Cornwall Council has been allocated a capital cash injection of £9.19 million in High Needs Provision funding for 2026–27, as part of a national investment to increase specialist school places and strengthen specialist support in mainstream settings. This funding will support improvements to SEND provision across Cornwall and help more children receive the right support closer to home. The funding comes at a critical time, with demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in Cornwall having risen by 87% between 2019 and 2025, which exceeds the national increase. Cornwall Council’s allocation is 9% higher per pupil compared with other rural authorities with dispersed populations, recognising the high need and additional challenges and costs we face as a rural and coastal region. Alongside this capital investment, Cornwall has also received over £3 million to establish an ‘Experts at Hand’ service. This will help provide a bank of educational psychologists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, so local children with SEND receive timely support at an earlier stage. Through casework, roundtables and surgeries, I have been in conversation with many families and service providers across Truro and Falmouth, who know the SEND system and its challenges well. This investment represents a step towards addressing some of those concerns and improving SEND provision in Cornwall.

I know that a lot of families and businesses in Truro & Falmouth are feeling the impact of global energy pressures as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. I was pleased that this Labour government announced a series of steps to help end our dependence on international fossil fuel markets and move towards cheap, clean power that’s in our control, whilst bringing our energy bills down for good. And it’s what we need to do for the planet. Win-win. Steps being taken: Taking steps to delink gas and electricity prices, including by introducing new fixed price contracts for electricity generators, ensuring their prices will not surge in the event of future gas price spikes Increasing the Boiler Upgrade Scheme Grant available to households on heating oil and LPG, taking the total grant to £9,000 Expanding the Social Housing Fund with an additional £100m of funding to upgrade tens of thousands of social homes this year Making it easier to own EVs and solar panels by removing the need for planning permission for EV home charging and rooftop solar Expanding GB Energy’s solar for schools programme to an extra 100 schools so they can fit solar panels this summer Speeding up grid connections Mandating community benefits so that communities that host new wind and solar will directly benefit from the projects through community funding

South West Water have started fixing combined storm overflows in Falmouth. This month, I visited Gyllyngvase Beach to see the new stormwater storage tank they’ve built under Gylly carpark. This will cut sewage spills massively from when it is connected next month until at least 2050. Other investment work across Falmou th will follow, including Stack Point, Prince of Wales pier and 14 other sites, so that sewage overflow will be negligible within 2 years. Falmouth is first because bathing waters and shellfish waters have been prioritised for clean up, but now we need action across the rest of the Cornish coastline.

Cornwall Council has received around £10 million in Government funding for 2026–27 to help households cope with the rising cost of living, among other measures. A majority of this (£8.25 million) will be used for the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, which is there to support households struggling with essential costs such as energy bills, daily living expenses, food, and emergency housing needs. It replaces the Household Support Fund, which was due to end, and will continue for the next 3 years to give local authorities greater certainty. On top of this, following the sharp increase in heating oil prices, Cornwall Council has received £1.53 million in emergency funding to support low‑income households that rely on oil to heat their homes and water. Cornwall Council are in charge of distribution and has set the criteria for who can receive the funding, offering £300 payments to people receiving Council Tax Support or those exempt due to chronic mental illness. Applications can be made here: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/.../crisis-and-resilience.../ Cornwall also continues to benefit from the Time2Move Holiday Programme, fully funded by the Department for Education. This programme provides activities and meals during school holidays for children eligible for benefits‑related free school meals. See more here: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/.../time2move-holiday-programme/ I want to ensure that everyone who is eligible knows about this support and can access it, so that the significant investment reaches those who need it most.

