Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 11th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will be delighted to learn that apprenticeship starts are up by 3% so far this year. That is because they are backed by record investment of £2.7 billion. Never before has a Government invested so much into high-quality apprenticeships and achieved so much in spreading opportunity across the country.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Like the questioner and the Secretary of State, I am very keen to increase the number of occupations. Two categories have perhaps not been considered. What discussions has she had with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment back home to ensure opportunities for new apprenticeships in farming and fishing?

[Gillian Keegan]

The hon. Gentleman puts his finger on a very important point. We work with employers in farming and fishing, and we have a number of apprenticeship standards across those industries. We are always happy to work with any industry that sees an opportunity for more apprentices to be trained in their industry.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 11th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

Our young people should never be pawns in the disputes of adults. The behaviour of University and College Union members was disgraceful, and their actions caused untold disruption and stress for thousands of students. Although the higher education sector is independent of Government, the damaging impact of strike action cannot go unchecked. That is why we are consulting on minimum service levels in this sector, unlike the Labour party, which always bows to its union paymasters.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to be called to ask a supplementary to the first question.

I am ever mindful of the importance that the industrial action finishes. Has the Secretary of State had any opportunities to discuss this with the Department of Education in Northern Ireland? I understand that she has no responsibility for Northern Ireland, but it is important that we work together to try to solve the problems of industrial action. It is affecting loads of schools, particularly those whose pupils have special educational needs. I am really concerned.

School Building Closures

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 19th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we are doing a very professional job. There is no intention of propping schools up with metal poles; they will largely be horizontal props involving tempered beams, which is how buildings are built in the first place—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson) shows her absolute ignorance of this. They will be either steel structures or wooden structures that will then have another roof underneath. I urge everybody to go and look at these classrooms, because they will see that there is no vertical propping—not in any of the schools that I have seen so far—and that is certainly not a long-term solution. The hon. Gentleman will be satisfied that these are very high-quality solutions for our children.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

While the dust has settled on media coverage at this time, I thank the Secretary of State for her clear commitment and positivity today in finding a way forward. We understand that there might be some online learning, as experienced during covid, but that can lead to detrimental effects on learning given the importance of face-to-face engagement. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with the Department in Northern Ireland to gauge the depth of the concrete problems? There is a school in my constituency, but I understand that it has been able to sort out the problems and teaching in school has continued. It is important to know whether any extra funding is available, however, and if so, would that be subject to the Barnett consequentials so we can also get some benefit?

[Gillian Keegan]

Immediately when we had more information we shared it with the devolved nations. We had been conducting surveys for over a year at that point but it was clear that that was not happening in the devolved nations so they are still not able to identify where the RAAC is and go on to take the action that we took very decisively at the end of last month. We will continue to work with them and support them, and to share evidence, including on how to mitigate in a way that makes good solutions for our children.

Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Education Settings

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 4th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was waiting for other hon. Members to hop in ahead of me, but there we are.

I thank the Secretary of State for the answers she has given. In her introduction, she referred to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, because there are issues in Northern Ireland as well. I understand that education is a devolved matter, but according to media reports at the weekend, Saintfield High School in my constituency is having some of the repair work done. What discussions have taken place in Cabinet to ensure that schools in Northern Ireland have the help and assistance they need to make safe their buildings? The restricted budget must take in the increased cost of these works in Northern Ireland due to the logistics of this very specialised work?

[Gillian Keegan]

As I have mentioned, we have written to officials in Northern Ireland and offered to have meetings to pass on information and best practice and to work with them closely.

Higher Education Reform

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 17th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank my hon. Friend for all her support and I know she is a keen proponent of apprenticeships in her area. A lot of it is now about awareness—the apprenticeships are fantastic; I knew 35 years ago that they were fantastic, but I think now everybody knows how fantastic they are—through putting them on UCAS and, from next year, having people able to apply through UCAS. We will also have a centralised site, so that all the apprenticeships are together and people can look at the vast array of careers they can access—670 different routes into pretty much every career you can think of. It is about awareness. I thank all my hon. Friends who have apprenticeship fairs and do a lot to make people aware of these fantastic choices.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement outlining that university courses which fail to deliver good outcomes, with high dropout rates and poor employment prospects, will be subject to strict controls. That is great news for families who struggle to pay the money for courses which end up with no benefit. What discussions has she had with the universities in Northern Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University? Will she confirm that this approach will be UK-wide, and that the postal and trade sea border will not extend to an education sea border?

[Gillian Keegan]

I think the hon. Gentleman knows that this policy is devolved, but I work very closely with my ministerial counterparts in all devolved nations. We share information and best practice, and there are collaborative discussions, too. I will make sure I share this with them, as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 17th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his Committee’s work on this issue, which really is important. We have a world-class education system, but we need children in school to be able to take advantage of that. As he knows, my Department remains committed to legislating for statutory local authority registers of children not in school and will do so at the next suitable legislative opportunity when parliamentary time allows. I will work closely with my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) on how we can best introduce that.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Secretary of State very much for her responses. It is obvious that she is committed to making things better. In the light of the covid home-schooling period during which parents may have forgotten the importance of socialisation as well as academic education, many may need reminding of the legal obligation to educate children. Has the Department considered tidying up the intervention period to allow early intervention and discussion with parents where possible before any action is taken?

