Rachael Maskell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · Department for Education · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful for the work of the Education Committee, which is excellently chaired by my hon. Friend. Does she agree that cutting the value of grants to families from the adoption and special guardianship support fund will put more pressure on children’s social care and leave children without the vital support they need?

• 16 Jun 2025 · SEND Strategy · Hansard source

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  Given the sharp rise in diagnosis in York of children with SEND, we have established a SEND-focused family hub. We are also reviewing other services. I am particularly concerned about the culture within schools. We need nurturing and inclusive education, so that we have a therapeutic learning environment. Will the Minister say what she is doing to ensure that schools, local authorities and others can feed into the White Paper to share best practice and raise concerns?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair for the report, particularly for the framing in which it lands the industrial strategy. From reading the report, I believe there could be greater emphasis on the convening role of higher education—universities—not just as a driver of R&D and skills, but for the industrial clusters in their locality. Does he agree that the strategy could be more focused on building on the role of higher education as a collaborator and a co-ordinator?

• 12 Jun 2025 · SEND Funding · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for leading the debate. I am conscious that York is in the bottom third, and that the level of children being diagnosed with SEND is rising sharply. Does he agree that in order to future-proof the system, we need to look at a more holistic, therapeutic and nurturing approach to our education system so that all children benefit? I looked at the situation in Sweden and saw how that not only brought down costs, but greatly benefited the children there.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  Despite being the lowest-funded unitary authority in the country, we are doing everything possible to drive down inequality in the city of York, but the differential has stayed at 13 years. Today’s announcement of investment in health, investment in social housing and investment in education will make a real difference for my constituents. However, I worry about the inequality for disabled people in our country. I have looked through the statement. Will the Chancellor give assurances that if disabled people are unable to work, they will not be left behind, and that we will ensure that we have the social security they need, so that they, too, can gain from today’s statement?

• 22 May 2025 · School Teachers’ Review Body: Recommendations · Hansard source

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  Rather than the synthetic outrage from the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Laura Trott), who served in a Government that brought cuts to schools, I really welcome that the Government are serious about addressing the regression teachers faced in their pay, as well as the fact that support staff were pushed on to the minimum wage. I trust that in the statement there will be sufficiency in the funding for schools, but will the Minister also get a grip of escalating chief executive pay, which is doubling, meaning they have six-figure salaries? It is really important that they are not taking more out of the funds that should be invested in children’s education.

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Although residents and businesses in York will welcome this deal, our university sector is our second largest export. Will the Prime Minister say more about how this deal will benefit higher education, not least in our research base but also in being able to attract the very best into our country?

• 16 May 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not. Dr Lade Smith, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, could not have been clearer, and academic research says the same: when someone is in receipt of a terminal diagnosis, there is frequently an episode of depressive disorder. Dr Price said in evidence: “Those who had a wish to hasten death were 18 times more likely to also feel suicidal”. –– [ Official Report, Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Public Bill Committee, 30 January 2025; c. 275, Q359.] They say that mental disorders are treatable. The spike in suicidal ideation and action is highest in the first few months following terminal diagnosis and then dissipates with time or intervention. Again, that is evidenced. People change their mind and no longer want to die. As with other aspects of the Bill, poor care, poor pain management and poor symptom control—or the fear thereof—are reasons why people seek to end their life. That can be palliated. Colleagues must recognise the paucity of mental health provision given to somebody when they receive a terminal diagnosis. Often there is no psychological aftercare. People are failed, but that should not be a reason to die. I ask for a panel, which would include a social worker, to assess the psychological needs of a patient. They are experts in detecting coercion, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, and understanding people at their most vulnerable with a fusion of complex emotions, anxiety and fear. Solutions can be found by them. There would also be a psychiatrist. Depression, anxiety and fear are natural responses to trauma, but they can be treated with the right interventions, if detected at the point that somebody expresses a wish to die, and a person can have a wish to live. The travesty of getting it wrong is unconscionable. There would be a palliative care consultant who is registered on the GMC’s specialist register. They would understand the actions that could alleviate someone’s suffering. Evidence to the Bill Committee from Sue Ryder showed how poor provision led to someone considering an assisted death. Likewise, the president of the Association for Palliative Medicine, Dr Sarah Cox, said: “We know that effective palliative care can change a terminally ill person’s point of view from wanting to die to wanting to live.” –– [ Official Report, Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Public Bill Committee, 28 January 2025; c. 70, Q84.] That is evidence. It is a point I have heard from all leaders on the Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care. These are the specialists who know how to palliate the physical, psychological, social and spiritual problems of a patient, and they have techniques that many people have not had access to, because of poor provision. The palliative care commission reported on Tuesday and I urge hon. Members to read its evidence-rich report, which draws on best practice. We reported that excellence in end-of-life provision is achievable, but that too many people are not getting access to it. Without that, I fear that the Bill only leads the patient down one route—to die. This is not a choice at all, but a path to an assisted death.

