Supporting Ukraine
When I met four Ukrainian constituents on Friday, they described how grateful they were for this support from the Ipswich community, and particularly the Polish community in the Town. I am very pleased to support Ipswich resident Magda Chambers, who has raised over £8,000 to support Ukrainian refugees, with donations being driven across the Ukrainian border in lorries today and throughout this week.
My constituent Olena told me about her family, in Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine, which is encircled by Russian forces. I asked the Home Office today about how we can help her family members, and other like them, who are currently in a warzone. I asked about a way to get refugees to safety which does not rely on offers from Putin, for a humanitarian which takes evacuees to Russia or to Belarus.
I also asked, on behalf of my constituent Viktoria, whether the family visa scheme is transferrable to others if one of the family members who is eligible doesn’t want to take the opportunity, so we can help those desperately in need of a safe passage out of the warzone.
I know I speak for my constituents when I say we want to help those fleeing Ukraine, and I am pleased to support the efforts and generosity that my constituents have shown towards the people of Ukraine.
Ukraine Crisis
This morning I spoke on TalkRadio about the importance of our policy towards Ukrainian refugees.
My thoughts are with those forced to flee their homes and I know my constituents feel the same way. I have seen many emails in my inbox over the last few days expressing just that.
This goes to show why our border’s policy is so key, why we must ensure we have the capacity to aid genuine refugees.
All the Ukrainian people want is to live in their homeland, in peace and safety. We must do whatever we can to aid these genuine refugees.
Donate to help Ukraine refugees fleeing to Poland
As we see Ukrainian resistance defend their homes against Putin’s aggression, I wanted to share a way in which we can offer our support to the Ukrainian people.
Sadly, many Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, with refugees heading towards safety in Poland. Ipswich resident Magda Chambers is from a Polish village, which is taking in Ukrainian refugees, mainly children. The support from locals in their village is warming and absolutely vital. These people have lost so much, and our hearts go out to them.
There is a strong historical connection between Ukraine and Poland. The countries are not just geographical neighbours, but have shared experience of Russian aggression. As satellite states under the USSR, and victims of Soviet brutality throughout the 20th century, Ukraine and Poland have a collective memory of Russian aggression.
I will be supporting Magda’s fundraising efforts over the weekend in Ipswich, and would urge others to contribute however they can to this vitally important humanitarian effort.
Treehouse Children’s Hospice
I was privileged this morning to visit The Treehouse children’s hospice. The hospice supports children and their families in many ways, including therapy, play, pain and symptom management, respite, and end of life care.
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices is rightly a very valued organisation in our community, and I know it is something a large number of my constituents feel strongly about supporting.
Today I saw exactly how much work and dedication goes into the support the incredibly team here is able to provide. The facilities are really wonderful, but what makes this place so special is the people behind it. The nurses and every individual on the team clearly put all of their energy into their important, difficult, and rewarding role. I have a lot of respect for the team here making such a difference to the children and families they support.
I will be doing everything I can to support The Treehouse and EACH. EACH relies heavily on philanthropy and fundraising through their 43 shops, and events. The true cost of failing to support families is much higher than investing and providing proper psychological and therapy support to siblings and parents. Collaborating with other East Anglia MPs, I will be writing letters of support for children’s hospice funding to be on a parity with adult hospice funding, which it currently isn’t.
Education Select committee
Today the Education Select committee continued their series of sessions exploring why certain groups in society often underachieve academically in comparison to others. Previously, the committee did an inquiry on white working-class pupils, and today we were looking at the educational challenges facing children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds.
Sadly, the data speaks for itself and we do face specific challenges. Having representation from the Roma community on the panel this morning was insightful, so I was pleased that I was able to bring forward two of my constituents, Marius and Vasile, to share their experiences as teaching assistants and members of the Roma community.
As teaching assistants, Marius and Vasile work to promote integration of children from Roma backgrounds, increasing literacy and English language skills, and act as role models for young people in the Roma community. Vasile explained that some in the Roma community don’t really understand the education system here.
Often parents think that their child can have a day or two off without explanation and when the pandemic hit, the inability of some parents to use laptops made their child’s education very difficult. Working with parents through coffee mornings, Marius and Vasile are doing an excellent job building mutual trust between schools and parents from the Roma community.
Post Covid Restrictions
On TalkRADIO this afternoon we discussed moving back to normal with no restrictions. I am pleased that we are seeing the restrictions eased, that we are one of the freest economies and societies in the developed world, and that we are leading the world when it comes to vaccine rollout and opening up.
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Today we have seen big announcements from the Prime Minister, outlining our roadmap back to normality. The government will be working with retailers to ensure that tests are still readily available to buy, and they will remain free for those in the most vulnerable categories. Testing has cost the public purse £15.7 billion so far, so it is absolutely right that we step towards balancing this cost with learning to live with the virus.
In the spring, over-75s and high-risk categories will be offered a booster to provide extra protection.
Grassroots Sport
Grassroots sport in Ipswich is something I have been trying to push for more funding on. Today I met with the Minister for Levelling Up to discuss how this can be done.
I have heard from the Department responsible for levelling up, that the levelling up fund can be used to support grassroots sports – though it is designed for facilities and specific initiatives. There are already a few ideas as to how it can be used to improve sporting facilities, and I will continue to be very involved in this.
I also want to direct funding from the UK shared prosperity fund towards supporting our grassroots sports clubs. When we were in the EU, the money we contributed was controlled remotely to feed different projects. However, now we have left the EU we can use this money to fund our own projects, with more of a local say in how this money is used. I want this money to be injected into our local grassroots sport and will be working in parliament to make sure this happens.
My Interview with GB News
I don’t often talk about the personal impact dyslexia and dyspraxia have on my life, but in an interview with GB news I spoke to Gloria about how these learning disabilities have affected me growing up, as well as at work.
It has impacted different stages of development throughout my life – I couldn’t tie my shoelaces until I was 14, or a tie until I was at university. I also speak about the importance of diagnosis and my own experience coming to terms with what my diagnosis meant.
Children’s mental health week
This week is children’s mental health week. I spoke in the chamber this afternoon on how important it is to take steps on children’s mental health – especially the need to get things right for those with special educational needs.
It has been an incredibly difficult time for young people, with disruption at school because of the pandemic, as well as the age of 24/7 social media having negative impacts on mental health.
In terms of special educational needs and disabilities, we must bear in mind how much these children struggle with disruption, uncertainty, and change to routine which we have seen as a result of the pandemic. Getting special educational needs right has a societal impact – and if we don’t get it right, it has detrimental effects to mental health. Not being understood as a result of their differences can be disastrous for young people, their mental health, and their progress in school. As someone who grew up with dyslexia and dyspraxia, I know how it feels to have learning differences misunderstood, and just how important it is that we get this right.
We need to make sure that the system is one which works for young people with special educational needs, not only to ensure every child is reaching their potential, but also because of the wider societal impacts when these students fall through the cracks.
Ministry of Justice regional office coming to Ipswich
Very pleased with the recent announcement from the Ministry of Justice that one of the 7 new regional offices will be coming to Ipswich, bringing new civil service jobs.
Today in the chamber I asked fellow Suffolk MP James Cartlidge about the timeline for these new jobs, and I look forward to hearing more updates from the Ministry of Justice on how we can make sure as many of these jobs as possible go to Ipswich people.
I hope that being one of the 7 new regional offices will mean Ipswich is at the forefront of new initiatives such as tackling domestic abuse and supporting victims, reinforcing the great work done by our local voluntary sector – with charities like Lighthouse Women’s Aid which I visited in the autumn.