[Gillian Keegan]

We are very much taking a supportive approach. We know that there are complex reasons why some children are missing school—some have lost their confidence and are anxious about school and how far they are behind—so we are taking a focused approach. We have leads in local authorities working closely with schools, and we are measuring the impact of all the things we are doing, which includes attendance hubs, as well as looking to support parents to get their children back into school, where we know their outcomes will be so much better.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 12th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

That is a good question. The hon. Gentleman is right that employers have often asked for that flexibility in the levy. I do not think that anybody in this House doubts my support for apprenticeships—they were my golden ticket and, I am convinced, are a very good way into the workplace. Labour Members have said that they want to build flexibilities into the levy. The problem with their calculations is that, at this moment, we are spending 99.6% of the levy on apprentices. Their policy is based on levy payer spend, not levy payer budget. That means that the biggest losers from the policy would be small and medium-sized businesses and about half of current apprentices.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

4. What recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in the devolved Administrations on support for children with special educational needs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Monday 27th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question, as this issue is really important. My nephew has Down’s syndrome and wears glasses, so I know of its importance, and it was a privilege for me to support the Down Syndrome Act 2022 when I was in my previous role. Free NHS sight tests are available for all children under 16 or under 19 and in full-time education. Children can be supported to access high-street services or referred to the local eye service. The NHS is evaluating its proof-of-concept sight testing programme in special schools, and that evaluation will inform decisions about the funding and delivery of any future sight testing model.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister very much for that response. I was a recipient of those glasses as a four-year-old—that was not yesterday, of course, as everybody will be aware! I went to school at four and had my eyes tested, and I got those circular NHS glasses that people will remember. The point I am making is that early eyesight testing is important. What is being done with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that any glasses prescribed are stylish and able to be worn, and would not in any way disadvantage a person, especially a young person?

[Gillian Keegan]

I do indeed remember those glasses, which I believe were available in blue and pink at one point. As I said, all children have access to free NHS sight tests, and voucher schemes are in place for glasses as well. In addition, we have Glasses in Classes and the programme in SEND schools, which are being evaluated. It is vital that young people can see when they are trying to learn to read and take in all that knowledge.

Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

2nd reading
Monday 27th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Education (Gillian Keegan)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Everyone has a different reason for being passionate about education, but most of us can point to that time in our lives which changed our lives: the excitement when maths began to make sense, the thrill when we found a subject that we really loved and were good at, or the pride that came when a life-changing teacher showed that he or she believed in us. I have spoken in this place before about my first moment of that kind, when my teacher, Mr Ashcroft, stayed late after school to help me take extra O-levels in engineering and technical drawing, which he continued to do for two years. His belief in me changed my life. Thanks to Mr Ashcroft, I was able to be accepted for an apprenticeship in a car factory, which was the golden ticket to a different life. But I have spoken less here about the second moment, and the third, and the fourth. I was lucky in that my education started there, but did not end there.

I have been lucky enough to benefit from truly lifetime learning throughout my jobs. I was able to go back and study in both my 30s and my 40s. From that, I have learnt a simple truth: offer people a hand up, and they will take it. However, while we excel at educating people in their younger years, too often we do not offer the same support once they are off the beaten track. Education is an opportunity—it is the ultimate levelling-up tool, the closest thing that we have to a silver bullet when it comes to improving lives—and it is always good to have more than one shot, as many things will change throughout our working lives. We have pledged to level up the country so that everyone gets the education that will enable them to seize the opportunities that come their way. I take that pledge extremely seriously, and that is why I am so proud to present this Bill to Parliament today.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I applaud the Secretary of State for presenting a Bill which I think everyone in the House will welcome as a positive move. The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon)—who is sitting beside the Secretary of State—has often promoted young people whom I would describe as white Protestant males who do not achieve educational standards. He has frequently said that it is his purpose to make a difference. Is that also the purpose of the Secretary of State?

[Gillian Keegan]

Absolutely. I can assure the hon. Gentleman of that, as someone who went to a comprehensive school in Knowsley, a deprived white working-class area. Most of my schoolmates did leave school without many qualifications, and this is exactly the kind of opportunity that will be there for them many years later. They will be given that helping hand and, hopefully, take it.

Reform of Children’s Social Care

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Thursday 2nd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

We are grateful to people like my hon. Friend’s constituents for all the work they do. Indeed, we want to make it possible for more people to take on this vital role. In our strategy, we have committed to exploring the implementation of a financial allowance for kinship carers during the next Parliament but, working with local authorities, we will make sure it is much easier to be a kinship carer and that kinship carers are better supported.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. As she said, it is important to remember that kinship care is built on love. Funding for kinship carers has reduced by a fifth in recent years, and there has also been covid-19. Will she make investment available to keep families together? Such investment will always pay dividends because healthier, happier children become functioning, happy adults.