• 12 May 2025 · Immigration System · Hansard source

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  I am proud to represent this country’s only human rights city, where everybody is welcome and every life is of equal worth. Our economy depends very much on our universities, and our universities depend on international students—in fact, employers come to our country because of the diversity of our students. Will the Home Secretary properly consult the higher education sector—the second biggest export from my constituency is higher education—to ensure that we do not harm our local economy and the opportunities for both international and home students?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Higher Education Funding · Hansard source

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  Over half of UK universities, including the University of York, are again consulting on academic and staff redundancies. In line with the University and College Union’s “Stop the Cuts” week of action, does the Minister agree that we need an urgent review into higher education funding and visa arrangements for international students and their dependants, and that we need to protect students from poverty, to safeguard our world-class universities and, ultimately, drive research, innovation and their economic output?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Higher Education Funding · Hansard source

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  15. What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of higher education funding.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Road Safety and Active Travel to School · Hansard source

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  To incentivise walking, wheeling and cycling, and to form habits, we need to invest in capital and revenue infrastructure, skills development and, above all, ambition—not least because half the number of girls as boys travel to school by bike. With Active Travel England in the heart of my constituency, I recognise the importance of that. We need to ensure there is safe space around schools, as we have heard; that we slow traffic, as with Acomb primary school and Acomb Road; and that we stop the chaos outside schools, as with Our Lady Queen of Martyrs school on Hamilton Drive. We also need to ensure that school travel plans are active in driving the ambition that every family should be engaged in active travel. I ask the Minister to review that, and to encourage simple measures—as Chris Boardman says, we should use paint and plastic before the hard-wired infrastructure.

• 2 Apr 2025 · Universities: Funding and Employment · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and thank him for participating in this debate and bringing his experience. The referendum was nine years ago, and the country was in a very different place then. We must address that, but also look at opportunities to put funding into the sector. It is clear that the funding model is broken. We know that students cannot continue to pay higher tuition fees, and nor should they. The funding model needs to shift. I support a progressive taxation system, because whether someone earns more money because they are a graduate or through other means, I believe the more they earn, the more they should put into the system. In York, where the cost of living is exceedingly high, students are breaking. They are working more hours than they are studying, and as a result some are not even able to complete their course. That is not the kind of education system that we want, so we must revisit the funding model. Tweaking around the edges is not enough. We are missing opportunities for the economic future of our country. In York, there are the bioeconomy, digital and advanced rail opportunities, safer automation and the digital creative sector. They need these graduates and academics, and we need our universities to remain.

