Press Release

18th October 2005

Constituency Diary For James Paice MP

10:30am –11:30am Jim will be opening the Sparrowhawk Way woodland walk in Witchford, Ely.

• Jim said: “The woodland walk is a fantastic new amenity for Witchford and a testament to the hard work of local residents. Anyone who saw this impassable area of the woods before work began knows what an achievement Sparrowhawk Way is and I’m sure it will be enjoyed by bird watchers and walkers for many years to come.” 

• Jim will be cutting the ribbon at 11am at the Sandpit Drove along Broadway, Witchford. Photographers welcome.

12-1:15pm Jim will be meeting with Graham Butland, chief executive of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) and members of staff. EACH runs the Milton children’s hospice which faces a deficit of £600,000 next year as lottery funding comes to an end. Closed meeting.

• Jim said: “The Government constantly boasts about how much it has increased health expenditure but in one afternoon I have visited two children’s services facing serious cuts to frontline services as a result of funding shortages.”

• “The children’s hospice in Milton provides unique in-house care to children from across Cambridgeshire and I will do everything I can to help Graham Butland and his staff mitigate the effects of the serious funding constraints they face.” 

• Mr Butland said: “We are delighted that Mr Paice is taking time out from his busy diary to hear about the funding issues facing children’s hospices which so severely affect the amount of care and support they are able to give to the children and their families.”

1.30-2.30pm Jim will be visiting the Young People’s Service at Trumpington Road, Cambridge. As a result of the funding crisis faced by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust it is proposed that the YPS - a multi-disciplinary service providing psychotherapy to vulnerable youngsters aged between 16 and 25 years – suspends referrals and limits therapies. Closed meeting.

• Jim said: “Some 450 vulnerable youngsters benefit from the Young People’s Service each year and I am concerned by predictions that the proposed cuts to the service would increase their vulnerability to suicidal behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse and homelessness.”

• Dr Shankarnarayan Srinath, Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the Young People’s Service, said: “The Young People’s Service, which would be dismantled if the current proposals are implemented, has over 450 youngsters referred each year and costs less than two acute psychiatric beds to run. The acute services, which are already over-stretched and are facing closure of wards, and the children’s services, which have lost some of their funding, do not have the necessary resources to take on the additional load. Voluntary services, which are also facing funding cuts, do not have the same expertise, personnel and support to absorb the demands. It is important to keep in mind that young people’s difficulties are complex and they do not easily access normal adult acute services.”