[Gillian Keegan]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and it is why our focus is on early intervention through the supporting families programme and family hubs. We will continue to roll them out, and we will continue to make sure that we test what works. We will make sure we do everything we can to keep families together.

Crisis in Iran

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 25th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing to light the plight of teachers. Many protesters are bravely protesting, knowing that they are putting themselves in danger. That is why I welcome the opportunity to put on record our condemnation of all the actions the Iranian regime is taking.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the Minister for her strong stance and her answers. It is encouraging to have time dedicated to this important situation, which is escalating at pace in Iran, but it is regrettable that many other groups face oppression from the Iranian state, and we must not forget them amid the ongoing crisis. Can she assure me and this House of her support for other religious and belief groups in Iran, particularly the Baha’i and Christians, who have long suffered at the hands of the Iranian regime and, with thousands of others, have had their freedom of religion and belief violated?

[Gillian Keegan]

I believe the hon. Gentleman also took part in the Westminster Hall debate, as many of us did. I met a number of people after that debate who were delighted that hon. Members kept pushing their case, but urged us to keep the debate alive and active and to call out wrongdoing wherever we see it.

Mahsa Amini

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 11th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

The British Government have a policy of not officially making a decision on that. Their choice is for Iran’s Government to be a matter for the Iranian people. We make sure that we support opposition groups in Iran, but we do not support any one group in particular.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her response. According to a report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, 400 protesters from largely female groups have been killed and 20,000 arrested during the four weeks of nationwide protests. This House must send the strongest condemnation of those killings and mass arrests. Does the Minister recognise the Iranian people’s right to self-defence and resistance in the face of the deadly crackdown that particularly targets women and their right to establish a democratic republic?

[Gillian Keegan]

Yes, as I have said many times, we strongly condemn the Iranian authorities’ crackdown on protesters and journalists and on internet freedom as well. They must respect the rights of their people and release those who are unfairly detained, and there must be a free, fair and transparent investigation into the death of Mahsa Amini.

Battersea Funfair Disaster: Child Trauma Support Services

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 21st June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

Yes, and of course we always try to ensure that, as the targets we put in are worked throughout the system, those targets are met. That is why we measure those things. Maybe it would be helpful to the hon. Lady if I gave some recent examples. In the wake of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack, which sadly affected many children and young people, the Greater Manchester Resilience Hub was set up to provide a central point for mental health advice for those directly affected, including children and emergency responders. The hub worked with other agencies to develop packages of care.

In response to the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, more than £10 million has been spent on treating the mental health of those affected. In the year after the fire, 2,674 adults and 463 children were screened for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing was opened up so that those affected could be treated in dedicated therapy suites. I hope the hon. Lady will recognise that we have seen a dramatic change in both attitudes towards mental health since the days of the Battersea disaster, and the NHS services available to support people with their mental health.

[Jim Shannon]

I am very encouraged by what the Minister has just said. In my intervention on the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) I suggested some contact with the authorities in Northern Ireland, which unfortunately have a long 30 years’ experience of trauma, especially among children. Has that happened?

[Gillian Keegan]

I have not met my counterpart in Northern Ireland but, having heard the hon. Gentleman’s intervention, I sent a WhatsApp message to request that a meeting be set up, because it is probably long overdue. We can learn a lot from each other, and I am always keen to learn from anyone I can.

Over the past 50 years, we have seen the transformation of NHS mental health services for children and young people. From the passing of the Mental Health Act 1983 and the establishment of mental health trusts to more recent developments including the Time to Change campaign, which between 2007 and 2021 helped to improve the attitudes and behaviours of some 5.4 million people towards those living with mental health problems, these are all important steps along the way towards destigmatising mental health.

The publication of the five-year forward view for mental health in 2016 made the case for transforming mental healthcare in England. The implementation of the “Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision” Green Paper from December 2017 has seen the introduction of senior mental health leads and mental health support teams in schools and colleges. We regularly talk about that programme, and I am sure it will make a massive difference to young people, particularly those affected by the pandemic. The 2019 NHS long-term plan commits to expanding and transforming mental health services in England so that an additional 345,000 children and young people will be able to access NHS-funded specialist mental health treatment by 2023-24.

We are continuing to build up those services and the staff, as in some cases demand outstrips supply. As part of this work, we have all-age 24/7 urgent mental health helplines in all areas of England so that people experiencing a mental health crisis, or those worried about someone experiencing such a crisis, can speak to a trained professional. The helplines were established during the pandemic, so they are a relatively new addition to the landscape, but I am sure they are very welcome because many people have sought these services.

We are also accelerating the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges from the 287 currently in place to over 500, covering around 35% of pupils by 2023-24. There are currently 16 mental health support teams operating in or planned for south-west London, so they have already started to roll out.

