PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1595 Easter Adjournment
26 MARCH 2013 Easter Adjournment
1596
[Justin Tomlinson]
which generate lots of excitement. I then ask, “How
many of you will actually set up your own business?”
Suddenly the hands go down and tumbleweed floats
past. I ask them why. I would normally expect them to
say that the reason is access to finance, but it is not
that—it is simply that they do not know how to do it.
They are looking for mentors, opportunities and a set
career path. If someone is applying to go to university,
they fill in the UCAS forms and secure their grades. If
they are applying for an apprenticeship or a job in the
local economy, they send in their CV, yet there is not
such clear guidance on setting up one’s own business.
To deal with that issue, I, one of the chief fundraisers
at Prospect hospice, Amy Falconer, and Andrew Paterson,
a lecturer at one of my local colleges, Swindon college,
allocated £10 to seven teams and set them the task of
trading at Blunsdon market. It is a challenging trading
environment; an indoor market that is not at capacity
and has limited footfall. I secured mentors from Smiths
News, Nouble Furniture, Asda and Barclays to come
along to support those teams to formulate ideas and to
choose the products and services that they would offer.
We made sure that the teams understood that their
stall would be simply a wooden trestle table that would
need dressing up, but that, if they spent too much
money dressing it up, they would not make any money.
They needed to promote themselves. They competed
against existing traders and the other teams. They also
looked at promotion to ensure that they did not rely just
on the footfall, on what turned out to be an exceptionally
cold and wet Wednesday in the market, and got friends
and family along. They also were told that they would
have to stand on their feet all day, that being in retail is a
real challenge, that customers would haggle and that
they would have to do mental arithmetic and ensure
that they had sufficient change.
When we got to the market, the seven teams set up.
All seven managed to trade extremely well and to make
a profit. In fact, the teams managed to raise £838.70 for
the hospice. On a very quiet and cold day, that was an
incredibly impressive performance. At last Friday’s
presentation event, I saw how much they had changed
from when they first decided to take up the challenge.
I want to highlight two of the teams. Art Creations
focused on providing henna tattoos. My mother, who is
a 72-year-old councillor, and my wife were covered with
henna tattoos after visiting that stand. Art Creations
managed to make over £100. The Double Trouble team
was run by Jessica and Kay, who set up a 1950s cake
stall. They were dressed in 1950s clothing. They sold
hand-made bags and all the cakes were home-made.
There was 1950s music playing. They gave incredible
customer service. That team got over £100 as well.
The key point for those two teams is that they have
been invited to return to Blunsdon market in the summer
holidays. Those students are all sixth formers considering
their career options. They can come back for six weeks
to see whether their ideas can work beyond a day and
whether they can work for themselves. They will be
working with Forward Swindon and In Swindon, two
of the organisations charged with re-energising our
town centre using Government money to boost the high
street. Those teams have both been offered opportunities
to take advantage of the provision for pop-up shops;
they will probably be the first teams to benefit from
that. All things being equal and working in the real
commercial world, they will have the opportunity to
consider that as a career. That career path has been laid
out for them.
With all these students, if they step up, volunteer and
succeed, I will do all I can to get the mentors in place to
support them. We all have the opportunity to support
keen, young and enthusiastic people. They will be the
next generation of wealth creators providing employment.
We MPs will, I am sure, be queuing up to cut the ribbon
and taste the fantastic cakes that they will have at their
opening ceremony.
7.33 pm
Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con): I am
grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of accident
and emergency provision at Milton Keynes hospital,
which serves my constituents and indeed some of your
constituents, Mr Speaker. The Lord Commissioner of
Her Majesty’s Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member
for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster), and I have
joined forces with one of our excellent local newspapers,
the Milton Keynes Citizen, to campaign for a new A and
E centre.
The issue is simply one of space. Our hospital was
built in the early 1980s and the A and E department was
designed for approximately 20,000 patients a year. With
population growth and other increases in A and E
usage, it is now dealing with well over three times that
number each year, and very soon it will reach four times
that number.
At this point, I would like to put on the record my
deep appreciation of and admiration for the many
dedicated staff at the hospital. Although there are certainly
long-standing problems in parts of the NHS that have
rightly been highlighted and addressed, not least by my
hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy), it
is too easy to overlook the fact that the vast majority of
NHS staff do an excellent job and deeply care for their
patients. That is certainly what I have found on visiting
Milton Keynes hospital.
However, given an existing population of some 250,000,
the accident and emergency centre is already too small.
With more than 20,000 housing permissions in place
locally over the next 10 years or so and in the light of
demographic changes, we will have a larger elderly
population and there will be a constant upward demand
on A and E services.
It is also pertinent to mention that the hospital site
includes an urgent care centre, opened as part of the
Darzi plans a few years ago. Although it was set up with
the very best of intentions, far from reducing demand
on the A and E department, it has led to an increase
because, understandably, people can become confused
about where best to go for treatment.
The emergency care intensive support team recently
reviewed the A and E centre and recommended that the
NHS trust should seek capital support for what it calls a
“common front door” provision. I am happy to report
that all the relevant local stakeholders have developed
plans for a single-point-of-access system in which those
who need the full A and E treatment get it and those
with less serious ailments get proper and timely treatment
without being pushed from pillar to post.