Speeches by Beales.

“I thank the Minister for that response. As well as grid capacity for much-needed new homes and infrastructure such as Hillingdon hospital, capacity is needed in west London for the large number of data centres being proposed at a regional level. What actions are being taken to strategically co-ordinate those demands an…”

“How has that worked in practice? Have you, in a board meeting, looked at it and said, “This year we have seen 1,000 more EHCPs, and that means this”?”

“Has that fed through to commissioning decisions, in terms of staffing and specialisms?”

“Elliot, from your perspective—the trust perspective—have you seen increasing waiting lists for treatments, assessments and diagnoses?”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Is this symptomatic of the broader low prioritisation that paediatrics has?”

“Morning, everyone, and thank you for your time. It has been suggested that long waits for assessments, for treatment and for access to care of different sorts might be contributing to rising demand for EHCPs as conditions worsen. To what extent is that your experience in your localities? Is that something that you are …”

“What about for an adult population? If there was a group of adults who needed feeding tubes put back in in the community, there wouldn’t necessarily be a plan that would always deliver that specific funding for the NHS, but you would still resource nurses to go out to elderly patients and do that, so why must it be ful…”

“You have described how the system should work, but I want to press you on this question: does it work in that way? You talk about upskilling the school workforce and say that these should be things that they do. In your patches, how much training and support does the health system provide for the education system? In m…”

“From a school perspective, what I have heard is that they often do not feel able to carry those health risks—for example, putting back quite complex feeding tubes is not something that teaching assistants are necessarily trained or insured to do; these are health-based tasks that they are left to do. How much resourcin…”

“How much does the health system have to carry? What I am inferring from what you said is that you can decide where those tasks sit and support others to do those tasks. Is that what you are saying?”

“Thank you, that is really helpful. As part of the increasing numbers of EHCPs being granted, in your experience—perhaps this is for Ingrid and Dawn, from the locality and ICB perspective—what engagement is there with the ICB? What kind of map-across do they do to look at the EHCPs that have been granted, and the potent…”

“When making staffing decisions, there are obviously competing pressures, even within paediatrics, let alone in the broader system. How much do educational impacts weigh on prioritisation? For instance, in my area, nursing input is really valuable, particularly to specialist schools. There are competing community nursin…”

“So from your experience, wider access to treatments of different sorts would not lessen that demand? From what I am hearing, you are just seeing an increasingly complex population. Is that your experience?”

“Just to follow up on the previous question, which links to this, Elliot, do you think EHCPs should be scrapped? Do you think they are not an effective tool for the resource decision making that you are discussing?”

“But just to challenge you, if over a year there are 1,000 more EHCPs and a promise of 10% of them getting speech and language therapy, presumably you could model how many speech and language therapists or OTs you would need based on the number of children being promised sessions and support. Would that not be effective…”

“That is really helpful, thank you. From a provider perspective, do you feel that that is happening in your locality on the demand side? When commissioners make decisions, are you seeing increasing resources for the extra specialists that are needed to input into EHCPs and deliver the care promised in them?”

“Okay; thank you. Dawn or Elliot, what is your experience?”

“The right hon. Lady talks about a comprehensive plan and giving people choices, but this is not a comprehensive plan for student loan reform; it is a plan written on the back of a fag packet. It basically revolves around restricting university access, which is always the go-to solution for the Conservatives. In truth, …”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”