Our hard-working NHS community mental health services treated over 420,000 children and young people in 2020-21, an increase of around 95,000 on the previous year, so we can see there has been a massive increase in demand for these services, which is why we are working very hard to try to build up the mental health workforce.

Although none of us wishes to see a repeat of the events in Battersea Park and the many things that have happened since, not only in mental health but in safety, I assure hon. Members that the NHS will always be there to support the survivors of such tragedies. However, it is important that we never forget. I am therefore grateful to the hon. Member for Battersea for securing this debate and for making us all aware of something that happened. This issue is important to her constituents, and this debate will ensure that we all remember the tragedy and learn from the events of that day.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 14th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Care and Mental Health (Gillian Keegan)]

Of course every suicide is a tragedy. We must do all we can to help to prevent suicide. In the last financial year, we provided £5.4 million to 113 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations; we also provided £510,000 for the Samaritans helpline for people experiencing distress. That is in addition to more than £10 million we provided to voluntary and charitable mental health organisations in 2020-21.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

As IVF treatment is incredibly time sensitive, will the Secretary of State consider increasing the funding available to allow couples to make use of private facilities on the NHS, to help families have the children that they so much want?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

Absolutely. That is essential. People with Down syndrome and other disabilities, as well as their advocates, will be involved in each phase of the development of the guidance. There will be a national call for evidence, and a formal consultation on the draft guidance on gov.uk will be available to anyone who wants to share their views. We will provide details of the call for evidence shortly.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her response, and I thank the hon. Member for Gedling (Tom Randall) for posing the question. What steps is the Minister taking, in co-ordination with her counterpart in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to promote the appearance on television of our talented Down syndrome actors in order to ensure that programmes such as “Call the Midwife”—one of my favourites—are not one-offs, and that it becomes a normal part of life for children to see someone like themselves on TV and know that they too can fulfil their dreams with hard work and determination?

[Gillian Keegan]

The passage of the Down Syndrome Bill has given a platform to many people with the condition. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman greatly enjoyed meeting actors, models and many other people with Down syndrome who showed how much they can achieve during the recent parliamentary events, and we look forward to continuing to showcase that.

Covid-19: Deteriorating Long-Term Health Conditions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Thursday 10th March 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Care and Mental Health (Gillian Keegan)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins, and to follow the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne), who showed no symptoms of brain fog in his eloquent speech. He has my personal assurance that we will definitely focus on both research into long covid and its treatment.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill) for raising this very important issue, and for his proud advocacy for patients with many different long-term conditions who rely on NHS services, particularly those who have had a stroke. I extend my best wishes to my hon. Friend’s wife, Ann-Louise, who I am sure informed much of his powerful speech. Many of the experiences we have heard about will resonate with many of us. My father had a stroke a couple of years ago, and rehabilitation has been vital to his recovery, which is a long road that he is still on.

I was deeply moved to hear of the difficulties that the pandemic has caused people with deteriorating long-term conditions, many of which have been outlined. I want to reassure all hon. Members that we remain committed to making sure that everyone has access to the care and support that they need and deserve. We know we have to catch up after the impact of the pandemic.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst mentioned spinal cord injury. I attended the all-party parliamentary group on spinal cord injury yesterday to hear about the concerns and the impact that the pandemic has had on people with the condition, and what more we need to do to respond to it.

We know that covid has had a significant impact on the health and care system, including on rehabilitation services. It has had a real and profound impact on people with rehabilitation needs and their treatment. I am very sorry for any undue suffering that that has caused. We remain committed to making sure that everyone has access to the care and support that they need and deserve. Throughout the pandemic, we have worked to maintain access to health services in what has been an extremely challenging environment, but we recognise that getting that support at the right time is vital for people’s health. That is why we protected priority services across England during the pandemic, which included rehabilitation and post-acute services, for people who had survived a stroke, and their families and carers.

Continued service delivery was in part supported by innovative methods of care—we have talked about a few of them—throughout the pandemic. NHS England and Improvement supported people with long-term conditions by providing safe and person-centred assessments and diagnosis via remote methods, or in face-to-face consultations when appropriate. Providers innovated and rolled out remote consultations using video, telephone, email and text message services, and health services implemented new models of care with effective triage processes to make sure that patients received the care appropriate to them and in outpatient settings closer to home.

Clinical teams used and will continue to use virtual rehabilitation services alongside face-to-face contact to ensure that every patient gets the treatment and support that they need. Almost half of stroke survivors have received virtual care since the pandemic began, transforming their experience of the health system. Over 80% reported positive or very positive experiences, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst outlined, but we know that remote consultations are not suitable for everyone or for every situation, as eloquently outlined by the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell), who has experience in this matter. We will continue working to make sure services are suitably tailored to meet patients’ often complex needs.

For example, NHSE&I has worked with memory assessment clinics to capture best practice on remote consultation and virtual diagnosis of dementia, which is vital, as mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn), to promote its use. It has published guidance to help enhance best practice in dementia assessment and diagnosis, and to support a personalised approach with choice over the delivery of remote consultation and diagnosis.

