Parliament returned this week and began with the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the Government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session. It was delivered by Prince Charles this year who announced the Government’s plans for 38 new bills. Sadly many of them are just headlines with no detail – like levelling up. I spoke in the Queen’s Speech and highlighted the real poverty in Hackney, which levelling up does not address. Hackney is the seventh most deprived borough but is only in the ‘priority two’ group in the Government’s Levelling Up Fund. I’ll keep urging the Government to step up and deliver for struggling families and households in Hackney. See here to watch a clip of my speech and see here to watch the speech in full.
 
The Public Accounts Committee challenged the most senior civil servant at the Department for Education on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) review that was published in March. In Hackney alone, there is a £13 million budget shortfall for SEND provision so there is still a lot that needs to be done to achieve the outcomes promised in the review. There is now a consultation on the proposals contained in the SEND review. You can have your say by contributing here before the 1 July 2022.
 
And a big congratulations to Phil Glanville who was successfully re-elected as the Mayor of Hackney in the local elections last week. Congratulations also to all councillors elected to serve the borough of Hackney. It is a real honour to be a public servant and so I look forward to working with all the new and re-elected councillors in Hackney South and Shoreditch. See here to read the results in full.