Fiona Bruce MP calls on Government to ring-fence funding for children’s mental health services

Fiona Bruce MP calls on Government to ring-fence funding for children’s mental health services

In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, Fiona Bruce has called on the Government to ring-fence funds it allocates for child mental health support services.

Fiona Bruce who is Patron of Visyon met this week with Gervase McGrath, CEO of Visyon, and said

 “Ring fencing would ensure when Government announces that additional funds are being allocated to support child mental health services, they really are extra to existing budgets when locally distributed and achieve their aim”.

Speaking after their meeting Gervase McGrath said

“In Autumn 2015 Fiona and I attended a seminar in the House of Lords consulting with young people on changes to children’s mental health services.  What we heard there gave us real cause for optimism that things were about to get better.  Sadly the competing financial pressures on local health services have prevented all of the money going to where it was intended.  I join Fiona in calling on the Government to ring fence this money to ensure that this initiative is successful in changing the outlook for the many children and families struggling to access the support they so badly need”.

Fiona Bruce added “If Government refers to funds as additional then this should mean just that.”

“There is a pressing need in this area for this additional funding with increasing numbers of children as young as 4 needing such help and it is vital that the excellent work of Visyon and other organisations providing this help are properly resourced.  In addition, as mentioned in a report recommending Family Hubs in local communities which I released last week, greater focus should also be put on helping parents to build strong and enduring family relationships, since, as Gervase and I discussed, this would help prevent many of the problems affecting children’s mental health which stem from chaotic, unstable and insecure relationships”.

Fiona Bruce MP meets with volunteers and workers from St Pauls Cycle Centre, Hightown, Crewe

Fiona Bruce MP met with volunteers and workers from St Pauls Cycle Centre, Hightown, Crewe

Fiona Bruce MP met with volunteers and workers including Rob Wikes, Director and Isaac Newall, young worker with the charity, from St Pauls Cycle Centre, Hightown, Crewe, a project run by the charity Christian Concern to help provide training and employment by giving people a range of engineering and retail skills in bike recycling.

The charity is always looking for donations of old bikes for its workshop which can be collected and will then be repaired and sold on. In the last 12 months 407 bikes were collected, repaired and passed on.

Fiona Bruce said “It was wonderful to meet Isaac and to hear how he has developed skills, both practical and interpersonal and to hear how much he is enjoying working at St Pauls Cycle Centre. I encourage anyone with a bike they no longer use to contact St Pauls to donate it.”

Rob Wikes, Director, said “In terms of what we do there are several beneficiaries, one: the people who donate a cycle, two: those that receive the cycles, who are in the main using them as commuter bikes, but, above all that, we employ a young person each year and train them so they are better equipped for the workforce. In a small way we are picking up individuals and helping them gain independence in the world.”

National Lottery investment in First World War Centenary

National Lottery investment in First World War Centenary

As the nation marks the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme, Fiona Bruce MP urges
the Congleton Constituency to apply for Heritage Lottery Fund money to explore the stories of the First World War.

Following the success of its community grants programme First World War: then and now, HLF has made an additional £4 million available for communities looking to explore, observe and share local heritage of the First World War. Grants are available between £3,000 and £10,000.

Thanks to National Lottery funding, thousands of young people and communities throughout
the UK have already been involved in activities marking the Centenary such as: researching
and recording local heritage; conserving and finding out more about war memorials; and
using digital technology to share the fascinating stories they uncover. This new money will
help even more people get involved to explore a greater range of stories including those
surrounding the Somme campaign, which lasted from July to November 1916.

Fiona Bruce said: "These projects and stories have been an inspiration. It's so important
that we remember the impact of this war one hundred years on. There is still time to apply
for National Lottery money and I would urge anyone with an idea for their own project to get in touch with HLF."

Sir Peter Luff, Chair of the HLF, said: "The demand for National Lottery funding for First
World War projects has been phenomenal, so much so we've decided to make extra money
available. This will mean everyone, in particular more young people, can explore the
momentous events of a war that shaped our nation, Europe and the world. This year marks
the Centenary of the Battle of Somme and if groups want support for projects examining its
impact do think about applying now."

The Battle of the Somme lasted for 141 days, ending on 18 November 1916.

There are now 1,520 First World War projects taking place across the UK, thanks to more
than £77million of investment from HLF.

