In her capacity as Shadow Minister for Children and Families, Sharon has launched a review into SEND provision in the Children and Families Act, following analysis which reveals that children with special educational needs and disabilities are falling through the net.
Sharon chairing the first roundtable of her review into SEND provision.
According to analysis by the Labour Party:
- New official figures published in response to a Parliamentary Question reveal that 78 per-cent of children in Alternative Provision have a statement of special educational needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
- New figures also show that over 33,000 children with SEND are on fixed term exclusions from schools. Research reveals that pupils with SEND are nine times more likely to be excluded than their peers, and account for 70 per-cent of all permanent exclusions.
This also links with research by charities, such as the National Autistic Society, which found that half of parents of children on the autism spectrum are “dissatisfied” and around half still struggle to access the ‘Local Offer’ – despite this being a statutory requirement of local authorities to provide these families with information about local services they can access.
The review will consider:
- the impact of “every school an academy”, which remains the Government’s goal, on SEND admissions and provision;
- the drafting of EHCPs;
- the transition from Statements to EHCPs;
- the variability in the ‘Local Offer’;
- the SEN Code of Practice;
- provision of SEND in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and;
- accessing specialist services within the school setting.
The review will have two roundtable sessions in May, and a call for written evidence running until the summer. A report published in the autumn will feed into the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum; a key component of policy development towards the Party’s manifesto for 2020.
Sharon said:
“The Government promised that reforms set out in the Children and Families Act during the last Parliament would transform the experience of children with SEND and their families. Yet two years later, we are seeing significant numbers of these children excluded from school and many of their parents experiencing significant difficulties in accessing support.
“With their recent Schools White Paper failing to announce any new meaningful reforms to SEND provision, Tory Ministers seem content with the status quo. This simply isn’t good enough: far more needs to be done to improve the attainment, outcomes and experiences of children with SEND, so that we can ensure all children and young people have a fair chance of making a fulfilling transition to adulthood.
“That is why today Labour is launching a review into the current provision for children and young people with SEND, to identify why so many children with SEND are being excluded from school and what the next steps should be for SEND provision and services in England.”
Call for Written Evidence
To submit written evidence to the review, please send no more than 5 pages of A4, type size: 12 point, Arial font, to: [email protected] including evidence and recommendations no later than 6pm on Friday 29th July 2016.
Hand-written submissions will be accepted, but typed is preferred. To send hand-written evidence, please send it to:
FAO Daniel Robert Tye
c/o Sharon Hodgson MP
House of Commons,
London, SW1A 0AA
Written evidence can include thoughts, stories, evidence of best practice, research or recommendations but are not exclusive to this list. The requirements on length must be strictly adhered too in order for all submissions to be considered.
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You can also read Sharon's Labour List blog piece on the SEND Review here.
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28th June 2016
Statement from Sharon regarding the SEND Review:
“As many of you will know, yesterday afternoon I made the difficult decision to resign as the Shadow Minister for Children and Families. In this role, I have had the pleasure of working with many organisations, specialists and individuals in the SEN world to ensure that children, no matter their circumstances or needs, get the best start in life.
“However, this now, unfortunately, means that I will not be continuing my work on the SEND Review. This will now be taken up by my successor, who is yet to be appointed. Once that happens I will undertake a full handover and ensure that this important area of policy development continues. I want to give my sincere thanks to all who have worked with me and supported me in this role and my work in this area over the years.
“This sector really has the most committed individuals who go above and beyond to campaign and support children with SEND, and that is why I will continue to champion the issues facing children and young people with SEND from the backbenches as I have done since becoming a Member of Parliament.”
Sharon launches review into SEND provision in Children and Families Act
In her capacity as Shadow Minister for Children and Families, Sharon has launched a review into SEND provision in the Children and Families Act, following analysis which reveals that children...
Sharon Hodgson MPs report - Apr-May 2016 - number 85
Read Sharon Hodgson MP's report - News from Westminster - Apr-May 2016 - number 85
Sharon Hodgson MP's report - Apr-May 2016 - number 85
Sharon Hodgson MPs report - Apr-May 2016 - number 85 Read Sharon Hodgson MP's report - News from Westminster - Apr-May 2016 - number 85 Read more
Sharon has come out in support of a joint venture between the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Royal Mail to provide a free-of-charge confidential service designed to improve communication between MPs and constituents who are blind or partially sighted.
