A week in Devon is always a welcome one with the joys of Easter recess away from Westminster. But as every teacher will tell you – it’s not holiday!
Young people matter and I was very pleased therefore to meet the Teignbridge Youth Parliament representative, Joe. Joe explained that the main campaign ask was for free school meals for all children up to the age of 18. A healthy meal once a day as a minimum for any child. Some time ago now I supported Marcus Rashford in his campaign for free school meals. I agree with the sentiment but given the current economic challenges it should be needs based - and it should extend beyond the beginning and end of term.
Volunteering in Health in Teignmouth welcomed me to the hospital and their hub to talk about the many issues volunteers are facing - they are the glue that makes communities work. Transport, befriending, helping with shopping and all of life’s “admin” is at the heart of what they do. I share their frustration that there seems to be a never-ending round of bids with no sense of long-term security. While clearly there needs to be good governance, we should trust our local communities to get on with the evident good work they do with regular funding. Something for me to raise next term with Ministers!
The biggest issue by far in my mail box is the lack of Special Education Needs funding and support. Many parents are at their wits end, trying to support their children while holding down a job to pay the bills. Access is dependent on meeting a number of criteria - again more form filling, and in this case medical assessment as well. The backlogs are huge. There are a number of queues to navigate so from one waiting list you may just join another. I was therefore pleased to be able to meet with the Devon County team in Exeter to get to the bottom of the problem and understand what was being done about it.
I met with the Leader of Devon County Council and the children’s services team along with the new Chief Executive. Donna has only recently joined form Scotland, but it was clear to me she had a very good grasp of the problem and was already taking action. The team apologised for the lack of response to the many cases we have raised and from next week there will be a dedicated hot line for MPs to use to resolve issues for families. We can’t get away from the facts – there are shortages of many of the skilled professionals needed – but we need to be sure the really urgent cases are properly triaged for early intervention.
Finally, I met with a local NHS dental practice to better understand what the on-the-ground problems are. While clearly we need to train more dentists, we also need to encourage and incentivise more of them to stay within the NHS. The contracts do not properly reward them for what they do. They get paid the same for a particular intervention however complicated it is or however long it takes. So whether they do one filling or ten fillings on one patient they get paid the same!
While they can choose whether to take patients on the NHS contract or privately, they cannot prioritise children because that is discriminatory. Technically that may be right but we need a bit of common sense here. Sorting out dental health early prevents a lifetime of pain – and cost! At the same time older patients with more complex needs would be more attractive if the cost of their care was properly reflected in what the dentist is paid! These are issues the health ministers must address.
As always, if you would like to book a surgery appointment (in-person or virtual) or raise a specific issue, please call my office on 01626 368277 or email annemarie.morris.mp@parliament.uk to arrange an appointment.