My Friday visits in the constituency have resumed after the Christmas and New Year break, and I was busy in and around North Weald, Hastingwood, Ingatestone and Brentwood on Friday last week.
St Clare Hospice in Hastingwood is just outside my constituency but provides excellent end of life care and support for patients with life limiting illnesses when they need some extra care in difficult times. As with St Francis Hospice, which I visited last year, St Clare Hospice is struggling with the impact of the Labour Government’s decision to impose an increase in employer National Insurance Contributions. I will continue to oppose the Government’s decision and bring the hospices’ concerns to the attention of Treasury Ministers.
In more positive news, St Clare Hospice is opening a new retail shop on Ongar High Street soon, so local people will be able to support this marvellous organisation and pick up some bargains at the same time!
I hold regular meetings with the heads of our local secondary schools to hear about their concerns and triumphs in the hard work involved in educating our longer youngsters. It was good to see several of them again on Friday, to catch up on their trials and triumphs in recent months.
I know our local schools want the best for their pupils, but also for the health and well being of all those working at the schools. The head teachers, all of whom – luckily for our local education standards – are highly experienced, dedicated and enthusiastic teachers at heart, desperately want to see young people keen to work as teachers too.
Currently it is difficult to recruit good teachers in all subjects, so we were discussing what can be done to encourage not only new graduates, but older people who have had some experience of the world outside of school and university, to train as a teacher. There is no doubt it is hard, hard work but the joy I see on the faces of the heads as they discuss the young people in their schools is to be admired.
