Kate Osborne MP: Community spirit, kindness, resilience and people who want a fairer future - I will keep fighting for
While Parliament has been in recess, there has been no let-up in the work locally.
Time in the constituency is the most valuable part of the job, not just because I get to stay home for a while but because it gives me the opportunity to meet residents, community groups, schools and businesses, and take what I hear back into my work in Westminster.
Over the Easter break it was lovely to be able to visit so many fayres and events and drop off eggs to organisations in the borough.
I visited brilliant local organisations and spoke to people about the support our area needs – whether that is better opportunities for young people, stronger action on crime and anti-social behaviour, help for struggling families, or more backing for the community organisations that so often step in where years of cuts have left gaps.
I spent time at Springboard North East in Jarrow, where I saw first-hand the incredible work being done to support young people into education, training and work. Meeting students and seeing the practical skills they are developing was a reminder of just how much talent we have here, and how important it is that young people are given the right opportunities.
That same message came through in my recent consultation events on the social media ban. I've met parents, carers, children and young people to hear their views on the proposed ban on social media for under-16s and of course have been inundated with responses online.
Social media is clearly a huge part of young people’s lives, but it comes with very real risks. I heard directly from young people about the pressures, harms and addictive features of platforms, including one student who told me he can spend up to 12 hours a day on his phone because of features like infinite scrolling.
Parents and students raised concerns about how any ban could work in practice, social media companies must be held to account, companies are making huge profits from young people’s attention, they cannot wash their hands of the consequences.
Those conversations also touched on support for children with SEND – one of the issues I hear about most from parents, teachers and young people themselves. Our constituency has more children with SEND than the national average, and it is abundantly clear to me that the current system is broken.
Whilst I welcome the Government’s investment to improve SEND provision, and I’m also pleased to secure £2.6million in funding for SEND services in South Tyneside. We must be careful that the wider changes do not cause irreversible harm. We cannot have a one size fits all approach, some children need highly specialist support, and families are right to want reassurance that vital provision will not be lost in the name of reform.
Recess also gave me the opportunity to bring together a major round table on illicit and illegal trade, including police, retailers, councillors and other stakeholders.
Residents and local shopkeepers have regularly contacted me about the rise in illegal tobacco and vapes, and the vape shops with rogue traders damaging our high streets, fuelling antisocial behaviour and, in some cases, putting children directly at risk as well as poorly made devices being a fire risk in houses and workplaces.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill that we passed in Parliament is a great start, we need local agencies now properly equipped and working together to enforce it.
I’ve been out visiting some of the people and places that make our community special, Bede’s Helping Hands, Hebburn Helps, Boldon Community Food Store, Embells CIC and fantastic independent businesses, including Lishman Family Bakery in Hebburn and Nate’s Deli in Windy Nook.
In every part of our constituency, you see people putting everything into building something positive. They deserve support, not politics that divides our area.
Too many people in our communities know what insecure work looks like. Too many families have had to put up with low pay, poor conditions and employers who think workers are disposable. Working people deserve dignity, security and respect, and I am proud that Labour is moving forward with long-overdue improvements to workers’ rights – Reform voted against these vital rights.
There are those in politics who want to take us backwards. The Tories who think people have forgotten about their 14 years of incompetence and destruction of communities or Reform who try to exploit people’s anger and need for support – yet offer nothing of substance, too much of the debate is being poisoned by division, scapegoating and hate.
That is not reflective of our communities, what I see and hear week in and week out, is something very different – community spirit, kindness, resilience and people who want a fairer future. That is what I will keep fighting for as your MP.