Sharon Hodgson speaking in the second day of the Budget Debates - 21st February 2016

Image copyright Parliamentary Recording Unit 2016

Following the Chancellor's Budget on 16th March 2016, Sharon spoke in the second day of the Budget debates and raised concerns about the complete and forced academisation of schools in England and the impact this could have on children with special educational needs and disabilities, along with the failure of the Chancellor to significantly recognise the North East in his Budget which was driven by his desire to push further on his pet project, the Northern Powerhouse.

Read Sharon's speech in Hansard here: Sharon Hodgson MP in the Budget Debate 2016

Test pasted here:

Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab): In the time allotted, I cannot cover all the items that make up this ultra-shambles of a Budget, but I will set out a few.

The Government believe that the complete academisation of our schools by 2020 will help to address the widening gap in educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged in our schools. Yet there are many concerns about what that will mean in reality, especially for children with special educational needs and disability.

Since the publication of the Department for Education White Paper, many parents and organisations have contacted me regarding their concerns about what the proposals will mean for children with autism, dyslexia or other special educational needs or disabilities. Evidence has shown that academies have higher rates of exclusion of children with SEND, who are then pushed into local authority maintained schools. Once all schools are academies, who will take the excluded children with SEND? Those children are as worthy as any others of receiving a high-quality education, and I hope the Government will ensure that we continue to have an inclusive education system and that children with SEND are not sidelined or excluded in the fully academised school system they are creating.

Other announcements by the Chancellor failed to recognise the need for further investment in the north-east. That was seen clearly when he announced £80 million for Crossrail 2 in London and the next phase of high-speed rail—High Speed 3—which will go only as far as Leeds. Some of us live more than 100 miles further north, in the north-east, and I wait with bated breath for the day when HS4 or HS5—or will it be HS 67?—reaches us in the north-east.

The Chancellor obviously sees himself as the King in the North, with his northern powerhouse project, but he needs to realise that there is a lot more of the north before he gets to the wall—that is Hadrian’s wall, not the one in “Game of Thrones”. If he truly wants to be the King in the North, and we all know he has—or should I now say had?—ambitions for higher office, he needs to realise that there is a large section of the north between Yorkshire and Scotland called the north-east and to ensure that investment is directed to our region too.

However, there is still something the Chancellor can do now—invest in the future of the Tyne and Wear Metro. The rolling stock has not been updated in its 36-year history. However, for an estimated £400 million, a much-needed completely new fleet could be built, which would future-proof the network into the 21st century, with options for dual voltage giving it the ability to procure vehicles suitable to support future route extensions, such as the expansion into Washington via the Leamside line, which I have campaigned for more than 10 years. That would help not only to drive economic growth, with improved connectivity to other parts of the region, but provide the vital jobs we need through the building of the new fleet.

Following today's Budget (16.03.16), Sharon reacted by saying:

“For the eighth time in six years the Chancellor has presented a Budget which fails to balance the books, fails to grow our economy and fails to improve the lives of hardworking people across the country, especially here in the North-East.

“Instead of the Government’s empty rhetoric about supporting the next generation, what we have seen in this Budget is the Chancellor create an economy on fragile foundations which will see growth and business investment revised down year on year during this Parliament.

“As always the North-East will bear the brunt of these announcements with a lack of investment directed to our region, whilst more money goes to London and the South-East with the go-ahead for Crossrail 2 not even HS3 is planned to reach us only going as far as Leeds, meaning little or no infrastructure investment in our region for our road and rail network.

“This Budget should have been about creating a 21^st century economy which allows high-tech industries to flourish with a highly-skilled workforce earning in a high-wage economy. Yet, the Chancellor has continued down his path of failure and ignored the many important issues which would ensure regions like ours can deliver the employment and investment we desperately need to prosper.”

ENDS

As part of the launch of National Apprenticeship Week 2016, Sharon was invited to be a part of the North-East launch at Unipres in Sunderland and gave a speech in front of staff, apprentices and young people about the great work seen by Unipres to invest in the economy and workforce on Wearside, the importance of National Apprenticeship Week, along with the benefit of young people doing an apprenticeship to help them on their path to career success.

As part of the visit to Unipres, Sharon met with various young people from local schools who were interested in doing an apprenticeship and those who are currently doing an apprenticeship at Unipres and how it has benefitted their lives. The visit also included a tour of the factory and to see the skilled workforce in action working with the machinery – including the two new presses which went live in December 2015 to accommodate the increase in demand from Nissan and other car manufacturers across the country.

Following the launch at Unipres, Sharon said:

“It was wonderful to be invited to take part in the celebrations at Unipres here in Sunderland to welcome the start of National Apprenticeship Week.