• 2 Apr 2025 · Universities: Funding and Employment · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. There is a real mismatch between the Chancellor’s growth agenda and the policies impacting the higher education funding landscape that we inherited. As has been highlighted, every £1 of public investment into university research generates £14 in economic output—but scale up, add in the direct, indirect and productivity overspill, and we are talking about £15.2 billion returned to the Exchequer from a £2.49 billion investment. The N8 Research Partnership universities have an economic impact greater than the whole of the premier league. We know that this is of significant value, and we must honour that. If £1 billion is deducted from UK Research and Innovation investment, we are talking a 42% fall in that return. That is poor for the economy and the UK industry, and catastrophic for universities and students—22,000 jobs could be lost. That must not happen. We also must be aware that the demands of UK industrial ambition far exceed the supply of graduates that we are currently producing. We are all alerted to the falling roll that will hit higher education by 2030—another 11 million graduates will need to be found to fuel our economy into the future—yet last year we saw 5,000 jobs cut in the academic year. This is a real challenge. If we are going to realise the knowledge and scientific, innovative and technical opportunity that this country presents to the world, we must have a global outlook on the investment we must make into higher education. There have been many factors impacting universities, many of which we have heard. On international students, I urge the Minister to make representation to the Home Office to ensure that dependants can accompany academics and students as they come to this country, and that we look again at visa costs and NHS surcharges. That will enable people to come our country to put in to it and bring benefits—including the economic benefit that we know has been deeply damaged with the change in visa rules. We also must address our relationship with the EU, which we got so much out of. We must address a deeper relationship with Horizon, look at Erasmus again, and ensure that we are getting the very best academics, researchers, staff and students from across the EU. We must also give our students the opportunity to travel overseas and make it more attractive to engage in higher education. The pain has been felt in York. There are two universities in my constituency: York St John University has removed 70 vacant posts and deleted 30 posts, while the University of York has already seen 273 leave. I know from talking to the unions just last week that the pressure is there once again. It is having a real impact on staff and academics as well as students. We know about the mental health challenges and the stress that people are experiencing, and those workloads are going up.

• 20 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  May I, too, offer my condolences to the shadow Leader of the House? I concur with what he said: as a Parliament, we are better when we collaborate. I want to raise a constituency issue. Trade union reps do a fantastic job representing their colleagues, communities and professions. However, a rep at a school in York has been suspended for carrying out trade union activities and raising employment rights. Will the Leader of the House raise this grievous matter with Cabinet colleagues? Our reps working in public services should not be suspended for raising concerns about issues such as funding across our education system. Can pressure be put on the multi- academy trust, which is completely unaccountable, to reinstate this representative?

• 20 Mar 2025 · British Sign Language Week · Hansard source

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  [ In British Sign Language: I learned BSL because I created barriers for deaf people, and I wanted to take those down. Is it right that all children learn level 1 at school ? ]

• 19 Mar 2025 · Down’s Syndrome · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the chair, Mr Turner. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart) on securing this debate. The Down Syndrome Act is simple, but brilliant—but it is powerless without the guidance to accompany it. That is why this debate is timely. I also call it timely because the elements of the Act determine the very structure that can support a child through to adulthood, from birth through to work. The Act depends on three main pillars, the first of which is healthcare. At this time, we are putting in place a 10-year NHS plan, putting together the NHS of the future, and looking at how we can keep ourselves well; we are putting in early intervention measures and ensuring that we have the workforce needed in the future. If this guidance is to have effect, we need the workforce and the structures to support individuals and their families. Now is the time to look at that and to put in the additional screening and support that a person with Down syndrome needs to optimise their health and keep well throughout their life. The second pillar is that we are having a massive review of the education system at the moment. We are looking at curriculum change, recognising that the broadening of the curriculum will be much more inclusive. As we review SEND and the whole education system, it is timely to bring in this guidance. It cannot just be guidance around Down syndrome looking in; it must be looking out at other Departments. Again, the time is now. Look at the data: the figure of 80% of children with Down syndrome attending primary school drops to between 25% and 37% in secondary school. That deficit in itself indicates that we need significant change in our education system. We need a schools system that is nurturing, therapeutic and integrated, so that no child feels on the outside of the education they are rightly entitled to. The third pillar is the place of work. We need to ensure that there are more opportunities for people with Down syndrome to engage in the labour market. Just yesterday, the Government published their plan “Pathways to Work”, which I see as a plan in two halves. The first half will enable more people to access the labour market, to follow the career of their dreams, and to have their skills and talents recognised. We need to ensure that everybody with Down syndrome has that opportunity where it can be afforded—if not in a formal workplace, by volunteering in the community or being able to have the most life-enhancing opportunities available to them. When I talk about the second half of the plan, I have deep concern for people with Down syndrome, looking at the proposed thresholds for personal independence payment in which people will have to score at least four points to meet the threshold to access vital funding to keep them independent —the key word in personal independence payments. We need to ensure that we feed into that debate. When we get this right, it will be for the benefit of the whole of society. In York, I think of those people who work in West Offices, where the café is run by United Response and provides real work opportunities, and of the Once Seen theatre company, where I see such talent on display. We must get this guidance—

