Monday
Monday is Easter Monday, a bank holiday, and my office is therefore closed.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, I will return to Parliament where I will attend a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change. The meeting will be addressed by the student climate activist Greta Thunberg. Greta was responsible for forming the ‘School Strike for Climate’ movement in November 2018 and has been such an inspiration in promoting both youth activism and pressing for world leaders to take action on the disaster of climate change. I am proud to support the Green New Deal put forward by the Labour Party for the UK and want to see Hull, as the Energy Estuary, benefit from this deal. Later in the day, I will be attending an event on Mental Health in schools that is being run by the All- Party Parliamentary Group on Psychology and the launch of the British Sikh report.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I will be attending a meeting of the Education Select Committee. The topic of this week’s meeting will be Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This is the tenth oral evidence session of the Committee’s inquiry into special educational needs and disabilities. This session is an opportunity for Members to hear about Ofsted and CQC’s joint inspections of SEND provision, as well as hear about the accountability of the system, through complaints, mediation and tribunals.
Following this, I will be attempting to speak in both the Opposition Day Debate on Local Government and Social Care and the Westminster Hall debate on the work capability assessment in relation to employment support allowance and universal credit.
In the former debate, I will be raising issues around adult social care. There is evidence to show that some people are being discharged from hospital without any care provisions being put in place for them. Constituents have also spoken to me about there being no flexibility in the care system with some people being forced to wait until 10am to get out of bed or being required to go to bed extremely early because care companies do not have the capacity to offer flexible care. The answer to this is for the government to provide more money for adult social care and you can send a message to them by voting for Labour candidates in the upcoming local elections on the 2nd May.
In the latter debate, I will be raising the issue of the placement of the sites for work capability assessments. The site in Hull is located on Melton Industrial Estate. This site is completely inaccessible by public transport and is therefore extremely difficult for anyone to get to unless they have a car. We have to acknowledge that many of the people going to these assessments are extremely vulnerable and, if we are to subject them to assessments, it is not too much to ask to ensure that the venues of these assessments are reasonably easy to get to.
Later in the day, I will be hosting a meeting with professors from Bristol University to discuss how the Government’s Progress 8 accountability measure for schools can be adapted to take into account social and demographic factors so that it can provide a more accurate reflection of the progress that a school gives to its pupils.
Finally, I will be hosting a briefing event between Humberside MPs, local Stakeholders and the Humber Lagoon board to tell us about the Humber Lagoon project. I hope to release more information after the meeting.
Thursday
On Thursday, I will return to Hull. My events for the day include the ANZAC Day interfaith service in Hull, Dr Rachel Mathieson of Leeds University to discuss teacher retention and the History Troupe. I will also be shadowing a postie in Hull as they undertake their morning rounds.
Friday
On Friday, I will be meeting with BAE in Brough to discuss the ongoing situation with the site. I will subsequently spend the day in my constituency office meeting with constituents and assisting them with casework.
