“We need lived experience at the heart of government. Often, people responsible for feeding into policy have good intentions but with no experience of the services they are trying to design.” Anthony’s words came through Crisis. This week I attended the Crisis (not just at Christmas) launch of their manifesto to make a future free from homelessness.
In Worthing anyone found on the street receives an offer of accommodation. There is no need for red tents to remain on the visitors’ walk to the promenade, the Pavilion and the pier. A constituent suggested they could be allocated the grass outside the town hall for a single night.
At the Whitehead Ross employment event about sharing prosperity in the Commons, Sir Stephen Timms MP, chair of the Select Committee, spoke of our all-faiths cooperation. Ian Ross’s teams help prepare people for their desired world of work, including in Worthing and district. Like other providers, they offer effective publicly funded adult education and social welfare support.
This week, I spoke in the public-requested debate on Assisted Dying. The full debate is recorded in Hansard. My short contribution included tributes to former Labour MP Lord Field and to Dame Esther Rantzen.
Frank thought his death was near when he said two and a half years ago he had changed his mind on assisted suicide. It turned out he was not within six months of death. Fortunately, he completed his memoir Poverty, Politics and Belief. His researcher Daniel Sanchez helped Frank in his last years of full life. I was glad to have seen him recently on a quiet visit. He did not then talk of bringing forward his own death.
I told of working with Esther and her famous powerful That’s Life television programme. Ten million viewers saw our repeated items on the value of child restraints for babies and children travelling in cars. We saved lives together.
Esther and I could debate assisted dying. How many people would qualify under the terms suggested in the petition? Do not think it could be limited. If we had a Dutch level of medical assistance in death, we could multiply the number of existing suicides by four to over 20,000. Challenge those who say all the conditions and safeguards would be preserved.
MPs and our staff try to help someone who writes or rings up to say, ”I’m going to do away with myself because of the condition I am in” or who says they will because of how they feel. We do not say, “We are debating making it easier for you to carry that out.” We say, “Can we talk? Can we pass you to someone else you can talk to? This help might make your life different and changed.”
I am grateful to have been adopted to stand for election for the reformed Worthing West constituency so I can speak up for the vulnerable who might lose out in an unjustified relaxation of protections against early death on someone else’s request, or against an elderly or disabled person thinking there is a duty to get out of the way.
The lived experience of those afflicted by abuse or misuse of drugs or alcohol informs the work of CHANGE GROW LIVE, the health and social care charity providing vital support services in the constituency. They help vulnerable people into secure housing. They aim to stop the cycle in and out of courts and prisons. They work to prevent health co-morbidities. On my visit, I thanked everyone with them in the Alcohol Health Alliance, working to reduce harm, to improve lives.
The voices of parents and teachers, with the needs of pupils, were important in bringing forward popular improvements in our schools and colleges. Their expert experiences have been the basis of changes for the better, for the good of all.