“Unipres has been a vital employer in Sunderland for 27 years now and has provided essential employment to over one-thousand people on Wearside, and the wider North-East, and it is welcome that they have been able to double their apprenticeship numbers in the last year.

“It is always important to recognise and showcase the route to a high-quality and well-paid job through an apprenticeship and I hope that this year’s celebrations in the North-East, and across the country, for National Apprenticeships Week are a success.”

You can read Sharon’s speech to the apprentices, Unipres staff and pupils from Link School and Biddick Academy here.

Sharon Hodgson with Unipres Staff, Gatsby Project team; George Ritchie, Chair of the North East Apprenticeship Ambassador Network and Associate Director PX group and pupils and staff from Link School and Biddick Academy - 14th March 2016

Image Copyright: Unipres 2016.

For National Apprenticeship Week 2016, Sharon was invited to Unipres in Sunderland to welcome the beginning of the week, meet with apprentices and have a tour of the Unipres factory. In her speech, Sharon spoke about the importance of apprenticeships to helping young people reach their potential in life and recognised the work done by Unipres in Sunderland over their 27 years based in the City to support the local economy and workforce.

You can read Sharon's speech here below:

Thank you for inviting me to join you for today’s launch of National Apprenticeships Week celebrations here at Unipres.

It is wonderful that National Apprenticeship Week, which started in 2008, is now in its ninth year where we continue to showcase the positive impact apprentices have on our economy, whilst celebrating the tens of thousands who are currently developing their skills, expertise and knowledge through an apprenticeship, may it be in nuclear technology, fashion design, or of course, car manufacturing.

After the success of last year’s celebrations which saw 600 events held right across the country and businesses pledging to increase apprenticeship numbers by 23,000, I hope this year’s events will build on those achievements ensuring we reaffirm our commitment to apprenticeships as a vehicle to achieve great success in life.

This year’s theme for National Apprenticeships Week is all about rising to the top and recognising the importance an apprenticeship can have on an individual achieving their potential, by learning and earning at the same time.

This is something which is at the very heart of the business ethos of Unipres, who for the last 26 years, have been an important employer here on Wearside, whilst developing a close relationship with Nissan to whom they supply parts for the cars manufactured just up the road.

Unipres’ clear commitment to Sunderland’s local workforce is shown through their continued investment into training local people, providing sustainable and high-quality job opportunities and nurturing a sense of pride in the work that goes on here in Sunderland.

In recent years Unipres has invested heavily into their factory here on Wearside with capital investment of over £40 million between 2012 and 2013 in preparation for the increased production at Nissan, and more recently Renault.

This led to an additional investment of nearly £13 million to install two new presses – which went live just before Christmas and I hope we will get to see them in action later this morning – this created 22 additional new jobs at the factory to work on the production of supplies for both Nissan and Honda’s assembly plant in Swindon, along with exporting to international markets including mainland Europe and Russia.

Parallel to all of this investment into the future of the business, there has been just as much investment into the future of the workforce where over the last year there has been a doubling in the number of apprentices based at the factory.

In total, Unipres now has over 60 apprentices who are studying for their qualifications in engineering, electrical engineering and die and tool-making whilst training hands-on here in order to reinforce what they learn in the classroom.

For any of those young men or women here today, I wish you all the very best with your studies and future career success here at Unipres.

But as the leadership here know the work to inspire the next generation coming into the workforce starts way before they join the business as an apprentice. That is why Unipres has supported an excellent initiative, called Industrial Cadets, which aims to spark the imagination and minds of young people about the career possibilities within engineering and the sometimes unknown career success that can come with starting a high-quality apprenticeship.

That is why it is wonderful that this year’s National Apprenticeship Week celebrations in the North-East have been launched today here at Unipres – showing appreciation of the leadership of Plant Director, John Cruddace, and the hard-work and dedication of everyone who works here.

This week is all about celebration and marking the importance of apprenticeships, and I wish all the success in the world to this year’s National Apprenticeship Week and hope that events like this inspire the young people attending to start an apprenticeship so they too can achieve their full potential and reach the top of their chosen career.

Read Sharon's latest Sunderland Echo column below or find the published column on the Sunderland Echo's website.

Last Sunday, mothers across the country would have woken up to breakfast in bed, cards, gifts and flowers from their families, thanking them for caring for loved ones and nurturing their children all year round.

We all know mothers care can go unrecognised – but we do it nonetheless.

Then on Tuesday we celebrated International Women’s Day. I was delighted to welcome Katie from St Robert's Sixth Form to shadow me and take part in International Women’s Day celebrations here in Parliament.