With nearly 1.9 million people living in the UK with sight loss, this means that an average of 3,000 people in every Parliamentary constituency are struggling to access information and communication with their MPs as part of democratic accountability.
Using the confidential Transcription Service, RNIB can transcribe Braille or audio post from constituents to their MP, and can translate this communication into a format accessible to constituents. This service is provided through a grant by Royal Mail, and will be free to use by blind or partially-sighted constituents.
Sharon said:
“It is vital that all constituents, regardless of their circumstances, have access to communication with their elected representatives, and that is why I am pleased to offer my support to this important joint-venture between the RNIB and Royal Mail to allow this to happen.
“It is important that in the 21st century that everyone has access to information and it is wrong that for many constituents they may feel isolated from the democratic process when trying to contact their local Member of Parliament.
“That is why I will be encouraging my Parliamentary colleagues to use this service to enable further engagement with their constituents who may be blind or partially sighted.”
To find out more about the transcription scheme, or the RNIB’s ‘Articles for the Blind Scheme’ in general, visit their website here:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/information-everyday-living-benefits-and-concessions-concessions/free-postal-service-articles-blind
May 2016.
Sharon supports new transcription scheme for blind or partially-sighted constituents
Sharon has come out in support of a joint venture between the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Royal Mail to provide a free-of-charge confidential service designed to... Read more
APPG on Ticket Abuse supports Parliamentary Petition calling for enforcement of Consumer Rights Act.
APPG on Ticket Abuse supports petition calling for enforcement of Consumer Rights Act
APPG on Ticket Abuse supports Parliamentary Petition calling for enforcement of Consumer Rights Act. Read more
Read Sharon's latest Sunderland Echo column below or find the published column on the Sunderland Echo website.
Food is an undeniable and essential part of our lives. It helps fuel our minds and bodies, whilst also giving us the vital nutrients to stay healthy, especially for children. This is something I have championed for a long time now.
This first started with my push for universal free school meals in 2008, after a fact-finding mission to Sweden where I saw exactly what could be possible here in the UK, and drove me to lobby the Labour Government of the day to introduce universal free school meals pilots in Durham and Newham.
The evaluation of these pilots clearly showed the impact universal free school meals had on addressing educational and health inequalities, along with social and behavioural problems.
Sadly, these were scrapped by the incoming coalition Government in 2011.
Soon after they commissioned a report into school food, by two entrepreneurs, John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby.
During their investigation, I worked closely with them to see recommendations for better food in our schools, including one for universal free school meals – which they included with the proviso, ‘when funding could be found’.
This was seen sooner than expected in 2014 with the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals, when all infant children received a hot and healthy school meal in England, and the evidence on the ground is showing the benefits this policy can have to a child’s education.
Yet, there is a growing problem when it comes to the school holidays when children have little, if sometime any, access to healthy food and we see all the good work done during term time reversed.
Many will argue that what happens when the school gates shut is none of our business, but when families are relying heavily upon food banks in the holidays and teachers reporting children returning from the holidays malnourished, then it is damning that we aren’t doing anything to support these families.
That is why I, as Chair of the School Food APPG, set up the Holiday Hunger Task Group, which since its creation in 2013 has gone from strength to strength, including publishing voluntary guidance to organisations providing holiday activities and also a report which highlighted best practice across the country.
However, there is a lot more still to be done.
Ahead of the Government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy later this year and the Summit4Nutrition at the Rio Olympics this summer, which aims to address hunger domestically and internationally, I will be lobbying the Government to do more, and not waste this opportunity to realise an ambition I hold dearly: that no child goes hungry during the school holidays.
ECHO COLUMN: No child should go hungry in the school holidays
Read Sharon's latest Sunderland Echo column below or find the published column on the Sunderland Echo website. Food is an undeniable and essential part of our lives. It helps fuel...
Sharon speaking in the Performance of North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) Westminster Hall Debate 04.05.16
Image Copyright Parliamentary Recording Unit 2016
As Chair of the Northern Group of Labour MPs, Sharon secured a debate for North East MPs, who after dealing with many constituent cases and reading even more reports in local press over the last few years, were able to raise their concerns directly with the Government about the Performance of the North East Ambulance Service.
Read Sharon's speech in Hansard here: Sharon Hodgson MP Performance of North East Ambulance Service Westminster Hall Debate
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the performance of the North East Ambulance Service.
We as a country pride ourselves on our world-class NHS services, which are the envy of the world. It is therefore always important that we highlight failures and shortcomings to ensure that our services do not fail our constituents when they need them most.
