Danny Beales
Main Page: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend raises a crucial point. These services are just not joined up. We have got young children who, from birth to two and a half years old, are not getting the health services they need. They then go into the education system and are falling behind. The strategy is just not appropriate, as has been highlighted. As the Committee highlighted, we need a new strategy, and it must be joined up. We need a strategy that takes into account not just health issues, but education and care issues. Through that, we will incorporate all the professionals who are needed for that wraparound service to be delivered.
Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for today’s statement and for her excellent work in chairing the Committee’s important inquiry. It is much appreciated. There is much to welcome in this report. Colleagues have already touched on a number of the measures, so I will focus in particular on vaccination.
The state of vaccination rates in this country shocked me during the inquiry. I think we all came to accept the success, the prevalence and the uptake of vaccinations, but now, for a number of reasons—including disinformation, some of which comes from elements in this Chamber—vaccination rates have been declining across the board for many years. This week, the UK lost its measles elimination status, which is shameful and an indictment of the situation in which we have got ourselves.
In the light of that, does my hon. Friend agree that we need to accelerate things such as the health visitor pilot for delivering vaccinations? We heard positive things about that in the Committee, but progress has been slow. Does she agree that we need to accelerate those actions already in train? Does she agree that we should restore the World Health Organisation target of 95% vaccination uptake nationally? Finally, does she accept that the last Government’s vaccination strategy, developed in 2023, has clearly failed, considering where we are today? Does she think that the Government need to look again at a new national vaccination strategy so that we can get back to where we once were and then make more progress, ensuring that every child has the vaccination they need to protect them and to live a healthy and fulfilling life?
Paulette Hamilton
My hon. Friend is passionate about the administration of vaccinations, and he has asked quite a lot of questions. I absolutely agree with them all, but I will focus on his questions relating to health visitors and to having more of a strategy on vaccinations. I hope that everybody present has read the report, which states very clearly that health visitors have massive caseloads of over 750. That means they are not able to give children the time that they need. We have recommended that we employ 1,000 extra health visitors, but we have also noted in the report that health visitors have a statutory right to visit children five times until they get to the age of two and a half. We have said that we should increase that to a minimum of six visits, which is what already happens in Wales. The minimum number of visits in Scotland is 11, and I think it is nine in Northern Ireland—I apologise if I have got that figure wrong. England has the lowest number of visits in the United Kingdom, and it needs to be increased.
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that we need to have more of a focus on vaccine levels, and to get the new strategy in place. Without a strategy, we are not going to get what we need in this area as quickly as we need it to happen.