There has been further guidance for a range of conditions to help health systems adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the Association of British Neurologists guidance to help healthcare professionals prioritise neurological services.

People with different long-term conditions may also need emotional and psychological support, as has been mentioned by many hon. Members, and that is why NHS mental health services stayed open throughout the pandemic, and why local areas continued to offer talking therapies—remotely in many cases—with a face-to-face option if appropriate. We are investing in a mental health recovery action plan, which will help us to provide more appointments, which, sadly, were missed during the pandemic. That will help us catch up.

We are committed to ensuring that those who need it are given outstanding and tailored care with choice, control and the support that they need to enable them to live independent lives, and we are committed to ensuring that people find adult social care fair and accessible. A lot of reforms are coming forward in this area. We recently introduced our strategy for the social care workforce in our “People at the Heart of Care” White Paper, which is supported by at least £500 million to develop and support the workforce over the next three years.

As highlighted by the “Moving forward stronger” report, rehabilitation services were particularly affected by the pandemic. The health system has long recognised the importance of rehabilitation. Many hon. Members mentioned how important that is to lifelong conditions and how important it is to enable people to avoid more acute illness later on, requiring more services from the health service. Specific commitments are set out in the long-term plan, which include the expansion of pulmonary rehabilitation services over 10 years from 2019, new and higher-intensity care models in respect of stroke rehabilitation, and the scaling up of cardiac rehabilitation to prevent up to 23,000 premature deaths.

Following the publication of the national stroke service model in May 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to creating integrated stroke delivery networks across England, bringing together health and care services across the whole stroke pathway, from prevention to rehabilitation. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst mentioned, linking those services is vital. More than 20 integrated stroke delivery networks are now operational, bringing together health and care services across the whole stroke pathway. Over £3.3 million has been dedicated to the establishment and ongoing delivery of those networks, which have already brought about some improvements to the co-ordination and direction of how the stroke care pathways across England are delivered.

The NHS is committed to delivering personalised, needs- based stroke rehabilitation to every stroke survivor who needs it, and we recognise the vital role of multidisciplinary teams, comprising occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists, in assessing, diagnosing and treating issues concerning different daily activities, speech and cognitive communication. Community rehabilitation services continue to benefit from extra investment, with £4.5 billion of investment in primary medical care and community health services by 2023-24 and productivity reforms set out in the long-term plan. The long-term plan committed to the rolling out by 2024 of new two-hour urgent community response and two-day reablement ambitions, which will improve the responsiveness of community health services to people’s needs across the country. We anticipate that the wider package of investment in community and intermediate healthcare will eventually free more than 1 million hospital beds, allowing health systems to better support those in need.

Underlining our commitment to improving rehabilitation services, the NHS has created the new role of national director for hospital discharge and rehabilitation, which was rightly called for. Jenny Keane, who was appointed to the post in December 2021 and started recently, will lead a team of 60 people responsible for hospital discharge and rehabilitation. Her team within NHSE is already taking forward important work in this area, including a programme to identify the optimum bed-to-home model of care for non-acute rehabilitation services. That will support the implementation of the discharge-to-assess policy, and improve the delivery of timely and high-quality care in home settings. Ultimately, that will empower more people to recover and maintain their independence following an unplanned event or a period of acute care.

The programme will estimate the capacity for bedded non-acute rehabilitation care that integrated care systems will require for their populations. Systems will be supported to shift towards new rehabilitation models through a range of guidance, frameworks and tools. I anticipate that rehabilitation will also benefit from the wider reforms set out in the Health and Care Bill, reorienting systems towards co-operation and strengthening NHS action to reduce health inequalities. Rehabilitation will also benefit from the plans that we have set out in the integration White Paper, under which patients will receive better, more joined-up care.

Looking ahead, the NHS published its delivery plan for tackling the covid-19 backlog of elective care last month. The plan sets out a clear vision for how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including how it will support patients. We plan to spend more than £8 billion between the next financial year and 2024-25. That is in addition to the £2 billion elective recovery fund and £700 million targeted investment fund already made available to systems this year to help to drive up and protect elective activity. However, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst is right that we must ensure that the voice of rehabilitation services does not get lost in that considerable investment.

That funding could deliver the equivalent of around 9 million more checks, scans and procedures, and it will mean that the NHS in England can aim to deliver around 30% more elective activity by 2024-25 than it was delivering before the pandemic. A significant part of that funding will be invested in staff, in terms of both capacity and skills. The delivery plan also contains some targets to ensure that by March 2025 people will not wait longer than a year for elective care.

[Jim Shannon]

I am finding the Minister’s response very helpful and supportive of what we are trying to do, but I asked a specific question in relation to those who are waiting for eyesight-saving operations. We need to ensure that they do not lose their eyesight because of the delays. If the Minister is able to give me a response today, that will be great, but if she cannot, I am happy for all of us to receive a response by letter.

Adult Social Care

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Wednesday 1st December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

Of course I am trying not to be too disappointed by the reactions of Opposition Members; I did not really expect an awful lot more.

