Speeches by Hamilton.

“My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, and I absolutely agree with what he says. The commitment of the partner organisations in my constituency has been the driving force behind our shared vision, and I take this opportunity to pay tribute to them. I am sure the Minister will join me as I extend my heartfelt thanks. Ho…”

“My hon. Friend makes a valuable point. Communities working together with people makes a difference, and as leaders it is vital that we not only encourage that but press Governments to support us to make that happen. The work that we are doing in Erdington and north Birmingham is a testament to the power of a community,…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. It is so important for us to work together to get what we need for our local communities.”

“My hon. Friend raises the valuable point that we cannot do anything without money, so we must ensure that the funding is there to support these organisations to deliver what we need in our local communities. The challenges that we face in Erdington and north Birmingham are not unique. The UK has long grappled with the …”

“Everybody heard my hon. Friend’s contribution and agreed with what she said. Earlier this year, I was delighted to welcome the Minister for Employment, my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern), to my constituency of Birmingham Erdington. During her visit, we saw the impact of personalised assistance a…”

“Thank you for that, Emily. Can I go straight to Anita and then ask the same of you, Oonagh?”

“Oonagh, a final word?”

“I always do two points, so without all the explanation in between would be helpful.”

“Very good point. Can I add a little bit extra? For the future, we have a risk: if we continue to rely on unpaid carers for adult social care, how are we going to quantify the risks for the future? The way social care is going is falling down, and everybody admits that. These unpaid carers cannot carry on. For the futur…”

“Thank you. Do you want to add anything, Oonagh?”

“That is fine. I am going to bring Anita in quickly.”

“My question is on unpaid carers. For many years, just to preface the question, as someone who led adult social care, we could not manage the system in Birmingham, where I was the cabinet member for adult social care, without unpaid carers. They were an army of people. I heard what you said earlier, Anita, but to be hon…”

“Can I stop you there? You know how bad it has been this year. I am a great person with numbers. If there were two things you would like Government to hear, which you would like to see happen next year so that we do not end up where we have ended up this year, what would be those two things be?”

“I am going to hand back to the Chair. I did have a second question, but I went on. Thank you, Amanda.”

“Good morning, all. I am going to build up to my question because I think that gives context. I am talking about winter pressures. I have been following this for a number of months. Back in July, NHS England made it very clear that it had given trusts clarity over their finances for the winter, and it had given them £25…”

“Amanda, it was obvious—I am going to stop you there, because people do not understand this. If you are running a service and the outputs of the service go up by 3.5 times compared with the previous year, even though you made an agreement that that was what you would give, surely there must be something in place to allo…”

“No, no—get it right. I haven’t seen her—it is written everywhere—but I do know her.”

“I am going to stop you there, because they give me a limited amount of time. Clearly it was not working, so what was done in its place to say, “Look, what we’ve always done, and what Julian Redhead is doing, is just not enough. This year, because it was such a bad year, we need to put something extra in.”? The one thin…”

“I am afraid that the Chair is going to stop me. When you start going off on a tangent, the Chair stops me.”

“Okay, go on.”