• 24 Feb 2025 · Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Furniss. I speak as an MP with two universities in my constituency. Over the last few years, I have often talked with them about the new financial strains they have experienced. I have therefore followed this debate extremely closely. Many universities have had a very difficult few years. We need to acknowledge that and congratulate them on the way they have put measures in place to control those costs, but for many it has been at a cost to their courses, with many staff, including academics, being made redundant. That means narrowing the offer at a time when we want our higher education sector to excel, as it is a sector of which we can be immensely proud. I fully understand why the Government have gone down the path of raising tuition fees by 3.1% to a cap of £9,535, other adjustments aside. However, it would not be right to see this as a long-term solution, and I therefore seek an assurance from the Minister that we will not see further fee increases in this Parliament, and that we will instead look to address the quick succession of financial shocks to which the sector has been exposed. The student visa changes have had a profound impact on York’s universities, decreasing the number of overseas students. The universities are therefore having to reschedule their costs. I very much hope the Minister will move to enable students to come with their dependents to study in the UK and put into our local economies, which depend on those students and their families making a wider, positive contribution, as well as helping the universities with their finances. I also hope the Minister will ensure that we can continue to have the excellence that comes with the academic study and research base that I see in York’s universities. I know that universities are trying to plan for the long term. I disagree with what the shadow Minister says about universities overreaching, as the University of York and York St John University have placed themselves in the centre of our city, ensuring that they are part of our economic future. Investing in the technologies and jobs of the future is part of York’s inclusion agenda, which we need to facilitate. Universities are key anchor institutions in places like York, and they can help to address the inequality and huge regional divides we experience. But we also know that there have been wider pressures. The national insurance obligations have had a real impact on the sector, as has the rise in the national minimum wage. I urge the Government to feed back to the Treasury in particular that the national insurance rises could have been more nuanced so as to assist the sector, particularly given the plans to raise student fees. I welcome the rise in the national living wage, but that of course has had a cumulative impact on universities’ income and expenditure. As we all know, Brexit has had a real impact on universities. The loss of the Erasmus scheme has not been equalled by the Turing scheme, and there has been an impact on research relationships, academic work and the ability of students to come to the UK—the visa controls. It has also not been long since the covid shock and then the cost of living shock. That has all had a cumulative impact on the budgets of universities, which are trying very much to lead our communities and drive forward the economy of the future. Despite universities’ excellence in demanding more from their finances, restricting their ability to offset costs has meant that the Minister has had to let those costs fall on students. I have real concerns about that, not least after discussing the issue with students in York. I understand the need for more income for universities, but the impact on students is considerable. Having met student unions in York, I know that the cost of housing there is absolutely astronomical and having a real impact on students. It is the same with travel costs, which are significantly more than in other places outside London. As a result, students are having to work ever more hours in the local economy to offset the costs. They are being priced out of degrees; many who have started their studies in York have not been able to complete them as they are having to work more or less full time. Academic work is suffering as a result. I have a real concern that placing a greater financial burden on students particularly affects those from families with a lower socioeconomic background, and I note that page 27 of the relevant equality impact assessment says that the fee increase may deter students of lower socioeconomic status from coming to university and discusses the real cost of the increase on them. I trust that the Minister will look at how to support hardship resourcing through the Office for Students so that no student is turned away. All in all, the tuition fee model is broken when it comes to funding education; the money risks ending up in the wrong places. Now that we are in power, I urge the Government to take a bigger view of funding for higher education. Education should be seen as the most significant investment in our economy. It fuels our research and innovation, drives economic benefit and transforms people’s lives. We need to make sure that no one is excluded. I regret that the failures of the last Administration have brought us to the point of raising fees today. I trust that we can find better solutions for tackling the wider funding of higher education and its broader ecosystem, not least as universities produce the research and innovation to drive our whole economy forward. In closing, I ask the Minister whether he expects other rises in student fees during this Parliament. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that people of lower socioeconomic status are not impacted by this policy? I note the increase in the money that students will be able to access and what the Minister has said about the amount that students pay back. What future planning are he and his colleagues doing to ensure that there is a better account and better process for funding higher education in future?