Strains on services are part and parcel of life in the NHS, but in recent years the pressures have been exacerbated by the Government’s policies. Ever since the Conservatives were elected to office in 2010, the NHS has struggled due to their mismanagement. In particular, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 implemented a costly, top-down reorganisation, which was neither needed nor wanted. It led to a disjointed funding model and resulted in my local ambulance trust, the North East Ambulance Service, running an expected budget deficit of £3.5 million for 2015-16. It comes as no surprise that I have received a growing number of complaints and concerns about the NHS in recent years, which is why this northern group of MPs decided that we had to call for the debate.
All the services that the NHS provides are important, but when someone suddenly falls ill in an emergency such as a stroke or a heart attack, or has a fall or an accident, it is understandable that they have high expectations of our ambulance service. The important work that paramedics do in our region day in, day out is undeniable, but, as the cases that my constituents have brought to my attention and those that have been reported in the press show, patient safety is in jeopardy. That is mainly due to waiting times, which, as the cases I will outline illustrate, have increased and are causing distress to many of my constituents.
For red 1 and red 2 cases—potentially life-threatening incidents—the trust remains below the national standard. Although that is reflected across the country—only two ambulance trusts in England met red 1 standards—it is concerning that, in our region, that failure has continued for the past three years, despite the fact that our response time of eight minutes is higher than the national average. That is exacerbated by the fact that red demand calls have increased by 21.3% in the past 12 months. The performance targets for the fourth quarter of 2015-16 were breached, leading to the trust’s third consecutive quarter breach.
I called this debate to give myself and my fellow north-eastern colleagues the opportunity to raise cases and concerns directly with the Government to ensure that our constituents receive the very best standard of service, which they rightly expect. It is right that we raise concerns with the Government, who are ultimately responsible for the service and can ensure that something is done about the problems we raise. I will touch on some of the many cases ranging from 2012 to 2016 that my constituents have brought to my attention, and I know that other Members will do the same.
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this extremely important debate. I am very concerned about the management. That was highlighted to me when I wrote a letter to the North East Ambulance Service about ambulance services in Teesdale. I got a letter back headed, “Ambulance services in Weardale”. The worst thing that happened was to Violet Alliston, whose partner rang three times in an hour. No ambulance came, and she died. That is obviously totally unacceptable.
Mrs Hodgson
I thank my hon. Friend for that very sad example, which I fear and predict will be one of many—perhaps not all with such a tragic ending—that we will hear this afternoon.
The correspondence I have received about ambulance waiting times in my constituency makes it clear this has been a persistent problem since 2012. I was first told about the problem with waiting times by the league chairman of the Wearside football league after he raised concerns with the North East Ambulance Service directly about numerous incidents. In his correspondence, he said that waiting times for football players who had broken their leg had continually gone over 70 minutes. In one case, after a player broke their leg, the league chairman called 999 at 11.40 am, but he was called back and informed that no ambulance was available and that he should take the player by car. He rang 999 back and complained that that went against what trained first aiders were told about not moving people with broken bones. An ambulance then arrived at 1 pm—80 minutes after the initial call—and the young man was taken to hospital.
Ever since that case, I have received a range of correspondence from other constituents highlighting failures and shortcomings in ambulances going out to emergencies. An issue particular to my local area—I do not think it is replicated in other parts of the region, although we may hear differently when other colleagues speak—is that ambulances struggle to get to certain parts of my constituency due to confusion in finding the address. That has been repeatedly brought to my attention by my constituent, Mr Walker, who for the past two years has highlighted the difficulty that ambulance crews have getting to the Usworth Hall estate in Washington. When a shocking murder took place in the area in 2014, the ambulance did not arrive for more than an hour and the man died.
An example of that failure happened when a woman was in labour and her sister-in-law had to deliver the baby because the ambulance went to the wrong street. The children of the woman in labour had to search the streets for the ambulance. When they found it, they guided it by foot, as they were not allowed on board, for more than a mile to where it should have been.
I could give many other examples. It has been a persistent issue for the residents of Usworth Hall, who, through Mr Walker, have highlighted their concerns and their exasperation at those problems. On each occasion, I forwarded their concerns to the North East Ambulance Service, which looked into each issue. To its credit, it has tried to address them. That was highlighted in a letter to me in July 2014, in which it explained that it had set up an electronic flag system for all residents in Usworth Hall and had a duty manager from its control room go out and survey the area for problems. However, Mr Walker contacted me again at the beginning of April and informed me that an ambulance was parked outside his house one evening. When he went out to speak to the staff, he found that they were lost and supposed to be in another street.
