Jess Asato MP: speeches

Speeches

• 13 Oct 2025 · Education Committee · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for her statement. Does she agree that improving ordinarily available provision alongside effective SEND support can meet many pupils’ needs without the need for an EHCP, as our Committee’s visit to Aylsham high school in Norwich proved? Does she hope, as I do, that the Government’s forthcoming White Paper will not seek to restrict access to EHCPs, but instead will offer earlier and effective support, thereby bringing the need for EHCPs down naturally?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Baby Loss · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. and right hon. Members for securing today’s debate on such an important issue that is sadly too often overlooked. Earlier this year, I was incredibly grateful to meet Angels and Rainbows, a local group in my Lowestoft constituency run by bereaved parents who support others through the experience of baby loss. I put on record in this place my sincere thanks for their vital work, which is life-affirming, trauma-informed and grounded in the realities of grief. One key issue they wished me to raise today was how women who have just lost a baby are placed on the same wards as those who have just given birth. It feels deeply cruel that parents who have just been through the trauma of child loss should have to share the same space as joyful new mothers and healthy new babies making their first cries. That is why hospitals should provide a space away from new parents and the maternity unit, so that parents can grieve in peace. As my local hospital, the James Paget, is brilliantly part of the new hospital building programme, I hope that its senior leadership looks at the need for a dedicated private space for bereavement care in its plans. Training is key, too. Parents told me how vital it is for staff to receive appropriate training in how to communicate sensitively with families going through baby loss. As one constituent said: “I felt the staff weren’t prepared or prepared me on what was happening or going to happen. It was as if it was a taboo subject.” The quality of care received by my constituents has been very inconsistent, with some feeling well supported and others not at all, particularly once they were out of hospital. One of my constituents found out at her 12-week scan that she had suffered a “missed miscarriage”, and was given medication and told to expect an experience similar to a bad period. Instead, she nearly passed out from the agonising pain, had contractions, and passed the pregnancy on her bathroom floor at home. She had been given no guidance on what to do next, and was not given any reassurance when she reached out for advice. She was not offered a follow-up scan, contacted by a midwife, or signposted to counselling or a specialist service. Left without support, she was later diagnosed with PTSD. Unprepared staff, the dearth of support services and long waiting times for counselling make this horrible situation worse, and it is important to recognise that fathers too are suffering from that lack of support. Dads have told me that they even felt ignored by services, while also needing to support their partners in turn. We must do better, for everyone, which is why Angels and Rainbows is campaigning for a full-time bereavement midwife or bereavement support worker in every hospital. For a while we had one at the James Paget, and some really positive changes had been made as a result and through work with our intrepid support group. Sadly, in May this year that role was cut, despite the trust’s acknowledgment that the role was “undoubtedly beneficial to families”. While all midwives need training, it takes a lead to help to co-produce change with those with lived experience, drive it through and then, importantly, sustain that change. In the words of one of my constituents, baby loss “is not ‘just’ a medical event. It is the loss of a child, a dream, and a future. Without compassionate systems in place, the trauma of miscarriage can last a lifetime.” With her words to close my speech, I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this moving debate during Baby Loss Awareness Week.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  One of the concerns that my constituents in Lowestoft raise is the closure of our public toilets due to the local council’s redevelopment of our old Wilko site. I am concerned that older and disabled residents in particular are being dissuaded from spending their time and money in our town centre’s shops due to fear of being caught short. I recently met the British Toilet Association, and I learned that in the US there is a national standard of one toilet for every 10,000 people. I therefore ask the Leader of the House whether we can have a debate in Government time on the need for more toilets on our high streets.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  New mums and dads in my constituency tell me that one of the things they worry about most is whether they can afford the childcare that they need to be able to go back to work. That is why it is great that parents will be able to save up to £7,500 a year on nursery fees, thanks to this Labour Government. Does the Prime Minister agree that not only is investing in childcare important for tackling the cost of living crisis, but it will help to remove barriers to deciding to have children in the first place?

• 2 Sept 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: Pornography Prostitution · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. Does she agree that, having created the ban on non-fatal strangulation in pornography, the Government now also need to ban depictions in pornography that encourage a sexual interest in children—so-called paedophilic-adjacent porn—as well as depictions of step-family incest?

• 21 Jul 2025 · Mental Health Support in Schools · Hansard source

  More

  We know that timely access to mental health support is crucial. Earlier this month, the Education Committee released its report on children’s social care, which recommended that the Government establish mental health teams that are co-located between child and adolescent mental health services —CAMHS—and children’s social care, so that looked-after children can access specialist mental health support more easily. Will the Minister share any assessment that the Department has made of this recommendation?

• 10 Jul 2025 · Children’s Health · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing this important debate. One of the most frequent issues raised with me in Lowestoft is dentistry, and the situation is particularly acute for children. As we have heard, one in four five-year-olds experience tooth decay, and preventable tooth decay remains one of the top reasons for hospital admission. That is why the Government’s roll-out of supervised teeth brushing in our most deprived areas and the inclusion of dental services in the roll-out of family hubs are so welcome. Children from deprived areas are almost three times more likely to have dental decay than those from less deprived areas. One in three children in my constituency of Lowestoft are in relative poverty—a poverty that is linked to, and compounds, health problems. As such, one of the most effective ways to tackle poor child health is to reduce the number of children living in poverty—something that the last Labour Government did to great effect. That record will be built on by this Government’s forthcoming child poverty strategy, which I hope will set out clear and bold targets, alongside a path to reaching those targets. As has been mentioned, one of the biggest health crises facing children today is mental health. Some 85% of children and young people’s mental health services report that they are struggling to keep up with demand. I hope the Government will continue to look at the growing evidence that links access to social media and addictive smartphones with children’s poor mental health, but their commitment to roll out mental health support teams to all schools and colleges by 2029-30 is hugely welcome. I am glad that the 10-year health plan that the Health Secretary set out a week ago begins an important shift towards prevention and early intervention, and I welcome the plan’s aim to “end the obesity epidemic”. I remain concerned that the ban on advertising unhealthy food and drink will mean that brands can continue to advertise so long as they do not explicitly identify their unhealthy products, and I hope that the Government will consider how to deal with that issue. Finally, I will speak to the physical punishment of children. It is simply unacceptable in 2025 that children have less protection from assault and battery than adults do, particularly when it has such poor health implications —for example, research from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has found that children who are physically punished are up to 2.3 times more likely to experience mental health problems. That is why 77% of healthcare professionals and 14 public health organisations want to see the law in this area changed. Following the lead of over 60 countries around the world, including Scotland and Wales, we must remove the reasonable punishment defence, which continues to allow children to be harmed. I urge the Government to see this as a children’s health issue and, in the interests of children’s wellbeing, use the legislative opportunity presented by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill—which is currently being considered in the other place—to end it.

• 10 Jul 2025 · Children’s Social Care · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for her statement. Like her, I pay tribute to the care leavers who spoke to us, often sharing deeply traumatic stories of their journey through the care system. Their corporate parent is ultimately the state, and we as its custodians must bear the responsibility of ensuring that we support children in care as if they are our own. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is why the Committee’s recommendation that the Government should implement a national care leaver offer is so important, and that doing so would guarantee a consistent approach across local authorities?