Jen Craft MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I begin by reflecting on the version of the NHS’s foundation set out by the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor). I was unfamiliar with that, so I thank him for that history lesson. The fate of our GP services is felt nowhere more keenly than in Thurrock, where we have the highest ratio of patients to GPs in the country. At a coffee afternoon a few weeks ago in Aveley, in my constituency, where the local medical practice has perhaps the highest patient load of the entire area, we discussed some of the issues facing the community, as well as the solutions. It was a microcosm of this debate. People thought they deserved to be able to see a GP, but my constituents, particularly those in Aveley, showed a bit of common sense about what they could expect after 14 years of a Conservative Government running their healthcare services into the ground. They know that they do not always need to see a GP. They know that sometimes a face-to-face appointment is not necessary. However, they also want to know that the healthcare they need is there when they need it. GPs at the meeting had a similar reflection—they want to be able to spend the time that they have with their patients, not form filling, not running around bureaucracy, and not referring back to secondary providers. They want to spend their time delivering the best medical care possible. A great example of community healthcare is provided by Orsett hospital, our local community hospital. What it does it does very well, providing blood tests, dialysis and so on. People can get the care they need on the doorstep. However, the hospital has been under threat of closure for as long as I can remember. I was born there, and since then its services have been taken away one by one. We have a healthy scepticism in Thurrock for neighbourhood health hubs. We have been promised them for a number of years, but, thanks to a combination of Conservative Government incompetence and Conservative council incompetence locally, we no longer have the money to provide them. In my constituency, out of the three healthcare hubs that we have been promised, all we have so far is a hole in the ground in Tilbury, one of our most economically deprived areas. I said earlier that some solutions also came out of that discussion. If we are to turn around primary healthcare, we need buy-in from our population. People need to know what services are available to them. They need to be in charge of their healthcare, including their preventive healthcare. They need to know what is coming up on the horizon for them and how they can take steps to change outcomes for themselves. I conclude by welcoming this Labour Government’s approach to turning around the NHS towards a preventive and community model.

• 10 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. At best, the proposed lower Thames crossing offers only a short-term mitigation to the problem of congestion at the Dartford crossing, but will have a significantly detrimental environmental and quality-of-life impact for my constituents and feels counterintuitive to the Government’s net zero ambitions. Given that, what steps will the Secretary of State take to consider the potential for investment in cross-river public transport, including the KenEx tram scheme—

• 10 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  What steps will the Secretary of State take to consider cross-river public transport?

• 8 Oct 2024 · SEND Provision: East of England · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for securing this important debate. The SEND system is in chaos. It is broken. I am the parent of a disabled child and I have seen first hand the damage and chaos wrought by 14 years of chronic underfunding, understaffing, and a lack of political will to understand the level of need, coupled with the stigmatisation of parents of SEND children when we fight for the educations our children deserve. How do we fix the system? How do we go back to getting what our children need? I believe that an education system that works for SEND children is one that works for all our children. Educational need and disability should not be seen as parallel to the education system; they should be absolutely central to it. If we get it right for our children, we get it right for every child. Secondly, a SEND system built around the lived experience of parents and carers, which comes at it from the perspective of a parent or a carer, has absolute success built in. I do not see my child’s journey through education in stages; I do not see early years, primary school, secondary school, further education and beyond as separate. My child’s journey is a lifelong one. Similarly, I do not look at the services that she requires in silos, nor do any parents of an SEND child. To fix the system, we need to come at it from the basis of considering what the child needs from the moment that they enter the education system, whether that is in a pre-school setting or nursery setting, through to the moment that they leave the system. How have we created a successful individual who can go into the world and achieve their full potential? At the moment, so many parents find themselves at a complete loss and in desperation because of the chaos of the system. They have to be all things to their child and they never get a chance to just be mum or dad. They have to be a speech and language therapist, an advocate, a physiotherapist and an educational psychologist arguing for an education, health and care support plan that is often absolutely impossible to obtain. Our system needs an awful lot of work. We need to begin this journey and consider how we can properly deliver for children not just in our region—the east of England—or in our individual constituencies, but across the country.

• 8 Oct 2024 · SEND Provision: East of England · Hansard source

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  I want to reflect what my hon. Friend has said on the amount of school exclusions for SEND pupils, and to state that parents often feel pressured into off-rolling their children—that is, into removing them from the education system—so as not to have what is known as a permanent exclusion on their record. In fact, a permanent record does not exist, and never has in this country; it is a work of fiction. However, a number of parents feel that they have no option other than to remove their children from the education system so that they do not face further penalties for having absent children when they should be at school.

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  You reflect on there being an exemption only for children who have EHCPs, and you mentioned that there should be an exemption for children who do not have an EHCP based on SEN or disability. My question is: how do you define that? There is huge scope for private schools to say that they are SEND specialists. There is not a measure of whether that is the case. How do you define those who have SEND or those with additional needs, beyond the scope of an EHCP?

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  As a parent of a disabled child, the issue of SEND education in this country is very important to me, as it is to a number of my friends and acquaintances. Let us be clear that the SEND system in this country is broken, and it was the actions of the previous Government that left us with parents being desperate and having to search for alternatives to mainstream education for their children. The vast majority of my constituents who find themselves without suitable education placements for their children, for reasons of disability or educational needs, are unable to afford to send their children to a private school. Does the Minister agree with me that perpetuating a system of inequality is not the solution for our broken SEND system?