Paramedics understandably do not have the local knowledge that residents have, but sat-nav equipment is provided to help ambulances get to the right destination at the right time.
Mary Glendon (North Tyneside) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend think that those delays could be because of the shortage of paramedics and the fact that, as the service has admitted, it uses volunteers and private contractors to provide ambulances? That exacerbates the problem of people not knowing how to get to where they need to be.
Mrs Hodgson
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I will come on to the shortage, which is running at about 15%, and the stress on paramedics, to which she alluded.
If the sat-nav equipment continues to fail, and if my interventions on behalf of my constituents and the ambulance trust’s action do not rectify the situation, there needs to be a serious investigation into what is going wrong. We cannot have our ambulances driving round lost on estates looking for the right street.
My most recent piece of casework is from February and is deeply concerning. It concerns my constituent, Mrs Ellen Sherriff. I feel that using the words emailed to me by my constituent’s husband, Mr David Sherriff, can help to highlight the situation and the distress that can come from having to wait hours and hours for an ambulance to arrive. I hope that you will allow me a moment to read out Mr Sherriff’s words, Mr Bailey. He said:
“Ellen became unwell at 10.35am yesterday morning with severe head pain on the right-hand side. She felt like she was going to pass out. I checked her blood pressure which was very high, so phoned 111 at 11am and spoke to a call handler who told me he was sending an emergency ambulance and not to be worried if it arrived with blue lights.
Two and a half hours later no one had come. Ellen remained unwell and could not stand any light.
I phoned 999 and was told the ambulance that was coming had been diverted to Cramlington but that we would be next unless a more urgent call came in.
At 2.40pm, a patient transportation ambulance arrived with two ambulance men. I asked why it had taken so long. They said given the circumstances Ellen should have been seen earlier. They had no equipment, not even a blood pressure machine. They said they couldn’t risk moving Ellen in case they caused the bleed in her brain to become life threatening and they would send for a paramedic. They would also remain here till he arrived. They also complained to the control room regarding the wait.
They sat outside until 5.30pm, 6 and a half hours after I first phoned. When the paramedic first arrived he examined Ellen and said she should have been in hospital 5 hours earlier.”
It was not until 6 pm, more than eight hours after the initial phone call, that my constituent, Mrs Sherriff, was admitted to hospital, where it was discovered that she did indeed have a bleed in the brain and that she should have been there much sooner.
Until Friday, Mr Sherriff was still awaiting a response to his complaint, which was sent in February. Perhaps the prospect of this debate ensured that he eventually got it. The trust has admitted errors in the handling and categorising of Mrs Sherriff’s condition, meaning that it was continually not treated with the urgency required. The trust has apologised and said that a “reflection and learning session” has been given to the original call handler, but this case could easily have had a tragic ending.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate, which is important to all of us. Does she agree that the issue is not only with the ambulance service? Last summer, in the middle of the night, I took a relative to the university hospital in Durham. In the morning, when I came outside, I counted 12 ambulances stood outside the hospital and unable to discharge their passengers and get patients admitted. The whole system in the north-east is now simply not working.
Mrs Hodgson
My hon. Friend makes a valid point—we often hear about the queues of ambulances at accident and emergency. Patients have waited hours and hours for the ambulance to come, but when they get to the hospital, they sit in a queue outside. I have raised that with my local hospital. There is a huge breakdown in the system. Something is going seriously wrong, and it is completely unacceptable. Mrs Sherriff, a patient who had a suspected bleed in the brain, had to wait for more than eight hours before getting to A&E. That is truly shocking, and all those cases mentioned highlight concerns that the Government and the North East Ambulance Service must address.
I have one more issue to discuss before concluding, and that is to do with the numbers of qualified paramedics, which my hon. Friend the Member for North Tyneside (Mary Glindon) mentioned in her intervention. When waiting times are going up and demand is rising, we clearly need to look at workforce retention and recruitment. Our paramedics do an amazing job, but they cannot be in two places at the same time.
At this point, I want to place clearly on the record that I am not apportioning any blame or criticism at all to any paramedic or ambulance crew. They do an amazing job, under very difficult and trying circumstances, day in, day out, and they should not be placed in situations whereby, once allocated, they race through traffic to a call, within the appropriate time allowed, only to be faced with stressed and sometimes angry people, who say, “Where’ve you been? I’ve been waiting four, five, six or seven hours.”