• 24 Feb 2025 · Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for what the Minister says, but we know that the changes in visa requirements have had a major impact on higher education. I urge him to take that back to the Department and look at the changes again so that our universities can welcome students and their dependents into our country.

• 3 Feb 2025 · School Accountability and Intervention · Hansard source

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  I appreciate all the work that my hon. Friend is doing, but the governance structures of multi-academy trusts lack transparency, not least to the local community. In some areas, their executive boards are choosing members and trustees, without the rigour of accountability. Will my hon. Friend ensure that mechanisms are available to allow far more robust scrutiny of multi-academy trusts, as well as the option to return those schools to the local authority?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Primary School Breakfast Clubs · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech. York Hungry Minds is currently carrying out a pilot project examining what happens when schools have breakfast clubs and universal free school meals. Does he agree that we need to look at the outcome of that evidence to determine whether some children also require a free school meal in the middle of the day, as well as at the start of the day, to ensure that there is equity in the outcomes we are seeking?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Special Educational Needs and Disabilities · Hansard source

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  I want to raise the issue of governance. There are too many minds controlling the system, which ultimately stymies local authorities’ ability to reform services in order to embed a culture of nurturing and to ensure that the best interests of children are represented. While reviewing the SEND system, will the Minister take a look at governance, and ensure that is there is one controlling mind, and it is that of the local authority?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Higher Education Reform · Hansard source

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  The last Government nearly bankrupted a number of universities. Indeed, one of the two excellent universities in my constituency had to go through a significant redundancy programme to stay afloat. However, I recognise the challenges that students in my constituency are facing, not least because of the high cost of living. As part of my right hon. Friend’s reforms, will she also look at the cost of housing students, so that they can pay their way when they are studying?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Mental Health Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I think we all agree that, in introducing this debate, my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) gave an incredible speech, as all contributors have. I want to talk a little bit about the transitional approach that we are taking in York, following the Trieste model. It is seeing a real transition, in the way the Health Secretary has described, from secondary care, which we know is just not able to cope with the capacity and demand that is placed on it, into a more primary-care and socialised setting. It is really transformative for the people in my city. We are setting up community mental health hubs in my city. We have one, and we are going to have two more to follow, with one working 24/7. The model is co-produced and multi-agency, and is moving to provide open-access support to help people to manage their own mental health challenges, with interventions from health professionals, social prescribing and peer support, and to look at issues around welfare, debt and employment support. Particularly in respect of community outreach, the hub is taking people who feel so neglected, because there just is not the capacity, into a space where they can get support and then progress on with their lives. It is centred around a café where people are encouraged to engage and talk. The café is run by service users, so it is a wholly-owned model, and it is incredibly successful. The Trieste model is considered one of the best models of service provision in the world because of its emphasis on integration with the whole community and with the self, with professional support at hand if needed. In Trieste, very few depend on secondary care or acute psychiatric care, and residential placements are few and far between. We need to look at that, particularly in respect of the transitions and the Government’s ambition. Following a social model means we do not pathologise mental health but deal with it and help people to build on their strengths and to build resilience into the future. Our programme is linked with the local university, York St John University, which runs the Converge programme that enables people to use education not only as a way to deal with their mental health issues but to learn new skills and feel included in our community. It contrasts so much with the traditional model, which we know just is not functioning given the demand on services. I therefore urge the Minister to have a look at what is happening in Trieste and to come and have a look at what is happening in York. Let us put this into a model in which people live with mental health as opposed to struggling with it.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way. I have always had great concern about segregation in our education system, but parents in York say that due to the different pedagogy environment and culture, certain independent schools provide the only way that their children with SEN, anxiety or care experience can currently access education. It is through necessity, not choice. Does he agree that the Government should publish an impact assessment not only for this, but for the Budget, so that we can assess the full analysis of this policy?