Katie was one of nine selected out of 75 young women from across the UK, who were also shadowing their MP, to swap places with MPs on the Women & Equalities Select Committee and question them on what more we can do to address inequality.

Some argue that celebrating a woman’s place in society can be counter-productive to our struggle for equality.

Yet, with the gender pay gap still persistent in many areas of the workforce and women still greatly under-represented in top positions in business and public life, it is clear we still need to continue our fight for gender equality.

Unfortunately, this Tory Government is exacerbating women’s inequality.

Women face the brunt of public sector cuts; one in nine pregnant women are forced out of their jobs each year, and by 2020 women will have paid for 81% of the Government’s tax and benefit changes implemented since 2010.

Pair all of this with the 763 fewer Sure Start Centres, which provided vital support to families, then it is obvious this Government’s strategy for women is not working.

Labour understands if our country is to succeed, then women must be a part of that success, too.

That is why we pushed further than any other Party on women’s representation with All-Women Short Lists. We also introduced rafts of equality legislation, reduced the gender pay gap by a third over our time in office and we were the first administration since the Second World War to develop a childcare policy and flagship programmes, such as tax credits, to help women into work.

Instead of this Government rolling back women’s hard-fought rights and support, what we need is a strategy to support women, as both equal members of society and as drivers for the economic growth we need.

Labour recognises this and will do all we can to achieve this when holding the Government to account in Parliament.

News from Westminster

Read Sharon Hodgson MP's report - News from Westminster - Feb-Mar 2016 - number 83

Welcome to my online monthly report - News from Westminster - which details some of the highlights from Westminster and the constituency.

Sharon Hodgson MP's report - News from Westminster - Feb-Mar 2016 - number 83

Read more of Sharon's reports here >

Sharon is supporting musicians and film-makers from her constituency by calling for local artists to enter Parliament’s two largest creative competitions, Rock the House and Film the House.

The competition, now in its fifth year, was set up by former Member of Parliament, Mike Weatherley during the last Parliament and offers the opportunity to put local musicians and film-makers in direct contact with the movers and shakers of the two industries and to have the best of Washington and Sunderland West’s talent take front and centre stage.

The competition is judged by the leading lights of industry, with prizes ranging from festival slots, studio time and top-notch equipment, the Rock the House and Film the House competitions are a pioneering opportunity to showcase what Washington and Sunderland has to offer, raising awareness about the importance of Intellectual property (IP) to our creative industries and country.

In the lead up to the competition, Sharon said:

“It is wonderful to see two of Parliament’s most-hotly contested competitions grow from strength to strength and now entering their fifth year.

“It can be hard to break into the music and film scene and that is why I welcome both Rock the House and Film the House in helping raise the profile of budding talent right across the country.

“There is plenty of local talent across the constituency and it is only right that often unrecognised talent receives some recognition and is celebrated at the heart of British democracy. I hope as many artists, bands and film-makers from our area pick up their guitars or cameras and enter this fantastic competition to gain the important exposure which could transform their lives.”

Important dates for the 2016 competitions are:

• 1^st May, closing date for entries to MPs
• 31^st May, closing date for MPs to announce their constituency nominations
• 20^th June, final battle of the bands
• 4^th July, awards ceremony

Further information on how to apply for each competition can be found at:

• Rock the House – Removed
• Film the House – www.filmthehouse.com

Sharon has supported the findings of a report by the national deafblind charity, Sense, which has revealed restrictions faced by disabled children and families when accessing play schemes.

Sharon photographed with Anna Turley, Member of Parliament for Redcar, and Ted - a young boy who attended the reception.

The report followed a three month public inquiry, chaired by Lord Blunkett and Lesley Rogers, a parent of a deafblind child with multiple needs, into the provision of play for disabled children aged 0 – 5 with multiple needs in England and Wales.

The report identified failings at every level which has resulted in disabled children missing out on play opportunities, this included highlighting a lack of attention by government, insufficient funds at a local level and a negative attitude towards disabled children and their families as barriers to access to schemes.

It is estimated that out of 570,000 disabled children in England, there are approximately 100,000 0 – 19 year-olds living with multiple needs.

The report was launched at a packed-out Parliamentary reception in the Churchill Room last week with children and families all gathering to show their support for the report. Sharon spoke at the reception about the light this important report has shone into this area of policy and welcomed the chance of working together with Sense, play providers and families of disabled children to improve the access to play settings for those children. You can read Sharon’s speech here.

Following the reception and launch of the report, Sharon said:

“It was wonderful to see so many children and their families come to Parliament and make their case for better play provision for disabled children, whilst also having a lot of fun.