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. I have an example from my constituency. A young lad, a teenager, had a road traffic accident, getting a compound fracture of the leg, but it took three hours for an ambulance to get to him.
When I met the ambulance chief executive, she told me that the problem is that the organisations that do employment and support allowance assessments are poaching qualified paramedics from the ambulance service, creating a great hole. There is a role there for Government, perhaps, to talk to the whole organisation, to see what can be done to put a stop to that.
Mrs Hodgson
My hon. Friend makes a valid point, which I will touch on, although he made the case well. We have to look at the slippage, to where in the rest of the health service the paramedics are haemorrhaging, and why. I will say more about that in a moment.
Paramedics are there to treat people and give them emergency—perhaps life-saving—healthcare, but before they can even start to treat them, they might first have to calm the patient and relatives down, because of something that was completely out of their hands. It is therefore no surprise that, nationally, there is a shortage of qualified paramedics, and all trusts are struggling to fill vacancies so that they can operate at full capacity. The North East Ambulance Service has a 15% shortage, and is plugging the gap with private and voluntary organisations, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Tyneside mentioned. The service has said, however, that it will be up to full establishment in a year, but how many more people will wait for hours and hours before we get to that stage?
Something therefore needs to be done about the recruitment and retention of paramedics, especially since evidence has shown that more staff are leaving the profession than ever. Also, mental health charity Mind reported that 62% of blue-light emergency service workers have experienced a mental health problem and, worryingly, one in four has considered ending their own life. It is shocking to think about the stress that those people are working under.
It is no surprise that research conducted jointly by Unite, Unison and the GMB revealed at the end of last year that more than 1,500 paramedics had left the service in 2014-15, compared with 845 in 2010-11—still a high number, but a little more than half the later figure. Of paramedics surveyed as part of other research by the three unions, 75% had considered leaving the profession due to stress and pay.
Action therefore needs to be taken on recruitment, which is why I welcome the work of my local university, the University of Sunderland, which in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service has launched a diploma programme in paramedic practice. It will pair theoretical study with practical training over two years, and it will help to address the shortages faced by not only our regional trust, but other trusts around the country. That innovative work by my local university, alongside that of the outstanding paramedic practice degree at Teesside University, which is seen as a beacon of best practice in our region, if not the country, is important and will help.
It is, however, unsustainable not to address strategically the staffing shortages and the increasing demoralisation of a workforce who are haemorrhaging away, because that is clearly having an impact on waiting and call-out times for emergencies. That is why I hope that the Minister will address those concerns, and outline what the Government are doing to deal with recruitment and retention. How will she work with my local ambulance service trust to ensure that it reaches the target of being fully operational by this time next year? How will the ambulance trust ensure that those who are recruited into the field are retained and do not slip off to work for other parts of the health service, so that we do not see further shortages down the line?
It is important that our emergency ambulance services are up to the standard that we all expect. That means working collaboratively among ourselves, as the local Members of Parliament who represent our constituents and their concerns, and with the Department of Health, NHS England and the North East Ambulance Service Trust. Our constituents deserve the best standards in our NHS, and it is up to the Government seriously to address pressures on our NHS services, especially the case of the workforce in the ambulance service.
I hope that the Minister has listened carefully to my concerns, and will listen to those that my colleagues from the north-east who have attended the debate today express. I look forward to hearing what she has to say at the end of the debate.
Performance of North East Ambulance Service Westminster Hall Debate 04.05.16
Sharon speaking in the Performance of North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) Westminster Hall Debate 04.05.16 Image Copyright Parliamentary Recording Unit 2016 As Chair of the Northern Group of Labour MPs,...
Recently Sharon has had many constituents contact her regarding the complete and forced academisation of all schools in England.
From the many numbers of constituents who have contacted me directly on this issue, and have signed various online petitions for the Government to reconsider these ham-fisted plans, including parents and teachers, I am all to aware of the mounting pressure for these plans to be scrapped.
From the Local Government Association - which represents all councillors from across the political spectrum, to the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the argument has been made that these plans distract schools from their core functions to teach the next generation.
This complete and forced academisation is not needed nor wanted, and for the Government to push ahead with their costly top-down reorganisation of the school system here in England is deeply wrong.
