Last week I met with the Honeypot Campaign For Children Who Care. Honeypot is a children’s charity campaigning to recognise the needs of children aged between 5 and 12 who care for a family member.It can be hard enough for adults to care for elderly parents in the later stages of life with diminished mental [...]
On Friday I had the great pleasure of visiting St Mark’s Primary School. My daughter Joanna is a newly qualified teacher and I spent time with her class and other year five and six students.The theme of the visit was the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The young people prepared speeches and [...]
A number of constituents have contacted me about the reforms to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and as such I thought it would be helpful if I explained the background to these reforms and why I support them.ESA is available to people who are ill or disabled and provides financial support if you are unable to [...]
At the kind invitation of Head Teacher Liz Filer I visited Valentine Primary School in Sholing yesterday to witness the Graduation of 18 families from the Families and Schools Together (FAST) programme.This is the first time I have come across this programme and it was a privilege to speak with the families involved to hear [...]
I feel it is important to set out from the start that it is wrong to assume I and my colleagues are not sympathetic to people with disabilities. Of course I recognise the significant anxiety any proposed changes will place upon the many people who are reliant on PIP and on their families. Unfortunately, the [...]
I am delighted to confirm that the Chancellor George Osborne has this afternoon announced funding for a new children's accident and emergency unit at Southampton General Hospital.This is the best news we could have hoped for and I am grateful to the Chancellor and Prime Minister for listening to our representations. A dedicated children’s unit [...]
Leader of the Conservative group, Jeremy Moulton, will move a motion to council calling on Labour to scrap their plans to axe school crossing patrols.
As reported in the Daily Echo today, I was very pleased to meet with the Prime Minister where he was supportive of our campaign to bring a dedicated children's unit to Southampton General Hospital. I am hopeful we will hear more about this from the Chancellor George Osborne in the Budget today.
A very interesting and informative visit to Barton Peveril College this morning. I was particularly impressed with Tamsin Newlove who is hoping to go to Cambridge. Around three quarters of Barton Peveril students go on to university and 10% of students who attend the college are from Southampton.
I recently joined actress and presenter Linda Robson at Parliament to ‘get behind the daffodil’ this March and help Marie Curie Nurses provide care and support to people living with a terminal illness.We were pictured together with Marie Curie Nurses, Leonie Christian and Elisabeth Goze, at a parliamentary event in Westminster to celebrate the launch [...]
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