Areas such as Sutton Coldfield and Surrey are expensive to live in, and we need to recognise that. Most of us, when asked about our future care arrangements, would say that we would like to stay in our own homes, and we want to make that possible. There is a great deal of technology that will help, but it is also important to adapt more supported housing and to work with local groups to deliver the right approach for the right areas, and that will include local hospitals as well.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her statement, and for the progress that she is clearly trying to achieve.

Workforce availability for care homes is vital. Today a representative of a care home bordering my constituency rang to say that a quarter of its staff are off work owing to close covid contacts, although they are now treble-jabbed, and it has no more staff and a lack of agency staff to employ. What can be done through this strategy, Minister, to ensure that the recruitment and retention of care workers are improved?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Gillian Keegan]

Of course, access to GPs’ services is a concern that all Members will have heard a number of their constituents raise. That is why we put in place £250 million to increase access to face-to-face GP appointments as part of the recovery plans, which are quite extensive for the NHS.

The guidelines I was talking about aim to highlight ways to support people with COPD, such as signposting charities and support groups for better health and wellbeing. They recommend using technology to reduce some in-person appointments, while making sure not to provide a service that would increase health inequalities through a lack of digital access—it is additional, not instead of—as well as offering advice on how to modify care during the pandemic.

A number of questions were raised about the recovery plan, and how to restore services for patients and restore the diagnostics to pre-pandemic levels, or above them. The 2021-22 priorities and operational planning guidance set the priorities for NHS England and NHS Improvement, and includes tackling the backlog for non-urgent treatment such as services for lung disease patients. That plan aims to stabilise total waiting lists, and eliminate waiting times of two years or more and the increase in waiting times of more than one year. We have made £1.5 billion available to assist local teams to increase their capacity and invest in other measures to achieve those priorities, and the 2021 spending review announced £2.3 billion to increase the volume of diagnostic activity and open community diagnostic centres to provide more clinical tests, including for patients with lung disease.

Targeted lung health checks are running in the parts of the country with the highest rates of mortality from lung cancer. However, those projects will not just identify more cancers, but pick up a range of other health conditions, including COPD. People aged between 55 and 74 who have ever smoked are now offered a free lung health check closer to where they live. They may then have a lung cancer screen scan if that check shows that they need one. A review undertaken by Professor Sir Mike Richards highlighted that patients with respiratory symptoms would benefit from community diagnostic centres, due to the number of diagnostic tests that will be made available. As well as supporting patients with COPD, the Government are committed to strategies that will help to prevent that condition, as a number of Members have mentioned.

[Jim Shannon]

Just for clarification, following on from the question that the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) has asked, does the Department of Health proactively—perhaps even aggressively—contact smokers to follow through, rather than those smokers contacting the health service? I am not sure whether that would always happen. What is the Government’s policy on that?

[Gillian Keegan]

Obviously, there would be a relationship between the GP and the smoker, but that can go either way. Anybody who is in those age groups needs to be made aware that they are entitled to this free lung health check, and it is the responsibility of us all to make sure those checks are available. I am sure we will all ensure that that is understood.

In 2019, 85% of deaths due to COPD were attributable to smoking, and in 2019-20, 84% of hospital admissions with COPD were attributable to smoking. The proportion and the number have remained quite similar over the past five years, and as has been mentioned by a number of hon. Members, smoking is a key factor in many cases of COPD. This Government are committed to reducing the harms caused by tobacco, and have made good long-term progress in reducing smoking rates, which are currently 13.9%, the lowest on record. However, with 6.1 million smokers in England, tobacco is still the single largest cause of preventable mortality, and a radical new approach is needed to address the stark health disparities associated with tobacco use. As such, we have set out the bold ambition for England to be smoke free by 2030. To support that ambition, we have announced the publication of a new tobacco control plan, which will include an even sharper focus on tackling health disparities and will support the Government’s levelling-up agenda.

The NHS long-term plan commits to delivering NHS-funded tobacco treatment services to all inpatients, pregnant women and people accessing long-term mental health and learning disability services by 2024. COPD is responsible for around 33% of annual deaths from respiratory diseases and is the single largest cause of occupational lung disease. There are an estimated 17,000 annual new cases of self-reported, work-related breathing or lung problems, which is why our colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions are also helping to tackle the causes of COPD in the workplace.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 19th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I look forward to working with my right hon. Friend. I have been along to the first board, although I have not yet chaired it. But we will be developing that action plan. I cannot commit to the date but I will let him know as soon as I can when we will publish the plan. We will be publishing a winter plan for the NHS, which will include lots of different support, in the next couple of weeks.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her response. Given recent statistics that show that one in 20 schoolchildren in Northern Ireland has an autism diagnosis, may I ask her what steps have been taken here on the mainland to ensure that children with learning disabilities or autism have guidance in their health journey and are never left overwhelmed without specialised support at those very necessary appointments?