The roll-out of academies as the norm in our education system is not a panacea on it’s own to help address the widening in educational outcomes gap here in the UK. As the Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, recently highlighted there are ‘serious weaknesses’ within academy chains. Instead of listening to this recommendation, the Government are now ploughing on with the wholesale academisation of all schools.
The Government’s recently published White Paper, which predominately looks at this issue, should have been about the real issues that are facing our schools right now, from teacher shortages, a crisis in school places, the widening gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers, and the exam chaos with the haphazard roll out of the new SATs and GCSEs. It is clear with over 446 secondary mainstream academies and Free Schools requiring the need for improvement, the Government should be focusing on this issue along with the other issues mentioned previously, rather than pushing forward on an agenda which has not been asked for by parents or teachers. This is also not required for the education of those pupils who we all should be thinking about as the central part to any reforms to our education system.
There are many unknowns with this roll-out of academisation, especially when it comes to the fate of children with SEND who, as evidence has shown, are more often than not the ones who are side-lined or excluded from some academies. As the Shadow Minister for Children with responsibility for our policy on supporting children with SEND, this will be something I will look at closely with my colleagues in the Shadow Education team to make sure these children get the same education as their peers, as they rightly deserve to.
On Wednesday 13th April 2016, the Opposition raised these concerns in a debate on the Government’s White Paper and called for the Government to put its proposals on hold. As an education spokesperson, I was on the frontbench at the beginning and end of the debate. Unfortunately the Labour Party’s motion did not pass on this occasion, but it was clear from the speeches and interventions from the Conservative benches that they are uncomfortable with their own party’s proposals on academisation. If the Secretary of State for Education won't listen to the abundance of voices opposing these plans, then she must listen to her backbenchers who have joined the wider public in standing up against these plans.
Along with my fellow Labour MPs, and as a member of the Shadow Education team, I will hold the Government to account on these proposed changes to our education system ensuring that the priority always remains that of children and young people currently going through our education system.
Sharon responds to constituents concerns over the Government's academisation programme
Recently Sharon has had many constituents contact her regarding the complete and forced academisation of all schools in England. From the many numbers of constituents who have contacted me directly...
Sharon speaking at a business event on apprenticeships and social value 29.04.16
Image copyright Henk Geertsema ACIM, 2016
Sharon was invited to speak at a business event in Sedgefield titled 'Competing for Social Value in Procurement Contracts', along with Labour MEP, Jude Kirton-Darling, about stretching social value by businesses and companies when recruiting apprentices. Sharon spoke about the need to address the issue of young people being left in a constant cycle of check-list training courses or short-term apprenticeships with no prospects of a job at the end of it, and the despondency both can have on the life chances of young people and the need for businesses and training providers to recognise the social value they can have in creating a diverse and skilled workforce.
You can read Sharon's speech below:
Firstly, I want to thank Stephanie and Rachel for inviting me to come and speak to you today.
Social value has become a much more important part of public procurement in recent years, with businesses and organisations who bid for public contracts now needing to consider how they can improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of their local area.
This is something I have worked on in recent months with Rachel Lumsden, Stephanie Smith and other experts and organisations within my local authority area in Sunderland, especially when it comes to the social impact of apprenticeships for young people.
In latest guidance by the Government to authorities and businesses on procurement of contracts, it stated that contracts worth £10 million or more, and last for 12 months or longer, should support the upskilling of their workforce and the wider community, along with working towards the Government’s ambitious, but noble, target of creating three million apprenticeships by 2020.
Organisations here in the room today may never be competing for contracts worth £10 million or more, but this doesn’t mean that the principles of ensuring that we work towards upskilling our workforce - a value held across the board within the business community – is not still worth pursuing and I know that many here today, will agree and already champion this belief.
However, there is always more that can be done and this is what I wish to talk to you all about today.
Apprenticeships unlock success
It is undeniable the impact that a high-quality apprenticeship can have on the lives of young people in providing them with skills for life, along with the chance to earn whilst they learn and move on in life with a sustainable career path – something we all wish for our children.
As a region, we pride ourselves on our strong manufacturing and industrial heritage and the entwined appreciation for just how important an apprenticeship can be to getting on in life.
It is important that when a business provides an apprenticeship to a young person, that we don’t, after six months, see them tossed out on to the street with no job to go into and that they have just been making up the numbers to ensure targets set out by the Government are met.
