I recently visited the Oncology and Radiotherapy wards in the Osborne Building at the Leicester Royal Infirmary to see the brilliant work Macmillan Cancer Support does to help patients with cancer and their families.

The NHS staff I met said the key to providing excellent quality care is having a multi-disciplinary team that works together around the individual patient’s needs. This involves not only the doctors, nurses and radiographers in the hospital, but GPs, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians and pharmacists in the community too. Anita Pabla, a Sarcoma Clinical Nurse Specialist who I spoke to, told me part of her role is to act as a ‘key worker’ – helping to improve collaboration between different parts of the NHS so patients get seamless, joined up care.
Allen Bhrydges, a former cancer patient I met who now volunteers through Macmillan, told me about another crucial element of good quality care: that patients and their families get the right information, at the right time and in the right way. He summed it up really well when he said: “there must be a culture of openness in the NHS”. Macmillan Cancer Support provides a fantastic information service in the Osborne building, and has plans to improve and expand this work by opening a new information centre next year.

Photo courtesy of Mark Makela Photography

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting the launch of a report on the impact of Leicester’s 2009 Special Olympic Games. The report, called “Learning Disability, Sport and Legacy”, was produced by De Montfort University and Leicester University. It found that the games not only brought real health benefits to the athletes but social benefits too, such as boosting their self-esteem. The report found that the Special Olympics helped bring disabled and non-disabled people closer together and played an important role in challenging misunderstandings about learning disabilities amongst the wider public. Guests at the launch event also heard that the 2009 Games brought real economic benefits to our city, boosting the local economy with an estimated £2.8 million.

I was delighted that a number of athletes who took part in the Games came along to the launch even in Parliament. I was also pleased that Hugh Robertson MP, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, agreed to come and speak at the reception. He said he was determined to make sure we build on the lessons from the Special Olympics in all sporting events, but especially in next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

With the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder, people are switching their heating on – and worrying about the cost of their gas and electricity bills.

Energy charges are up a staggering 20 per cent this year. The average annual dual fuel bill is now £1,345 per household, which means energy bills are now one of the single biggest outgoings people face. With food prices going up as well, many of my constituents are wondering how they are going to afford to heat their homes, pay for the weekly shop and find money for Christmas too.

Energy company profits have soared in the last six months. Ofgem, the energy regulator, says the profit margins of energy companies have increased from £15 per consumer in June to £125 now. The Government should be standing up to the “Big Six” energy companies, who provide our gas and electricity, to help reduce prices now and reform the way our energy market works for the long-term.

Instead, the Government is telling people it’s down to them alone: that they should just shop around, get a better deal, and then switch their energy supplier. Of course it makes sense for people to try to get the best deal, but the Government doesn’t seem to understand how hard it can be to figure out what the real costs will be for your home, or to compare one company’s deal with another.

One way to cut energy bills would be to require the “Big Six” to pool their energy centrally. Any company could then buy and supply energy from this pool. This would allow new businesses into the market, increase competition and drive down costs for the 80 per cent of people who currently pay too much for their bills.

In these difficult economic times we need tough action, not this Government’s warm words, to help bring down the cost of energy bills.

Women’s changing lives: results from a survey and listening forums in Leicester West
Liz Kendall MP

Background
5075 surveys about ‘women’s changing lives’ (see attached) and invitations to attend a listening forum were sent out to all women on the electoral register in the areas of North Braunstone and New Parks.  Both of these are estates on the edge of Leicester, consisting predominantly of social housing, with high levels of deprivation and worklessness and historically low levels of voter turnout, particularly in North Braunstone.

117 surveys have been returned so far – 2.31% of those contacted. 103 respondents have never contacted their MP before.

2 forums were organised
• North Braunstone: 2nd September – 8 women attended
• New Parks: 16th September – 18 women attended

Key findings

Finances
• 92% respondents have had to do something differently in past year to balance finances
• 77% of women now having to spend less
• Many women mentioned not only having to spend less but cost of basics have increased (food/fuel) so can’t afford all they need

Employment
• Most survey respondents were not working – 29% retired, 15% ill/disabled, 9% unemployed
• Of those who are working 50% feel less secure in their job now than a year ago

Childcare
• More pensioners responded to the survey than mothers with dependent children. Of those mothers who did respond, 66% are finding making suitable childcare arrangements harder than they used to
• In the additional comments section concerns were raised about cuts to child tax credits and freeze in Child benefits.

Childcare was a topic that concerned many of the women who attended the New Parks forum.  Many of the women there had young children.  There was a lot of concern about the Childcare Tax Credit cut from 80% to 70% of childcare costs.   All the mothers at the event feel that getting 10% less towards childcare is having a negative impact on finances and has made them question whether working is a viable option.  One woman has had to choose not to work because she cannot afford childcare costs but is not entitled to benefits because she chose not to work.  Another woman now has to work 2 jobs and her partner has one which means she has less time to spend with her family and rarely sees her partner. Although one mother said the local primary school has a breakfast club, several mothers said it is still very difficult to find jobs which fit around school hours.
Pensions
• From the survey results there seems to be a lot of confusion about pensions and the changes to the pension age. Very few of those who responded to this question felt that they were prepared for the rise in the age at which they can claim their pension.  Many women have asked for more information.

Local Services
Women in New Parks and North Braunstone are already aware of cuts to local services:

• NHS 41%
• Parks/Leisure 23%
• Libraries 20%
• Education 16%
• Social Services 14%

Education was an important topic of discussion at the North Braunstone forum.  Several women felt that the ‘academic route’ seems to have been given more priority/emphasis over the past year by the current Government.  Some of the women who attended the forum were concerned about the young people on the estate who would want to take up more vocational jobs and whether these routes would become less accessible.  There was also a strong feeling that careers advice should start earlier in children’s lives.

Public transport
Local buses were mentioned many times in the additional comments section on the survey and in the North Braunstone forum.  Both North Braunstone and New Parks are outlying estates.  Many residents rely on buses to get to work, school, hospital and doctor surgeries and into the city centre.

Over the past year the number of buses serving these areas has been reduced.  Many evening, early morning and weekend buses have been taken off the timetable.   Many of the women who responded to the survey work in jobs which have shift patterns (carers in the private sector, jobs at the hospitals). These women rely on the early morning and late evening services to get to and from their jobs.    Very real concern was expressed about the additional costs of getting taxis into work and how this is having a negative impact on family finances.

Personal Safety/Crime
• 71% of those who responded stated they were concerned about crime and threats to personal safety.
• Many of the comments in the additional comments section mentioned concern about anti-social behaviour and also personal accounts of being the victim of crimes in the past year.

Additional comments
Many women who responded to the survey are carers for their husbands or other family members or sick or disabled themselves.  They are very anxious about the future – lots of confusion about benefits, fear of losing ESA, DLA etc, some people already been assessed and have lost benefits causing hardship.

Many of the mothers at the New Parks forum strongly expressed the view that whilst they are working hard to make ends meet and bring up their families, they get little if any help from the state, whereas other families who don’t go out and work get lots of benefits. One woman said “We’re now benefit Britain.” Several women felt angry that the Government seems to assume that everyone living in a council house is ‘on the dole’, whereas in reality they are not.

When asked what would help them most – more money for tax credits or more hours of free nursery care – most mothers said more hours of free care would be better for them.