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. He is right to identify this concern. Compared with the general population, people with learning disabilities are three times more likely to die from an avoidable medical cause of death. That is why these annual health checks to ensure that we get early diagnoses for these people are so important. That is why I am delighted that many people are coming forward and that the NHS is two years ahead of its plan here in England. Hopefully, others will follow that lead.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Wednesday 22nd September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

I am very happy to join my hon. Friend in congratulating the team at the Highfield Centre in Keighley on what sounds like an excellent approach, showing real leadership. The Government are committed to ensuring that women across the country are able to access the support that they need. The NHS long-term plan includes a commitment for a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023-24, building on the additional 30,000 women accessing those services each year by 2020-21 under existing plans. Specialist care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

After recent statistics showing that women in black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are 32% less likely to take up help for post-natal depression, what discussions has the Minister undertaken with her counterparts in the devolved institutions, particularly the Northern Ireland Assembly, to ensure that women from ethnic minorities are offered the correct care if needed, to remove the stigma that they may feel they might encounter?

[Gillian Keegan]

I agree that that is a very important area that should concern us all. We look forward to working with the hon. Member; I will arrange a meeting with the relevant Minister before Christmas.

Plastic Food and Drink Packaging

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Jim Shannon

Thursday 24th October 2019 Westminster Hall

[Gillian Keegan]

The hon. Gentleman is right. We have an opportunity to standardise a new scheme—well, an old scheme that has been brought back—that we are not introducing. I hope the Minister takes note that we should be working together to ensure we have standardised schemes.

We need to get to grips with the current situation. As my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives mentioned, the report rightly emphasises the current inadequacy in the monitoring of plastic usage. That impacts our ability to accurately calculate our usage. Some surveys suggest that we are putting about 2.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging into the UK market each year, but we need to do more to know exactly how much we are using.

Our priority must be to use less plastic. There is a whole host of solutions to help us achieve that. We have seen fantastic results from the 5p plastic bag, which led to a significant reduction, with 15.6 million fewer bags used since 2015. There is scope to extend that to other forms of packaging and products where suitable alternatives exist.

We all know that immediate changes can be made. The thing that bugs me is crisps: every packet I buy is half empty. Introducing regulation around packaging, so that it is designed around product size, instead of making things look bigger, would be a good start. Many shops and some supermarkets are going further.

[Jim Shannon]

As my friend, the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman), mentioned, some of the schemes run in Scotland have been done in Northern Ireland, too. The plastic bag charge has been incredibly successful in Northern Ireland, to such an extent that the use of plastic bags has reduced to about 20% or 25%—a massive reduction. It has been successful because people want it to be successful, because children tell their parents that they must do it and because that money goes back into society and can help environmental projects. We should be pushing more on that.

[Gillian Keegan]

I completely agree. As well as being influenced by children, consumer behaviour can take some time to change. I remember coming home from this place late at night and I would never have plastic bags with me to go shopping—I am sure many of us have done the same—but I have solved that problem by buying one of these little fold-up bags, so at least I always have that. We also have reusable plastic bottles. I have lost mine again today. I do not know how many I have lost. I am sure my impact on the environment in lost water bottles is greater than what I have saved, so now I have taken to reusing this plastic bottle. I think I am not supposed to refill it, but I do anyway.

There are plenty of opportunities for us to move towards being plastic-free. Everywhere we go, we see more and more plastic. Once we become conscious of it, that is it, we see it everywhere. Some supermarkets are moving to packaging-free aisles and even the funny-shaped potatoes, which my friend, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), referred to—I have seen them with a little bit of soil on them, but I am sure that is just for authenticity.

Last year, I opened Stansted Park farm shop, in my constituency. The whole business has an environmentally friendly ethos. Most of their produce is loose. It has drastically reduced all plastic use. There is a future model in package-free and refill shops, similar to the old-fashioned way. My grandmother used to have glass jars for everything. We used to take them to the shops and they would be refilled from huge sacks. I can see the hon. Member for Strangford nodding, because he remembers the same. We are obviously around the same age.

E-commerce could play an important role in this area by delivering food in reusable boxes on a subscription or bespoke order model. We need to do something about e-commerce. I do not know if you have noticed this, Mr Stringer, but when I order my stuff, it comes in several different deliveries, with several different delivery drivers coming to my house two or three times a day. Maybe I am just a prolific shopper, but they could deliver them by a more transport-friendly mechanism. Moving to online shopping does not necessarily mean it is environmentally friendly, so we need to encourage those businesses, as well.

The humble cucumber has been mentioned a few times. Apparently, wrapped, they have a shelf-life of 15 days when chilled, but only nine days when unwrapped. That is true. They go all soft when they are unwrapped, and they are inedible. Removing plastics in some cases can increase other forms of waste. I do not think there is much market for an end-of-life cucumber. Other forms of waste and emissions are released when we consider the entire carbon budget of products. We need to get this right.

I am still driving a diesel car. Why? Because I followed the advice and bought a diesel car. Now, of course, I cannot get rid of it. The market share of diesel cars went from something like 14% to 65%. Everybody followed the advice and then we realised the advice was wrong. We must get the advice right. There are many alternatives, as the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) suggested, such as seaweeds and potato starch wrapping. That innovation will come the more the Government incentivise innovation.

