Jodie Gosling MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 25 Feb 2025 · SEND Education Support · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me a moment to compose myself. Children should not be seen as a tick list of diagnosis criteria. We need a SEND system that deals with children and families holistically, that listens to their voices and that tackles the root causes.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Coalfield Communities · Hansard source

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  I declare my interest as a voluntary director of a nursery that is run from a venue supported by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. It is a good example of the wider impact of investment in our coalfields. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) for securing this important debate, and for all his hard work to drive this issue forward. Nuneaton’s first shafts were sunk in the 1850s, and the last pit, Daw Mill, closed in 2016 after 160 years of service—of men going into the darkness to keep the lights of the nation on and the army of people working around them to support them and the industry. I know that they are delighted by this new Government’s rapid progress on resolving the disputes over the mineworkers pension scheme, and very much look forward to similar progress and updates from the Minister on the British Coal staff superannuation scheme. I am proud to live in a coal village. It is a strong and vibrant community, and my constituents’ understanding of the sacrifice made by so many is embedded in our towns’ collective history and consciousness. The pit closures left a vacuum and a legacy of social, economic and health challenges which to this day have an incredible, indelible impact on my constituency. The people of Nuneaton earn around £100 a week less than our neighbours and the national average. People in Nuneaton die younger and live less healthy lives, and children in Nuneaton leave school less qualified. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows similar trends to those mentioned by other colleagues: our young people choose to leave Nuneaton, and the devastating impacts of poverty are still felt by far too many families and children. These challenges are compounded by complex historical infrastructure decline. It has taken years of fighting to ensure that Daw Mill’s restoration order will be delivered. Issues such as shared sewers and drains, land contamination and unadopted roads mar our beautiful villages and estates, eroding pride and leaving us feeling forgotten and unloved. Pat from New Arley has been almost housebound for years. She has to be carried on to the pavement because the unadopted service roads—the Arley backs—by her door are in such a poor state that it is dangerous for her to use her wheelchair and scooter. She has difficulty attending hospital appointments or seeing friends. These issues have been present for years, and sticking-plaster investment and quick wins will not solve them. Rectifying the widespread disrepair is no quick fix. These abandoned service roads invite antisocial behaviour, drugs and theft. They are relics of a forgotten time when we had weekly coal deliveries, and they cause many issues and lengthy delays for our utilities. Fixing water leaks, overhead cables and supplies takes much longer than it should because of complexity; it can take days just to identify who is responsible for the land and to gain access. More support is needed to rebuild complex capital programmes and to work with highways authorities to adopt and maintain these areas, to prevent them from becoming forgotten wastelands. Yet new estates with similar issues and unadopted roads continue to be built. We appreciate the investment we have seen from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in Nuneaton, which has supported projects like the one to tackle long-term health issues by installing community cardiac facilities in Camp Hill. The power of our community and the ability to thrive in our coalfield communities is dependent on support nationally.

• 5 Feb 2025 · English Devolution and Local Government · Hansard source

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  I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Nuneaton was recently named the town with the best potential growth in the UK. That is truly an opportunity to transform the lives of my constituents, but it also speaks to the immense challenges we face. For far too long, there have been serious questions about the appalling service level, the SEND crisis, stifled growth and low wages after 20 years of an underfunded Conservative county council that tried to push for a rapid resolution to our devolution. Getting this right is vital. For Nuneaton to achieve that amazing potential requires a full appraisal of all possible options and of the best way forward. Can the Secretary of State reassure us that support will be given in the process?

• 4 Feb 2025 · Apprenticeships · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes), who secured this debate. Too many of our children are out of school and education, and they are leaving school ill-equipped for the world of work. Apprenticeships are a vital tool to help people attain hands-on skills while earning, without the financial repercussions of university or college life. They provide the specific, tailored skills that our local economies need to grow. For many of our young people—especially those who did not fit into the school system—apprenticeships are also a second chance. I recently had the pleasure of meeting a group of students in Asda’s supported internship programme. It was particularly noteworthy because those children had significant learning difficulties. The internship has given them a supported way into the workplace to gain the skills that they need to thrive, and they have worked incredibly hard to develop their skills significantly. I was struck by how well integrated they were in their workplace and with their colleagues, and by the pride their tutors took in their increased confidence. That is especially important, because disabled people are twice as unlikely to find employment. Finding a job early, and grounding it in skills and development, transforms the lives of young people in Nuneaton and throughout the United Kingdom. Our rich and diverse bedrock of small businesses and microbusinesses in Nuneaton find it more and more challenging to access apprenticeships. That is one of the reasons why the number of apprenticeships in Nuneaton halved between 2018 and 2023. We have been working alongside umbrella bodies to remove some of the barriers that trade and small businesses face in entering into apprenticeships, and we would very much welcome more investment to remove those barriers.

