Last week I was proud to launch the Disability Action Plan in my role as Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work. This new wide-ranging plan sets out 32 practical actions to transform the everyday lives of disabled people. It will mean disabled children can rightly enjoy the fun of the playground, disabled customers can use the services they’re entitled to and businesses who break laws around assistance dogs will be firmly held to account amongst other impactful changes. The Plan will make a real difference to disabled people’s daily lives and vitally supports our National Disability Strategy’s long-term goals.
Patients will benefit from millions more NHS dental appointments over the next year, thanks to a major new plan to ensure easier and faster access to NHS dental care across England. Under the plans, supported by £200m of Government funding, NHS dentists will be given a ‘new patient’ payment of between £15-£50 (depending on treatment need) to treat around a million new patients who have not seen an NHS dentist in two years or more. Our Dental Recovery Plan could see up to 2.5 million additional NHS dental appointments delivered for patients over the next 12 months, including up to 1.5 million extra treatments being delivered. It’s been a major local issue and I'm very pleased with this step forward for my constituents-details are on my website.
The Home Office announced new measures to put a stop to protestors using protests as an excuse to cause criminal damage, climb war memorials, stop ambulances getting to hospitals and saving lives, and disrupting individual's lives. The people war memorials honour gave their lives to protect our freedom. No one can reasonably claim attacking such monuments represents the legitimate exercise of free speech.
The Government is reforming the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to crack down on parents who refuse to pay and ensure children get the support they deserve more quickly. Additionally, the £20 CMS application fee will be scrapped from 26 February. Parents can find more information on how to make arrangements for maintenance payments via the ‘Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance’ tool.