With schools about to break up for summer, many parents like me will be receiving their children’s end of year report.
Parliament is also about to end for the summer recess. Whilst it brings me out in a cold sweat thinking about handing over my school report to my parents, it is probably a good time to reflect on my first year in Parliament.
For too long, High Peak has been overlooked and nobody’s priority. I feel that all the hard work of trying to change that, including literally hounding Ministers down the corridors of Westminster is starting to reap its rewards.
In the last weeks alone, we’ve received £35 million of investment in our area through the Peak Cluster which will safeguard thousands of jobs in the cement industry. Just last week, we had a massive win for High Peak. I pushed Ministers to provide the money to keep Snake Pass open and safe, I’m delighted to say that the Government has listened and will be spending millions to keep the road safe.
Many of you will know that supporting families and giving kids the best start in life is what drives me. On childcare, free school meals, breakfast clubs and on school uniform – the Government has taken the first steps to delivering for children, putting more money in family’s pockets and supporting parents.
I’ve been campaigning tirelessly parental leave, both in High Peak and Westminster. I’m delighted that the Government has launched a full review into all forms of parental leave – it’s time to make the system fairer for parents.
The Government have also delivered trade deals with our three biggest partners: India, the US and the EU. The new agreement with the EU will ensure that food reaches your family’s plates quicker, and crucially cheaper. With the summer holidays coming up those lucky enough to be going aboard will also be able to use e-gates in many European destinations for the first time since we left the EU.
Now to the ‘room for improvement’ part of the report. I recognise that the comms around the Government’s delivery needs to be better. Far too many people reading this will be learning about these achievements for the first time. On the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Government has listened and understood the impacts for those people, like my own mum, who were just above the threshold. The Warm Homes Discount will also help by putting £150 directly into the pockets of 2.7 million extra households this Winter.
So, in summary, we’ve done a lot but there’s still a lot more to do. I can only imagine how relieved my parents would have been if my school reports would have been anywhere near this good.
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Watching my father disappear into Alzheimer’s is something my family will never forget. It is a story that, sadly, will feel painfully familiar to so many families across High Peak.
People often say that with Alzheimer’s and dementia you lose the person twice. First, as the illness slowly robs them of the person they once were, and then again when their body finally gives up after a long and cruel battle.
As heartbreaking as that is, it is often accompanied by another burden: the constant worry about how to provide the care they need, and how that care will be paid for.
For decades, social care has been the problem every politician acknowledges but no government has truly solved. Almost everyone agrees the system is broken. Yet whenever serious reform is proposed, the debate quickly descends into scare stories, political point-scoring and accusations of “death taxes”, leaving families exactly where they started.
That has to change.
Last week, Andy Burnham said he was prepared to spend political capital on fixing social care and to work with other political parties to build the consensus needed to make lasting reform possible.
I know this is deeply personal for Andy. His own father is living with Alzheimer’s. But long before that, as Health Secretary, he argued that social care should be valued alongside healthcare as an essential part of the system, not treated as an afterthought.
For too long, social care has been the forgotten partner of the NHS.
When we think about our health service, we rightly picture doctors, nurses and hospitals. But social care is every bit as vital. It helps older people remain independent, supports disabled adults to live fulfilling lives, gives families reassurance, and frees up hospital beds by helping people return home safely when they are ready.
When social care fails, the NHS feels the consequences. Hospital beds stay occupied, ambulance queues grow longer, families are left exhausted, and vulnerable people do not receive the support they deserve.
Years of underinvestment have left providers struggling to survive, care workers undervalued despite the extraordinary job they do, and families facing impossible choices at the most difficult moments of their lives.
Getting social care right is not simply about one public service. It is about making our entire health and care system work better.
Andy has instructed that the review of social care should report much sooner, with conclusions expected by this time next year. That gives us a real opportunity to have the honest, grown-up conversation the country has avoided for far too long.
As your MP, I will work with anyone - whatever their political party - who is serious about delivering the lasting reforms families deserve.
My father’s journey with Alzheimer’s will stay with me forever. It reinforced something I have always believed: every one of us deserves to grow old with dignity. Every family deserves the confidence that, when the time comes, good care will be there without fear, uncertainty or impossible financial decisions.
We’ve talked about fixing social care for long enough. It’s time we finally did it.
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