Most of us have the ambition to use less single-use plastic. Many people now use alternatives. I try to use less in my day-to-day life. I mentioned my water bottle. I also gave up plastic for Lent. It was a nightmare. It was incredibly different and I had to change my whole life for six weeks. I chose an easier option this time, because it was so difficult to give up plastic for six weeks. We need to make this easy. We are consumers and we simply will not do it, if it is incredibly difficult and everybody must carry around glass jars and things that do not fit into everyday life.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Lady referred to consumer behaviour. As I was saying to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife, the greatest scourge of this modern age is probably takeaways. I am in the takeaways regularly, but I am talking about the materials they use to wrap the product in. I am old enough—I do not think the hon. Lady is, despite what she says—to remember fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, and they tasted great. This system does not allow that to happen. Some of the takeaway companies have come up with some ideas for reducing the products they use. I think the Chairman is looking at me—I think this is an important point. If we want to do something specific and great, we should look at methods to reduce takeaway packaging. That would make a magnificent change to the disposables market.

[Gillian Keegan]

I completely agree. There were some mentions of takeaways in the report. We could also not have as many takeaways. That is another thing that has changed in the last 20 to 30 years: we eat a lot more takeaway food. It is not very good for us, so there are many reasons, not only environmental, to cut out takeaway food to some degree, and to use more locally sourced products and to cook ourselves. My hon. Friend the Member for St Ives mentioned home economics. I cannot say that my home economics classes were very successful. When I brought my rock cakes home, my father said he now understood where the name came from and I have not made a cake since.

[Jim Shannon]

That was very harsh!

[Gillian Keegan]

It was harsh, but, unfortunately, it was true.

Making it easy for people to use less is the first thing. Recycling has a major role to play. We have all said that we need to standardise recycling. Between my home in London and my home in Petworth what and how I can recycle is completely different. When I go back to my parents in Knowsley, their system is not only different, but the opposite of what I do at home in Petworth, so I am always putting things in the wrong bin. Even things such as colours could be made so much easier. We have allowed every council to design it. I think that is driven by the design of the equipment at their local recycling centre, what it can do, and how it manages bottle tops and various bits of plastic. That has driven the standards, just by what local authorities have invested in for their recycling facilities.

As part of the endeavours to increase recycling rates, the Government have proposed a new tax system to ensure that at least 30% of packaging is made from recycled material, and I fully support that direction of travel. However, I also think that the Committee’s recommendation to have a more modulated tax system might be more effective in incentivising the use of a greater percentage of recycled material.

We have talked about the deposit return scheme. When I was reading about it, I remember thinking, yet again, “That sounds almost exactly like what used to happen many years ago.” I remember the Alpine lemonade man coming round when I was a child. The bottles then were glass. We used to collect them; in fact, it was the only way we made any pocket money. In fact, for today’s children, there would be a financial incentive for them to collect all of this plastic if they could make some money out of it.

There is not a single school that any of us go into in which we are not asked about insects that are no longer around, which we never even knew existed. Children today are so well educated on the environment; indeed, they are already forcing a generational change. We have a beach school at Chidham, run by one of my schools, and I will ask the staff if they have done the sand experiment for our area. We also have forest schools. I go to schools in Southbourne, Sidlesham, Harting, Loxwood and Rake, and they all have eco-warriors and eco-councils. The questions I get asked in schools are the hardest questions I get; I can talk about Brexit all day long, but with some of these environmental questions, the children have studied to a much greater degree than we ever did. In fact, we did not do any of that in school and now we are struggling to catch up. The children really have a fantastic approach and I am pretty sure that if they were incentivised with cash, they would make sure that they collected everything for deposit return schemes, because it would be a good way of topping up their pocket money.

The 1st Chichester Brownies unit in Christchurch wrote to me recently to ask me to support its plastic promise, which of course I have agreed to do. It aims to raise awareness of plastic pollution and to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics. So those children are not only telling their parents what to do but telling their MPs what to do, which is very welcome. In the letter I received, it was obvious that the Brownies were very excited by the deposit return scheme; they really welcomed it and I can see them going round in their uniforms to pick up all the plastic, and making some cash in the meantime. Probably, that cash will go to good causes, because that is another thing that children get involved in.

I will conclude by emphasising the importance of international co-operation in tackling this issue. Currently, of the estimated 8 million tonnes of plastics that enter the oceans each year, the US, the UK and Europe collectively contribute about 2%. Therefore, the Government’s investment of over £60 million to help the Commonwealth nations improve their waste management is vital and is the right approach. We have to show leadership and there is much we can do to help other countries. That would also make a massive impact. I hope that we can continue our domestic journey of self-improvement in this area, and I believe the best way to instil change abroad is to lead by example at home. I also look forward to seeing the technology and innovation that will rise to this challenge, to make sure that we free our world from plastic pollution.