As our population ages we need to help families balance their work & caring responsibilities. I’m calling for Universal Family Care & Leave because families shouldn’t have to chose between holding down a job & caring for their own. Read my full speech here and watch a clip here.
If optimism was all it takes to get things done, then 1000s would have been enjoying the recent heatwave on Boris Johnson’s Garden Bridge or jetting off on their holidays from Boris Island Airport. As it is, people need real solutions to their problems. That’s why I recently asked the […]
I recently attended an event in Parliament hosted by the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), an organisation which represents 80 national disability organisations. At this event, the DBC launched a report which shows that disabled people have been hit four times harder than non-disabled people by benefit cuts over the last […]
On July 11th I spoke at a Resolution Foundation event on tackling the crisis in social care alongside the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb and the Conservative MP Damian Green. I argued that we must set out a bold and positive vision for social care which promotes wellbeing and connections […]
Every Friday I like to get out and about speaking to local people about any issues or concerns they have. On Friday I held my latest coffee morning at the Manor House Community Centre. Lots of residents came along and we discussed many issues including Brexit, NHS and school funding, […]
To mark the end of Carers Week I visited two local organisations where I met with local carers to learn more about their experiences of caring for a loved one. I spent time at LOROS to visit their new Day Therapy Unit and Education Unit and I also […]
I am really proud to have been asked by Carers UK to be their Carers Champion for this year’s Carers Week. There are 6.5 million people across the UK who are looking after a loved one or friend and more and more people every day are finding themselves taking on […]
The Government has announced that from this spring disabled pensioners will no longer have to have their Personal Independence Payments (PIP) awards repeatedly reviewed unless their circumstances change. The Work and Pensions Secretary also announced her plans to merge the work capability assessment process for PIP, Employment and Support Allowance […]
There are 100,000 people in Leicester and Leicestershire who are looking after a parent, partner, child or friend, including 8,952 in my constituency. I have long backed the calls from Carers UK for the introduction of up to 10 days of paid care leave a year. New research from Carers UK has found […]
NHS England published its long term plan on 7 January. I have long campaigned for many of its goals, including tackling health inequalities, shifting the focus of care towards prevention and early intervention, joining up NHS services with social care, making better use of technology, improving the involvement of patients, […]
On 30th November, I marked Carers Rights Day. This is the annual event to raise awareness about the needs of the UK’s six and a half million unpaid carers. I’ve been backing Carers UK’s calls for 10 days of paid leave for carers who are also holding down paid work. […]
On 30th November, I spoke at the Centre for Progressive Policy’s conference about how to create a truly sustainable, high-quality health and care system. First, we must put tackling the root causes of ill-health at the top of the agenda: poverty, inequality, poor housing and the environment. Second, there needs […]