This is something I know all too well from personal experience, when during the 1980s, I saw my two brothers go through a turnstile of training programmes, they were called YOPs and YTSs back then, but when it came to the end of the six-month period, they were told: ‘There’s no job here for you’ and they would end up on yet another scheme, and see this repeated time and time again.
My youngest brother did four YTS’s and went from an eager 16-year-old dreaming of being a mechanic to an angry disillusioned 18-year-old on the dole with no prospects. It took a number of years to recover from that and he eventually got his chance when thankfully his best friend’s dad, who laid marble floor tiles as a sub-contractor in airports and shopping malls, gave him a job labouring for him.
This was just the break my brother, probably aged 20 or 21 by then, needed. He went from strength to strength, learnt the trade, became a floorer himself and is now a director of the company. Now, that’s the difference giving a young person a chance makes to their life. If only those 4 companies which let him go after 6 months had given him a chance! Their loss!
This is why I am passionate about the recognition of the social value and impact that businesses can have on the lives of young people.
If we take the message that came out of National Apprenticeship Week last month, of: the positive impact apprenticeships can have on our economy, but also on a more personal level with the social mobility that can come with undertaking an apprenticeship, it is understandable just how far we have come since the 1980s.
We can’t just celebrate apprenticeships for one week alone though, we need to do this day in, day out, by actively working towards improving the quality and access to apprenticeships on offer to our young people.
That is why there is still more to do, and this is a message that I hope will come out of today.
For many young people in our region there is no hope of them securing an apprenticeship, with the Government’s requirements that young people must have a Grade C in English and Maths.
Whilst it is important that we continue to aspire to pushing the outcomes of young people achieving an A* to C in the core subjects, we have to realise that this is not always possible for all young people, especially some with SEND.
There are many skilled apprenticeships which understandably need to have the grades in order to complete the work needed of them to a high-standard, such as using high level thinking, maths skills such as algebra etc, or complex concepts.
But should a young person aspiring to do an apprenticeship working in an office, with the functional mathematical and literacy skills to do the job, be excluded from this life changing apprenticeship that is open to their peers.
Or excluding a young person who is good with their hands from an apprenticeship as a construction worker or a welder, because they didn’t get their C in Maths and English, although may have plenty other GCSE A – C, I think this is wrong when they can learn all the functional skills needed to do this job whilst working on site.
For many young people applying what they are trying to learn in the classroom to the actual life scenarios they are now in can make the penny drop to help them develop skills they never thought they would have, with some then reaching the magic C in English and Maths during their apprenticeship. Others will bring their Maths and English up to the functional level. They just need the chance, their break.
Recent figures I obtained through a Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education found that 42% of young people in the North East by the age of 16 were not achieving at least a Grade C in English and Maths.
Many of those young people may get the required grades the following year, or the year after that, yet what is deeply concerning is that because of this block imposed on the entry requirements for an apprenticeship we are seeing some young people being placed onto remedial course after remedial course, so that training providers can tick a box to say they are supporting young people to achieve their needed qualifications – and in some cases, no real progress is ever made. With the young person becoming increasingly disillusioned and losing all hope of ever getting the chance to get on, get a break, to start their life as an adult.
This harks back to what I mentioned earlier with my brother’s experiences in the 1980s, and the danger of creating a despondent and disengaged generation of young people who are being locked out of achieving their true potential because they have not been given the opportunities to do so. Not able to even get over the first hurdle.
What can businesses do
That is why it is up to businesses, such as yourselves here today, to tap into this idea of social value and ensure that young people are given the opportunities they need in life to change their lives for the better.
To do this, there needs to be scrutiny and creativity driving forward how we look at the way we recruit apprentices and always keeping in mind the idea of: ‘what am I giving back to my local community?’
One way of doing this is by looking at the processes undertaken by training companies and holding them to account on how they are recruiting and training the apprenticeship workforce in our region, and who better to do this than those who use their services – that is all of you.
Secondly, speak to them and find out more about their recruitment procedures and have the important discussions about how making social value a central ethos to your apprenticeship recruitment is important to you and your organisation and challenging them to do more.
These are two important ways of taking this issue further.
Conclusion
There is so much more we can do to ensure we unlock the doors of opportunity to the widest possible cross-section of society, and allow those young people in our local area to have the best chances in life through the social mobility an apprenticeship can have on their life.
Thank you for listening.
