FIONA
BRUCE MP PRAISES WORK OF LOCAL YOUNG PERSONS’ CHARITY VISYON IN PRIME
MINISTER’S QUESTIONS
Fiona Bruce has
this week praised the work of local charity Visyon, the Congleton-based charity
which works to preserve and promote good mental health of local young people.
Speaking to a packed House of Commons, Fiona
Bruce MP said “Visyon, the excellent children’s mental
health charity in Congleton, tells me that the lack of a secure family life is
a root cause of many of the problems experienced by the children it helps.”
Fiona Bruce MP went on to ask the Prime
Minister to ensure that the Government did more to ensure all policies
announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, outlining Government spending,
promoted and protected family life, saying: “The Prime Minister is a champion of family life, so will he confirm that
announcements to be made later today will pass his family test by providing
security for family relationships and opportunities for vulnerable children?”
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed
her comments and agreed to ensure that Government policies supported the family:
“She
is absolutely right to say that families are the best welfare state that we
have. They bring up our children, they teach us the right values and they care
for us when we are sick and unwell. We want to help families, and the
Chancellor will have something to say about that later as we boost the national
living wage, as we deliver tax cuts for working people and, crucially, as we
help with childcare. As I have said before, all these policies should pass the
test of helping Britain’s families.”
Speaking afterwards, Fiona Bruce MP added: “I
was pleased to be able to raise with the Prime Minister the excellent work of
Visyon, which does so much to support young people and to help parents to protect
their children’s mental health and development. The Prime Minister is
absolutely right that the families is the best and first welfare state we have.
Relationship breakdown is a tragedy for every family involved and costs the
country almost £50billion a year, whereas at present the Government is only
investing £7.5million to strengthen family relationships. There is much more to
be done to support and protect families, and one way would be for more
Government funding to be invested in relationship education – as well as
parenting education - to help families
build strong, secure, and stable relationships.”
Following the Prime Minister’s answer,
Gervase McGrath, Chief Executive at Visyon said: “At
Visyon, we are seeing an increasing need to offer support to families with
multiple needs. The effects of the recession led to extra pressures on parents,
which impacted the whole family. This in turn has led to a rise in the number
of children being referred to Visyon with anxiety, depression and challenging
behaviour. We are grateful to Fiona Bruce for raising this very important issue
at Prime Ministers Questions today and were heartened by the reassurances
offered by Mr Cameron.”
