Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Laura Kyrke-Smith and Olivia Bailey(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Olivia Bailey)
This Government are opening thousands of Best Start family hubs and network sites in every part of England, building on our proud legacy of Sure Start, providing families with community and connection, and ensuring that every child is supported to get ready for school. The Conservative party eroded support for families; we are bringing it back.
Olivia Bailey
I thank my hon. Friend for all that he has done to support family hubs in his constituency and across Cornwall. Yes, we have asked local authorities to ensure that 70% of hubs are in the most deprived areas, so that support gets to the families and communities under the greatest pressure. What a contrast with the Conservatives: on their watch, pressure on families grew while support shrank.
Laura Kyrke-Smith
I welcome the Government’s ambitious roll-out of Best Start family hubs, and I am thrilled that Elmhurst family centre in Aylesbury has been selected as Buckinghamshire’s first family hub—something for which I have been proudly campaigning. Will the Minister set out how that programme will make a difference to families in Aylesbury, including on a matter close to my heart, namely the mental health and wellbeing, and the social connection of parents of young kids and their families?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Laura Kyrke-Smith and Olivia Bailey(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
Alex Foster, a 17-year-old from Aylesbury, has shared his experiences of social media with me. He says that
“thankfully I was one of the very few who had my phone checked”—
by his parents—but
“my friends told stories of watching beheadings, terrorist material, explicit photos of them being shared”.
Does the Minister agree that we must go further to protect and educate young people when it comes to online harms?
Olivia Bailey
I thank my hon. Friend for her advocacy on behalf of her constituents. I agree that nothing is more important than the safety of our children. We are already taking world-leading action with the Online Safety Act 2023, and we have been very clear that nothing is off the table when it comes to children’s safety.
Maternal Mental Health
Debate between Laura Kyrke-Smith and Olivia Bailey(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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Laura Kyrke-Smith
I absolutely do, and I am sorry to hear of the experience of my hon. Friend’s friend.
What are the consequences of all this? The human suffering is immense, but maternal mental health has economic consequences and costs, too—an estimated £8.1 billion each year in the UK, according to research from the London School of Economics, and nearly three quarters of that cost relates to adverse impacts on the child rather than the mother.
I want to suggest four ways in which maternal mental health support can be improved, and I will be as brief as I can. The first is improving specialist perinatal mental health services. The second is better embedding mental health support in routine maternity care. The third is improving community support, and the fourth is education and awareness raising.
Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for the powerful speech she is making, and I am so sorry to hear about her friend. Does she agree that we also need specialist support for those experiencing post-adoptive depression? Although they have not gone through the same physical process as birth parents, it can be equally devastating.
Laura Kyrke-Smith
Absolutely—that is one way in which people can experience severe mental health challenges and consequences, and it needs to be considered. I also want to acknowledge that new dads and partners experience mental health challenges too, but given our limited time, I am focusing today on maternal mental health.