• 12 Sept 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Due to a legacy of financial mismanagement and effective bankruptcy left by the previous Conservative administration, services in my constituency have been cut to the quick. That includes home-to-school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities—including children under the age of five and young people between 16 and 19 years old—which local authorities do not have a statutory requirement to provide. Given the well-documented positive impact of early intervention, particularly for children with SEND, and the devastating effect on children aged 16 to 19 of removal of provision at that point of their development, will the Leader of the House allow time to discuss whether the statutory framework meets the needs of all children with SEND for home-to-school transport?

• 5 Sept 2024 · SEND Provision · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend mentions the staffing crisis in the SEND system, but I want to note that there is also a crisis in recruitment and training for teachers of the deaf. From my experience, I know that is a key role for a number of deaf children, particularly in my constituency. There is a real crisis in back-filling those positions and recruiting across councils, particularly at a unitary level. The need for teachers of the deaf is not reflected in those coming through the system, which often results in children not having the resource and help they need to succeed in school.

• 3 Sept 2024 · Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Chair. It is the honour of my life to address this House as the Member of Parliament for Thurrock, my home, and to speak in this important debate on the future of our railways. I congratulate the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) on her passionate speech, which was infused with pride for the community she serves and a strong commitment to her new role, particularly to help the people of Dawlish to rebuild after the flooding and to speak up for those who have experienced the care system. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) on such a brilliant speech, which was infused with peacocks and train puns, which I will not try to outdo. I will steam ahead, get back on track and diesel-power on with the main body of my speech! I would like to begin by talking a little about my predecessor, Jackie Doyle-Price. Although our politics are different, she served our community for 14 years and was a vocal campaigner against violence towards women and girls, both in this country and internationally. She highlighted the role that rape and sexual violence play as a weapon of war, and the lifelong impact that these appalling crimes have on women and girls here in the UK. She was a strong supporter of SERICC, the groundbreaking rape and abuse service based in my constituency, which found her a listening ear and a vocal advocate for its work. I will ensure that I will carry on that relationship and continue that work. I would also like to thank the former Member of Parliament for Barking, Margaret Hodge, who gave me my first job in politics and taught a newly graduated, idealistic young woman that politics is more often than not about who gets the potholes filled, the grass verges cut and people’s individual problems solved than the big issues of the day. Moreover, she taught me that being a visible, vocal advocate for one’s constituents is the fundamental job of being an MP. In doing so, she defeated the extremists of the British National party by demonstrating that politics can be a force for good—work that I was extremely proud to play a part in at the time, and something that I will continue to take forward, to counter the threats from extremism and populism that our communities face today. She has also shown kindness and support as I, like many others who are new in this House, struggle to navigate the early days of this unique role. It is an incredible privilege to have the honour of representing my home in this place. Thurrock has had representation from across this House since its creation in 1945, but this is the first time that someone born there has addressed the House as its Member of Parliament. I am that much unfairly maligned of creatures—a true Essex girl. I prefer Dr. Martens to white stilettos, but I am extremely proud of the county of my birth and the history of our community and the people who live there. Thurrock has a fighting spirit, having played an important role in the decoy operations prior to the Normandy landings in the second world war. It provided a muster and departure point for those leaving to take part in the D-day operations. Several hundred years earlier, Tilbury is where Queen Elizabeth I rallied her troops before fighting the Spanish armada, famously declaring: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”. The Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury docks in 1948, bringing those who answered the call to help restore and rebuild our country after the second world war. A permanent exhibition, “Tilbury bridge walkway of memories”, is a moving testimony to those who came. Unfortunately, it is currently closed as a side effect of the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry ceasing to operate for the first time in nearly 600 years, something my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan) and I are determined to rectify. Further down the river, we can find the Purfleet heritage centre which, among its extensive collection of local military memorabilia, also hosts an exhibition honouring the contribution of the Gurkha regiments to our armed forces, reflecting the significant Gurkha and Nepalese community who have chosen to make Thurrock their home. The museum is well worth a visit, although I would take with a pinch of salt anything one of the volunteer guides says about the etymology of Purfleet and its deriving from an exclamation of Elizabeth I, “My poor fleet”. The towns of Tilbury and Purfleet are just two of the many that make up Thurrock. Aveley, Ockendon, Stifford Clays and Chafford Hundred all have their stories to tell. One reason I am so pleased to be making my maiden speech today as part of the debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill is that one of the uniting factors of all of these towns is the role they play as key commuter locations for jobs in the City of London and the docklands—journeys that are primarily made using the rail network. The public ownership of our railways, delivering a better service and better value for taxpayers’ money, will make a daily difference to the lives of many of my constituents, and, indeed, to many of my friends and family. I would not be here without the support of many people, but in particular my family: my children, my mum and dad, my husband Ali—a stronger or kinder partner you would struggle to find—and my in-laws Mike and Sue. It really does take a village. I would like to share my own personal story about my motivation for being here, beyond the love of my community and my desire to serve. Almost seven years ago, I found out that the baby I was carrying had Down’s syndrome—a rug-pulling, life-altering moment which I did not realise, but wish I had, would be the making of my family and the start of a truly incredible journey. As the actress Sally Phillips says, the special educational needs and disabilities parent club is the one no one wants to be in, but once you are there you realise that all the best people are there. However, the world does not work for families like mine. It does not work for children like mine, and it does not work for people like me and my daughter. When I received her diagnosis, I made her a promise that I would do everything I could to make her life easier. Little did I realise that it would lead me here. I am here to serve my community, to speak up for the home that I love and the people who live there. If by being here I can make a difference to the lives of children and families such as mine, I will consider it a job well done, however long my constituents may opt to keep me.