This year I partnered up with the Parks Academy Trust, covering Abbey Park, Highworth Warneford, Bridlewood, Orchid Vale and Red Oaks schools for my annual Easter Egg appeal for the Swindon Refuge.
A big thank you to all the very generous residents who donated - between us over 420 Easter Eggs were collected! The Easter Eggs will be distributed to vulnerable families in the community as well as the Refuge.
On Saturday morning, I was thrilled to join the fantastic staff and volunteers at the Blunsdon Community Shop and Café, who were celebrating their 1st anniversary. It has been great to see this fantastic community facility thrive and I know the community events they host are very popular with local residents. Every one of their team should be very proud of what they have achieved, and I am sure there will be many more years to come.
On Saturday evening, I was invited to join the Penhill United FCs under 15’s fundraiser at the County Ground for their forthcoming trip to Belgium.
I very much enjoyed being the auctioneer and as there was a delay on the food, I was able to roll out my very own football quiz! It was great to see the players beat the parents!
They raised a staggering £2,500 on the night. This trip is an amazing opportunity for all the young players and after speaking to the parents, grandparents, and friends they were all very proud. Well done to the team for organising such a successful evening.
In Parliament, I spoke in the ‘Disability Benefits’ debate. Whilst I welcome the real terms increase of £11.3bn in support for those with disabilities or long-term health conditions, I continue to press for further work.
Firstly, where someone qualifies for PIP (the main disability benefit) this triggers regular financial support, but that is it. I have been pressing for them to signpost claimants to the additional local formal and informal support available. For example, if you are identified as having MND, they should identify the local MND support groups.
Secondly, increasingly telephone and video assessments are used – removing the need for a local, face to face assessment. This should open the opportunity to link a claimant with an assessor with specific knowledge of their primary condition. For example, if you have MS, rather than a general assessor, they can be linked to a specifically MS trained assessor.
Thirdly, we need to improve the safeguards for the most vulnerable claimants. The DWP has been working hard to better identify the most vulnerable claimants, but more can be done. I believe all claimants should have a nominated trusted advocate, so if either contact is lost, or the relationship has broken down they could be contacted to help. This will help prevent people dropping out of the system and missing the vital (financial) support they rely on.
Finally, we need to continue to work closely with the charities, stakeholders and organisations to shape training and future policy changes. When I led on the changes to the ‘Special Rules for the Terminally Ill’, it was the invaluable insight of groups like Marie Curie, MND Association and Parkinson’s UK that made sure the changes worked for claimants.
It was a good debate and I was pleased the Minister took all these suggestions on board.
