Alex Norris MP's Weekly Newsletter

If you follow me or any other MPs on Twitter, you probably couldn’t miss that yesterday was the 70^th birthday of the NHS, since Nye Bevan and the Labour Party founded it in 1948. The NHS is a tremendous organisation which has now been doing an incredible amount of good for 70 years. This is made possible by the wonderful hard-working staff, who work tirelessly to keep everything running and ultimately save lives.

Unfortunately, since 2010, the performance of the NHS has dropped significantly as it has not received the funding that it needs but I’m incredibly proud to be part of Labour’s Health Team so that I can do my bit to fix this, and give all of you in Nottingham North the very best health care possible.

I made a video to celebrate this important milestone in the NHS’s history, which you can watch here.

One last thing before I start. This week was Bilborough Arts Festival, but starting today it’s Bulwell’s turn. There’s more information in the What’s On section, but click this link for the full schedule of events, some of which I’ll be getting involved with tomorrow.

Read on to find out what I’ve been up to this week...

As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested.

Prime Ministers Questions

This week was a lucky one for me as, for the third time, I was drawn to ask a question to the Prime Minister since being elected. Even luckier was being drawn at a time when I had no doubt about what I should ask about.

For the last few weeks I’ve been campaigning to save the Once Upon a Time nursery at Nottingham College’s Basford Hall campus, and have even raised this in the House once before during Education questions. On Saturday I joined local campaigners and concerned parents at Basford market and the petition to save the nursery is now over 1800 signatures, way past the 1000 target we originally set.

It’s very clear now that no one other than Nottingham College thinks closing this nursery is a good idea, and on Wednesday I made sure that the Prime Minister knew too, explaining the situation while asking her if she agrees that there should be as few barriers as possible on the road to further education. Not having access to a good local nursery is one such barrier.

You can watch my question here.

NHS in Nottingham

The NHS’s 70^th birthday hasn’t gone uncelebrated, and I’m pleased that up here in Nottingham we have been commemorating and acknowledging just as well as those down in Westminster.

Last night we did just that, as I took part in a debate at the Council House on what the next 70 years of the NHS will bring. I hope some of you made it along, but for those that didn’t, I was joined on the panel by a number of knowledgeable local experts, including: Paul Smeeton, the Executive Director of Local Partnerships at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, David Pearson CBE- Corporate Director for Adult Social Care and Health at Nottinghamshire County Council, and Helen Jones- Director of Adult Social Care, Nottingham City Council, as well as others.

This was a great opportunity to look to the future, and the opportunities and challenges that a changing world is going to bring. Technology is one thing that has already changed things a lot, but in 70 years’ time things will have changed in ways that we can’t even imagine, hopefully with the complete eradication of some awful diseases and positive changes making conditions much more bearable.

There will be new demands though – we already have an increasing population and increased life expectancy, and the sheer quantity of demand on the NHS that these cause is only likely to increase. This will require consideration and further investment, but the benefits we will reap of course far outweigh the challenges so it’s a challenge we can look forward to.

As well as the debate, I will also be joining Nottingham Labour tomorrow to raise some money for the NHS, selling cakes that I’ll be baking myself this evening! Come along to Bulwell Market and try one!

In the House

My question to Prime Minister on Wednesday wasn’t my only foray into the House of Commons to speak this week.

On Monday I had a topical question drawn for the Ministers from the Department for Work and Pensions, so asked about the Universal Credit rollout.

The rollout so far has been drawn out, poorly planned and disjointed, with a huge burden put upon local authorities to facilitate it. I therefore took the opportunity to ask the Government what steps they will be taking to mitigate the financial burden which it has put on Nottingham City Council. You can watch this here.

And later that evening, I intervened in an adjournment debate secured by the MP for Nottingham South, Lilian Greenwood, on rough sleeping in Nottingham. Back when I was on the City Council we had almost eradicated rough sleeping from Nottingham, so it is saddening to see that rough sleeping numbers have increased every year for the last 7, reversing all the good work and success.

I used my intervention to highlight a number of the preventable reasons for this: underemployment, a poor housing supply, cuts to drug and alcohol services, inadequate mental health services, among others.

In Nottingham

As well as the NHS debate, here’s what else I’ve been up to in Nottingham:

• Earlier today we had a meeting of the Rebalancing the Outer Estates Foundation team, where we discussed Bulwell Arts Festival and some upcoming health projects.
• I’ve just met with Marcellus Baz at his Boxing Gym on Woodborough Rd. He has been doing some excellent work with local children to help keep them off the streets, which he told me all about. I’m pleased to say his hard work has been nationally recognised, as he won a much-deserved BBC Unsung Hero Award in 2016!
• As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, this week is Bilborough Arts Festival (I hope you’ve been enjoying it!) and in support of this, the children at Melbury Primary School have been painting and drawing art work, which have all been inspired by the artist Paulo Uccello. I’m just on my way to the school to check it all out!

In Parliament

• On Monday I met with Neil Thurlow from Westbury School in Parliament, as he came down to celebrate being accepted for the UK Parliament Teachers’ Institute, as I mentioned a few weeks ago
• I attended meetings for the Parliamentary Groups on:
  • Modern Slavery, where the Home Office outlined their plans to reform the National Referral Mechanisms to improve support for victims of modern slavery
  • Markets, which was a joint meeting with the APPG for Town Centres
• I met with David Barnes & Eddie Tuttle from the Chartered Institute of Building to talk about Modern Slavery in the construction industry
• I welcomed members of the Industry Vision Group, with whom I discussed how we can stop preventable blindness in the workplace
• The Second Church Estates Commissioner hosted a reception on Modern Slavery, giving us a chance to celebrate what has been achieved since the passing of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and discuss what there is still left to do
• I welcomed two volunteers from Nottingham Citizens, Clive Foster and Sajid Mohammed, to Parliament to meet with Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, so we could discuss the great work we’re doing up there with their Love Nottingham campaign.

What's On

I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know.

If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.

That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below…

All the best,

Alex