empty for this debate. Earlier today, we heard the shadow Secretary of State for Education, the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Laura Trott), make a big noise in the Chamber, but she did not take seriously the challenges that the Opposition have left us and how we can tackle them.
The regional disparity is adding another level of disadvantage to children growing up in my constituency of Hyndburn. Like all children, they deserve to be supported to learn. It is important that we are careful, when we speak about children with special educational needs and disabilities, not to suggest that their educational performances or communication skills are due to some internal difference or lack of ability: it is the systems and structures around them that we must fix to make sure that every child and young person has the same access to opportunities to fulfil their potential.
It is important that we provide wraparound support for families so that the Government can make better use of standard two-year check-ups to unlock pathways to support. Time and again, I hear of children and families in my constituency who are on pathways for not just weeks or months but years, without access to the education, health and care plan that they might need or the wraparound services intervention required to make sure that a child has the best possible chance in life. It is welcome that the Government’s mission to build a health service fit for the future will look to design a system that meets the changing needs of our changing population, but can the Minister share more about how speech and language services will feature in the current national conversation on the 10-year strategy?
Effective speech and language interventions can reduce the need for more intensive and costly healthcare services down the line, and as hon. Members have mentioned they have a significant positive return on investment in the long term. Investing in early screening and diagnostic services will help identify speech and language issues at a young age and allow for more effective interventions. Effective intervention does not just help young people to access language and communication skills but helps with their confidence and the ability to make friends and start school with their best foot forward.
I know that Ministers across Government appreciate that there is a crisis affecting the SEND education system. We have had a 140% increase in the number of children and young people with EHCPs, but outcomes have stagnated. More money has been put in, but we are not seeing better results for the children impacted. That is why I welcome the commitment that this is not just about investment but the right reforms.
I would like to ask the Minister about closer working relationships with education professionals—not just how it happens at the top of Government but on the ground. Is there an opportunity with the schools rebuilding programme to look at the co-location of education, health services and therapy and make sure that they are built into the design right from the start? The headteacher leading on the rebuilding of Hyndburn Academy is open and keen for this thinking, so it would be great to hear the Minister’s views as to how that will be rolled out nationally.
There are many wonderful examples of inclusive schools, but many parents have felt forced to seek an EHCP for more specialised speech and language support. Has the Minister made an assessment of how a focus on speech and language specialised support as well as inclusion in schools could create a system where parents do not always have to go through a formal written process to secure the resources they need? That might tackle the huge challenges we face in that part of the system. We cannot solve the problems in the SEND system without increasing support for children struggling with speech and understanding words.
My comments have focused a lot on language development and formal education, but I have had the immense privilege of knowing children who are non-verbal but wonderful and profound communicators. Communication comes in many forms. That is why I spoke about the systems and structures we facilitate around our children to ensure that every child and young person is given the opportunity to thrive. No child should be held back from the strong social participation, relationships, learning and wellbeing that can be forged with the right support.
Income Tax (Charge)
Sarah Smith Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Tom Tugendhat
It is a pleasure to hear the hon. Gentleman, who has come off the fence and now has a seat; he can express his views freely. What fills me with sorrow is when I look at the future—when I look at the businesses that have invested so hard in places such as Tonbridge and now cannot pass that on over generations and over time. The investment timeline is being reduced and so is the growth. Do not just take my word for it—the Office for Budget Responsibility, the National Farmers Union and every business in this country have been clear on the point. The Government are not just taking the eggs from the golden goose; they are slaughtering the goose by trying to get the eggs out quicker. That simply does not work.
We all know what is going to happen next: the Government are going to have to come back for more. We just need to look at the predictions by various financial bodies over the last few days, which have been talking about our running out of the money raised in the Budget in the next two or three years. We know why that is going to happen. This Budget is not investing—worse than that, it is not encouraging investing. It is trying to exploit.
Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)
As a member of the Government at the time of the disastrous mini-Budget, does the right hon. Gentleman seriously expect us to take lessons from him on how we grow the economy, return to economic stability and get the desperately needed investment into our public services that his Government failed to deliver for the past 14 years?
Tom Tugendhat
The hon. Lady can play politics if she likes; I am trying to think about the future of the country.
Dyson, who was not in any Government, is pointing out the problems being raised. Minette Batters, who was not in any Government, is pointing out the problems being raised.
Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)
This Budget provides absolute clarity that the Government are focused on putting working people back at the heart of economic decision making. This is most evident in the Chancellor’s decision to protect and support public services, enabling the Government to kick-start a mission-led approach to reform. Let us be frank: this Government have inherited public services that are falling apart at the seams, and we know that our constituents deserve better. I commend the Chancellor and Treasury Ministers for taking the difficult decisions that will raise £9 billion per year by the end of the forecast to support public services. The tax decisions that have been taken are difficult, but I thank Ministers for being transparent, as restoring economic stability to put the country back on a trajectory of growth is essential.
It is important to highlight that investing money in our valuable public services is also about securing growth in the long term, as my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has remarked. Enabling a worker to get a quicker GP appointment so that they can return to work sooner, or supporting a parent who wants to take a job that starts an hour earlier by giving them access to a breakfast club before school, supports growth. In my constituency of Hyndburn alone, the impact of the past 14 years of economic failure is that over 7,000 children are living in families that face absolute poverty. Investment in people and public services has real economic payback, as well as being the right thing to do. Members on the notably empty Conservative Benches refuse to say what choices they would make differently. Would they choose to not invest in public services, to not lift children out of poverty, or to not get the public finances back on a firm footing?
The increase in the national minimum wage is also welcomed by many of my constituents in Hyndburn and Haslingden, who work tirelessly to support their families and the local community in skilled but often undervalued jobs, whether in retail, in hospitality or in care. Currently in my constituency, though, we are facing entrenched problems due to a lack of investment in our public services. Most obviously, we face the closure of our highly valued Accrington Victoria hospital due to the fact that the building is now entirely unsafe for both patients and staff. Neglecting public services leads to real consequences, and my constituents have been left to pay the price for the Conservatives’ dereliction of their duty to manage health services sustainably.
I therefore particularly welcome the Government’s announcement of a £1 billion investment to reduce the backlog of critical NHS maintenance. If that money had been available previously, and if maintaining NHS facilities at a local level had been a priority for the former Government, we might not have ended up in this unforgiveable situation. Is the Minister able to share any further information on that funding, and will he or a member of the Health team meet me to discuss how we can work to ensure that Accrington’s health services are both retained locally and aligned with this Government’s national strategy for community-based provision?