• 20 Jan 2025 · English Devolution Bill: Local Public Services · Hansard source

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  20. If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the English devolution Bill on local public services.

• 20 Jan 2025 · English Devolution Bill: Local Public Services · Hansard source

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  English devolution provides a generational opportunity to unlock the potential of towns such as Nuneaton. I thank the Minister for his time and support in ensuring we get these options right. Will he continue to meet me and council representatives to discuss the best options for unlocking growth and opportunity in Nuneaton?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for initiating this important debate. I have heard many passionate arguments tonight about why our roads should be safer, and about deaths that were waiting to happen and were preventable, but I have been involved in a situation in which a death actually happened. Even after an 11-year-old was killed on one of our roads, we had to fight and campaign with his grieving mother for the road to be improved. Harley James Jackson was killed during his first half-term at secondary school. His mum had to campaign to persuade the county council to make the improvements to that road, and it took two and a half years. We were told that the mean average speed on the road of 38 mph was within the expected range, although speeds of 5 mph and 80 mph at 8 pm were recorded in the speed data. The data is not consistent. We were also told by the safety officer during our campaign that there were 50 roads with similar speed characteristics but there was funding for only two. This death could have been prevented. We knew that the road was dangerous; the community had said so, and the community campaigned. I can guarantee that no one knows more about that road than the mother of that child, who has campaigned ever since. We need to listen to these people in order to prevent such things from happening again.

• 6 Jan 2025 · NHS Backlog · Hansard source

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  Nuneaton, too, has record high levels of people on NHS waiting lists—over 17,000. Staff tell me that they are burnt out and demoralised. Patients are suffering as a result: long waits on trolleys in corridors, lengthy waits in ambulances, and stagnation at GP surgeries where they simply cannot get the appointments they need. Since 2021, the hospital has seen 1,500 staff absences due to mental health issues, with many leaving the profession. Leaders at our George Eliot hospital really value their staff, but they are struggling to cope with ever-increasing demand and to remain resilient with sudden increases in demand, such as flu outbreaks over Christmas, leading to yearly chaos that costs lives, longer waiting times for patients, cancelled appointments, and a decline in the quality of care. Nationally, we have fewer hospital beds and scanners per capita than most other European countries. Our buildings are crumbling, and our computer system is outdated. Our hard-working NHS staff deserve better. They deserve a Government who will respect and value them and invest in them. The failures of the past carry a considerable human cost, but they also impact on family finances and have wider economic impacts on our communities. One particular case, a nurse from Arbury in Nuneaton who works for our brilliant George Eliot hospital, clearly demonstrates the damage that can be done. They were in their mid-40s, fit, active, working and economically stable when they were diagnosed with a spinal condition that compresses the nerves in their legs, causing pain. A simple procedure could solve it very quickly and easily with the right referrals, but they had to wait 12 months for a referral just to speak over the phone to the neurosurgeon. The doctor recommended surgery, but the patient has been left in limbo, unable to get a follow-up appointment or any information about when surgery will actually take place. This is a simple procedure for a condition that has devastated her life over a number of years. Living in constant pain, she can no longer stand for more than five minutes and has been forced to withdraw from her vital role in the NHS—another vacancy, another specialist unit short-staffed. That is just one example from the 17,000 among my constituents, many of whom do not make it to the end of those waiting lists. I have stood by the graves of people in my constituency who had been waiting for treatment that could have stopped them ending up there. There are people whose lives are on hold and families who are suffering grief. There is waiting and more suffering. It is a crisis of political failure, a crisis of underfunding and a crisis of neglect. I fully support the Government’s actions to address it.