Sharon speaks at business event on apprenticeships and social value
Sharon speaking at a business event on apprenticeships and social value 29.04.16 Image copyright Henk Geertsema ACIM, 2016 Sharon was invited to speak at a business event in Sedgefield titled... Read more
As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food, Sharon spoke at an interactive Parliamentary briefing session hosted by the Food Foundation, and other organisations, on informing Parliamentarians about the opportunities to address Global Hunger on the road to the Rio Olympics and the Nutrition4Growth Summit.
At the event it was highlighted what role the UK should take in helping drive forward the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on hunger and food insecurity, which states; ‘By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round’, along with a call to end all forms of malnutrition in the UK through addressing food insecurity, but also holiday hunger by recommending that the Government looks into a holiday hunger pilot.
At the event, Sharon welcomed the idea of a holiday hunger pilot, and spoke about the important work of the School Food APPG’s Holiday Hunger Task Group, which for the last few years has looked at addressing child holiday hunger in the UK and driven this agenda forward. This is due to concerns that the positive work that goes into improving a child’s education, health and behaviour during term-time is being reversed during the long school holidays because of little, if any, healthy food for the child to eat which is widening the educational attainment gap of the most disadvantaged children in our society.
You can listen to Sharon’s speech and those of the others speakers, including the Olympic rower James Cracknell OBE, at the below video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA8Fo1fRO3o
Following the event, Sharon said:
“For many years the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food has championed and campaigned for the introduction of policy that would finally address concerns in this country around hunger and food insecurity, especially amongst the most disadvantaged children in society who see their education and health affected by holiday hunger.
“Our campaign activity has included the publishing of our position paper in 2013 which set out what more could be done by policymakers to address this issue, along with the creation of the Holiday Hunger Task Group to spearhead the development of policy and pull together best practice that would provide support for those children during the long school holidays.
“The welcome collective action of all the charities and organisations who are working hard in the lead up to the Rio 2016 Summit shows that whatever we are saying on the international stage about investing and tackling global hunger must be reflected domestically here in the UK with strategies in place that ensure food insecurity and child holiday hunger become a thing of the past everywhere.”
Sharon backs Make Rio Count to address Global Hunger
As Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food, Sharon spoke at an interactive Parliamentary briefing session hosted by the Food Foundation, and other organisations, on informing Parliamentarians about...
Recently Sharon was nominated for a Grassroots Diplomat Award for Social Policy Changer to recognise her work on holiday hunger as Chair of the APPG for School Food which she founded and last night was honoured by winning the Grassroots Diplomat Award at the high profile event in London.
Since 2008, Sharon has campaigned for better food provision in England’s schools, including championing the education, behavioural, social and health benefits of universal free school meals to children and young people. This meant lobbying and then working closely with the authors of the School Food Plan, and its subsequent Office, which was responsible for the roll out of universal infant free school meals. Sharon was instrumental in saving this policy from the scrapheap in the lead-up to the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) when it was rumoured to be at risk. Sharon, at the 11th hour, secured a commitment from the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions the week before the CSR that the policy would continue.
Alongside this, Sharon has also campaigned for policy-makers to seriously address the issue of child holiday hunger by setting up the Holiday Hunger Task Group under the umbrella of the School Food APPG. This comes as concerns have grown that some children especially those who get free school meals are not being fed properly, or much at all, during the holidays - especially the long summer holidays - due to extremely strained family budgets forcing more and more families to visit food banks than ever before during the school holidays - even those who may manage ordinarily during term time. She also highlights the educational attainment gap between the most disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers and how this gap is widening and holiday hunger makes this even worse.
Speaking after receiving her award, Sharon said:
"It was a total honour to be nominated in the first place and I was not expecting to win against such a strong field of nine other worthy campaigning politicians who have all done some amazing work to address social issues in our society.
"It is humbling to be recognised for the work I have done on child hunger, both during term-time and in the holidays as I champion this cause not for any accolade or recognition, but to ensure all children get the best chances in life - no matter what their background or circumstance.
"There is still such a long way to go to achieve my ambition of no child going hungry during the school holidays. However, with the work of the School Food APPG and its Holiday Hunger Task Group, I will continue to lobby to try and influence the Government in order that strategies and actions are put in place to tackle children going hungry during the holidays so that their health and education are not effected which would negatively impact their lives and opportunities."
To find out more about the Grassroots Diplomat Awards, visit their website here.
Sharon wins Grassroots Diplomat Award for Work on Holiday Hunger
Recently Sharon was nominated for a Grassroots Diplomat Award for Social Policy Changer to recognise her work on holiday hunger as Chair of the APPG for School Food which she...