York Press column: How constituency visits inform my work in Westminster
July 5, 2023
After a week in Westminster, there is no better way to spend a Friday than immersing myself in local issues and meeting with constituents. My work in York is the basis of everything I do in parliament and is key to see how legislation impacts residents.
Last Friday, I joined North Yorkshire Police’s neighbourhood policing team for a walkabout in Haxby to follow-up reports raised with me. We are fortunate to live in one of the safest cities in the country but that does not mean we should not be vigilant. Often what starts as juvenile antisocial behaviour can escalate if there is not intervention and education.
As part of the walkabout, we discussed reported incidents at Mancroft Park and Ryedale Shopping Centre before walking to Ethel Ward playing fields. One of the challenges in neighbourhood policing is allocating resources by anticipating where incidents may take place. North Yorkshire Police discussed with me how they address this, and I was surprised to learn that a lot of antisocial behaviour follows a specific geographic calendar with certain areas of York becoming hotspots in the same months each year. Again, the number and severity of cases are low relatively speaking to many other cities, but I appreciate they are still a concern to residents and I am pleased to see tailored action is being taken.
After being joined by residents and hearing first hand their experiences of antisocial behaviour, North Yorkshire Police agreed an action plan which I will follow closely and I follow-up with Ministers the importance of supporting neighbourhood policing as the first vanguard of community safety.
Regular readers of this column will know that I have dedicated many months this year to conducting an audit of York’s health and dental services. The data I was able to gleam from meeting with doctors and dentists first hand helped reinforce my lobbying efforts and I was particularly pleased to see many of the ideas that were raised with me in York included in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Backed by more than £2.4 billion in government investment ahead of the NHS’s 75th anniversary, it sets out how the NHS will address existing vacancies and meet the challenges of a growing and aging population by recruiting and retaining hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years.
This investment aims to: double medical school training places to 15,000 by 2031, with more places in areas with the greatest shortages; increase the number of GP training places by 50% to 6,000 by 2031; increase the number of AHP training places by 13% to 17,000 a year; increase the number of pharmacy training places by 29% to 4,300 a year by 2031; increase the number of dentists being trained by 40% to more than 1,100 a year; and almost double the number of adult nurse training places by 2031, with 24,000 more nurse and midwife training places a year by 2031.
One interesting area of reform is the proposal to offer four-year medical courses. As long as this does not compromise quality and course content, I would endorse this change to help train more doctors fast. Another idea that came out of my meetings with GPs was to change the metric used for medical school admissions. While academic rigour is important, only admitting those who achieve the very best grades risks missing out on students who possess other skills that are key to being a doctor not included on the A Level curriculum.
As always, I will monitor how this funding delivers on its ambitions in reality to ensure that we remain on course to build an NHS fit for future health challenges.
Of course, some constituent events do not have a policy agenda. Last weekend, I enjoyed Copmanthorpe Carnival where even high winds couldn’t dampen spirits. Thank you as ever to those in the community who put in the time and effort so we could all have a great day. It is events like Copmanthorpe Carnival which makes our villages and suburbs such special places to live and I am eternally grateful those who work behind the scenes to ensure York remains the greatest city to live in.