Projects already underway show the breadth and scale of First World War stories being
explored and shared across the country:

·Local people from Tottenham and Walthamstow in London showed how they have
been exploring their family history to see if any of their relatives fought in the war;

·Young people from North Tyneside demonstrated how they have been using social
media to retell the stories of local soldiers; and

·Young women in Birmingham shared what they have been uncovering about the
experiences of women who worked in factories during the conflict in particular the
Birmingham Small Arms factory in Small Heath. 

Life Chances

Time and again our new Prime Minister has demonstrated her commitment to improving life chances and working for social justice. She was the reforming Home Secretary who called time on Modern Day Slavery. And even earlier than that she was the first and only person to have “Secretary of State for the Family” in her title – albeit she was Shadow. When in this role she demonstrated genuine commitment to find out what worked well for families. At a time when many Conservatives struggled to find a good word to say about Children’s Centres, she visited many, and found examples of good practice which are still informing policy deliberations today.

David Cameron, as her predecessor Prime Minister, said more than once “families are the best poverty fighting tool we have”. Absolutely agreed. But for too long many of us as Conservatives have made impassioned speeches about improving life chances filled with approving rhetoric about the importance of strong families. Meanwhile the epidemic of family breakdown in our country, particularly amongst the poorest and most vulnerable, continues devastatingly apace. Now is the time for action. The Government should put rocket boosters under efforts to promote stronger families, and invest accordingly. Timidity will not bring about the paradigm shift desperately needed and in Theresa May I believe we have a Prime Minister who will not shrink from such action.

We need big, bold measures, like a treatment tax on alcohol which will provide the money to tackle the massive drink problem blighting many children’s lives. Our new Prime Minister will be familiar with the Home Office research showing more than a million children live with one or more adults with a problem with alcohol.

Any efforts to regenerate the 100 ‘worst sink estates’ in the UK, should put family and relationship support at the heart of these new developments; regeneration of these estates needs to go far beyond bricks and mortar if lives are to be transformed. A Healthy Relationships Fund should be properly resourced to ensure that parenting, couple relationship and family support programmes are included in the master planning processes. This will be money well spent – for every £1 invested, Government research shows £11.50 of the social costs incurred as a result of family breakdown is saved. But the investment in young lives, and in improving their life chances, is unquantifiable.

New parents of the Whats-App generation now go online for support and advice. By working with Local Authorities and charities the Government could develop a universally recognisable online service to act as a one stop shop providing support for families. If we can deliver health advice online through the NHS website, there is no reason we can’t do the same to upskill parents to have the best possible relationships.

It’s also time for the Government to make a big deal of the role of Dads – in particular to deliver targeted support to young men at the risk of becoming absent fathers. The Government should appoint a Fatherhood Champion to bring together examples of best practice and encourage their take up across the country.

This week I am launching a report in Parliament which recommends that Children’s Centres in every authority be transformed into ‘Family Hubs’. The report provides tried and tested solutions, many based on great initiatives from across the country. These are already working with families to address the challenges so many of them face as they struggle with low incomes, poor mental health, addictions, debt and broken or chaotic relationships.

We need to look afresh at the assets we already have within our Children’s Centre estate and sweat them – by expanding their community based early years help, to support parents of older children, and indeed, to support family members of all ages – 5 to 105. Most of us, at some point, need some support for our families whether light touch or more structured – let’s normalise this by providing somewhere in every community for people to go where someone will have answers.

A score or so of Local Authorities are already enhancing their Children’s Centre offer by connecting their buildings with the many other organisations, including self-help and voluntary groups, which families can benefit from and forming ‘Family Hubs’. These, for example, can learn from and integrate the successful Troubled Families work with early help to catch problems before they mushroom; they provide advice to couples as well as parents, and can even include a birth registration point so everyone can see, right from the start, what is on offer locally for them, for when they may need it in the future.

During the Welfare Reform and Work Bill we were promised measures on family stability, addiction and debt to supplement the statutory measures on education attainment and employment to drive an all out assault on poverty. The Life Chances Strategy the Government brings forward must include real and robust steps to boost family stability and healthy relationships so that Government really can deliver against these measures. I am confident this can happen under the determined and practical leadership of our new Prime Minister.