Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Natasha Irons and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)]

6. What plans he has to reform NHS health and social care services.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

People deserve the very best health and care. Our plan for change is already bringing waiting lists down. Our 10-year plan for health will set out how we improve access and make the three shifts that I described earlier, so that the NHS is fit for the future. At the same time, we are rebuilding adult social care now and for the future. Baroness Casey’s independent commission has launched, and it will set out through its work how we will create a national care service. All that is made possible thanks to the investment decisions taken by the Chancellor in her Budget. That investment was opposed by the Conservative party, which shows that only Labour can be trusted to invest in and modernise our NHS.

[Natasha Irons]

Last week, the Centre for Young Lives published a report on the state of mental health support for children and young people across England. It outlines that despite an ongoing crisis in mental health among young people,

“There remains a 55% treatment gap”

between adult and children’s mental health, and that

“fewer than 10%...of ICBs have a dedicated strategy”

for supporting children’s mental health. Will the Secretary of State consider strengthening statutory guidance for ICBs to ensure they assess the local need of children and young people, publish treatment gap data on an ongoing basis, and create joined-up, community-based mental health support for our young people?

[Wes Streeting]

Young people’s mental health is a priority for this Government. That is why we set out in our manifesto our commitment to making sure that mental health support is available in every primary and secondary school in the country. We have walk-in mental health services in every community, and we invest in the mental health workforce, so that we can cut waiting times. I am also working closely with the Secretary of State for Education to make sure that our education and health services work together, so that children get the very best start in life, and so that we look after mind, body, soul, aspiration and futures.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Natasha Irons and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

Yes, I or the Minister of State for Health would be delighted to meet the hon. Member. She is right to describe the scale of challenge in urgent and emergency care. Of course, there are other challenges in east Kent, particularly in maternity services, which I am acutely aware of too, and I would be delighted to work with her to help solve some of those challenges in her community.

[Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)]

T7. The Family Dental Practice in my constituency has faced significant challenges caused by dental contracts introduced by the previous Government. The pilot scheme it took part in caused long-lasting operational financial damages to the practice. How will the Secretary of State support such practices, and will he consider measures such as rebasing the unit of dental activity targets to help them overcome these challenges?

NHS: Independent Investigation

Debate between Natasha Irons and Wes Streeting

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I like the hon. Gentleman very much, but what audacity to criticise this Government for cleaning up the Conservatives’ mess. He fails to acknowledge the cost to the Exchequer and to patients in delayed and cancelled operations, appointments and procedures. More than £1 billion has been lost and more than 1 million appointments cancelled because of the Conservatives’ gross incompetence and failure to understand the difference—they are penny-wise and pound-foolish. That is why they have been sent into opposition and Labour has been trusted to clean up their mess.

[Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)]

There can be no greater example of the previous Government’s failure than the shocking outcomes for our children and young people, as Lord Darzi’s report highlights. Our children now have some of the worst health outcomes in Europe, with higher rates of obesity, diabetes and asthma, and poor oral and mental health. From head to toe, they have been failed. Will the Secretary of State ensure that the Government’s long-term plan for our NHS will give young people’s health the priority that it deserves?

[Wes Streeting]

I am delighted to see my hon. Friend in her place. She might be from the wrong side of the river, but she is absolutely right about the importance of prioritising children’s health. As the Prime Minister said this morning, it is shocking that the No. 1 cause of hospital admission among children aged between six and 10 is tooth decay. I was criticised by the shadow Secretary of State, who said that I called our children “short and fat”; she is more outraged by my calling out the scourge of childhood obesity that her Government fuelled than she is by the scourge of child obesity itself. That is why we will act and why the Conservatives failed.