“The afternoon made it clear just how important play is to a child’s life, especially disabled children who can often be locked out of access to these kinds of schemes. That is why it was welcome to see those MPs and Peers who came along were given the chance to fully understand the disparity seen in access to play schemes.

“This is a timely report by Sense which includes a clear wake-up call for policy-makers and Government to act, and I hope that following the report’s launch it will create the much-needed public debate to improve the schemes and settings on offer to disabled children and their families.”

Sense is a national charity that has been supporting and campaigning for children and adults who are deafblind and have complex needs for over 60 years. These are currently around 250,000 deafblind in the UK. Sense provides specialist information, advice and services to deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. Sense runs services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and employ 2,000 people who work in services directly with deafblind people. Further information can be found on the Sense website – www.sense.org.uk

Labour MPs Sharon Hodgson and Catherine McKinnell hear from a young man with learning disabilities about his hopes for the future.

Left to right: Amie Dobinson (Development Co-ordinator and Head of Transitions), Catherine McKinnell MP, Sharon Hodgson MP, Joe, and Stacy Milner (Service Manager)

Sharon Hodgson speaking in the Opposition Day Debate on transitional state pensions arrangements for women - 24th February 2016

Image copyright Parliamentary Recording Unit 2016

Over the last year, Sharon has had local women who were born in the 1950s raise their concerns with the equalisation of the State Pension Age, which has negatively impacted many thousands of women across the country. During one of Labour's allotted Opposition Day Debates, Sharon raised her concerns with these changes and one of the cases of her constituent who has been impacted by these changes.

Read Sharon's speech in Hansard here: Sharon Hodgson MP in WASPI Debate 2016

Text pasted here:

Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab):

Hansard text:

24 Feb 2016 : Column 351

3.28 pm

Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab): Today, we again debate the need for transitional arrangements following the equalisation of the state pension age. Contrary to what the Minister said, everyone—including the women affected—accepts the equalisation of the state pension age for men and women in principle. However, in practice it is clear that these changes have had such a detrimental effect on the lives of a particular group of women born in the 1950s—many thousands of them up and down the country—that we must look at transitional arrangements. We can ignore this no longer.

Like many others in the Chamber today, I have had many women from WASPI contact me at my surgeries, or via email or social media, to raise their concerns about the impact that the lack of transitional arrangements will have on their lives. In recent weeks and months, we have had many debates on this important matter, yet time and again the Government have failed to move an inch in their position and have continued to ignore the concerns of these women.

The common theme of all the many letters I have received from constituents has been that the escalation in the equalisation of the state pension age has ruined these women’s plans, savings and, in some cases, lives. One constituent’s case stands out in particular. She was born in 1957. I will not name her, but she explained to me that she saw these changes mentioned on the news a few times but as she never received a letter, she assumed they must not affect her, as she would surely have been told if they did. She eventually received a letter in 2014. She thought it was a routine pension calculation, but it showed her state pension age as taking effect in 2023. She thought it must be an error and was horrified later to discover that it was not. What that meant for her was that instead of retiring next year, as expected and as she planned for, she has to work a further six years. She is in very bad health and could just about envisage coping until next year, when she thought her state pension age applied. However, upon the realisation of the enormity of this information and what it meant to her and her life; her health rapidly deteriorated. She became severely depressed and required medication, and I would hazard that she may never be the same again.

No one here has a magic wand, not even the Minister, and none of us can turn back time, but just for a second, can the Minister put himself in that lady’s

24 Feb 2016 : Column 352

position? Imagine being that lady and finding out that news in that way—imagine how that would feel and imagine the shock! We—this institution, this Parliament—did that. Lots of us were not MPs in 1995, but some of us were in 2011, and the laws of the land that we make here affect people out there. Was it not our duty to ensure that these women, to whom we were about to deliver this great life-altering shock, at least knew about it? Should we not have ensured that they knew when they heard it on the news that it did indeed affect them, not because they had researched the small print themselves, but because the Department for Work and Pensions wrote to them and personally told them in good time, not as late as 2014? Surely that was the least the DWP should have done and we, Parliament, should have insisted upon it.

As I have said, we cannot turn back time and we cannot wave the magic wand that a lot of people think we have, because we do not have one—it does not exist. But we can do something today: we can insist that the Government do something. The Minister must go away and draft, with haste, transitional arrangements for this group of WASPI women who have been failed by the system and failed by these changes. We cannot fail them today. Parliament is at its best when using its powers for the good of its people. Parliament is speaking very clearly today to the Government. It is saying, “Go away, sort this out and bring forward transitional arrangements so that these women are not left destitute in what should have been their well-earned retirement.”

3.32 pm