Access to a banking branch is so important. The big banks have been pulling their branches out of our towns and cities at great speed post-Covid. While online and mobile banking work well for some, they don’t work for everyone. Lots of people still need face to face advice and want to be able to pay in a cheque or get help with their account. Local businesses also rely on physical banking services to deposit cash and withdraw money for a float. Around 70% of small businesses continue to use bank branches. That’s why I’m pleased that Falmouth’s Banking Hub is now open at the Falmouth Town Council office on The Moor. The hub operates 5 days a week, from 9.15am - 5.00pm, with most major banks catered to. You can access cash and basic banking services through a traditional counter service. In addition, community bankers from the five banks with the largest customer bases locally will attend one day each week, offering support with more complex issues such as debt advice, bereavement services, and fraud concerns. Come and try it out…

We are improving the council tax system so that it is fairer for taxpayers. This will be the first change to the administration of bills since 1993. The current system means that missing 1 monthly payment can have devastating financial consequences as households become liable to pay their entire annual council tax bill just 2 weeks later. This Labour Government are putting an end to practices that push households into unnecessary financial distress. From next year, households will have 63 days, giving people more time to settle their bills. Councils will also be required to work with residents to agree sustainable repayment plans, rather than rushing to enforcement. Reform of council tax debt collection is a priority, and these changes will protect those who fall behind from aggressive enforcement action. Liability order costs will be capped at £100, and unnecessary escalation will be slowed so a single missed payment doesn’t spiral into crisis. Billing will move to 12 monthly payments by default, instead of being compressed into 10 months, helping families spread costs more evenly across the year. We will also modernise outdated and stigmatising language that is used in the system, move towards a simpler application process and provide clearer and more consistent information on council tax bills.

Education Education Education has always been so important to Labour governments and me particularly as a teaching assistant for 7 years. The SEND system has been failing since austerity and covid and the 2014 changes did not work as planned. That’s why we are reforming the school system so that young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities get earlier support when they need it. After 18 months of extensive consultation with families, schools, experts, and government departments, we have published the Schools White Paper, a serious and thoughtful attempt to put things right for the long-term. We’re investing billions over the next 3 years to lay the groundwork for these wider changes. Stand out measures include: £1.6 billion for targeted support in early years, schools, and colleges. £1.8 billion for an “Experts at Hand” service, giving every school access to specialists such as speech and language therapists. £200 million to ensure every teacher receives SEND training. £3.7 billion to expand Inclusion Bases, improve accessibility, and create new special school places. There’s a lot of misinformation, so I want to reiterate that… Every child with SEND will have a legal right to an Individual Support Plan (ISP) or an EHCP. Existing EHCPs will remain protected. Any transition to ISPs in mainstream schools will not begin until 2030 and only at natural transition points. No child in a special school will be required to move to mainstream. Tribunals will remain available as a last resort. A public consultation on the Paper is open until 18 May 2026. To take part, follow this link: SEND reform: putting children and young people first - GOV.UK I will also be engaging with families and professionals through round tables to gather local perspectives. If you would like to take part, please contact my office by emailing jayne.kirkham.mp@parliament.uk or calling 01872 300 353

With the support of £1 billion from GB Energy, the UK’s new state energy company, we can generate and benefit from energy produced in our own communities. As we transition to clean power, we have the chance to build an economy that works for local people and the planet rather than rich oil companies.   The Co-operative Party has long campaigned for publicly owned and community-controlled power, and this made it into the Labour manifesto. The Government’s Local Power Plan is the biggest public investment in community energy in our history, backing more than 1,000 local clean energy projects in libraries, leisure centres and community spaces. Cornwall is already seeing the benefits of GB Energy, with funding for solar panels on hospitals and schools to cut energy bills. And £40,000 was recently awarded to Community Energy Plus for the Cornwall Home Upgrade Hub, to help households reduce energy use and costs. We have strong foundations for local power. Under the Low Carbon Communities Challenge launched in 2009 under the last Labour government, Low Carbon Ladock received £500,000 to invest in solar panels on homes, biomass boilers, and ground‑source and air‑source heat systems. Profits have since funded a safer school crossing, improvements to the playing field and more renewables. The Local Power Plan is a move towards greater energy security for the future, local prosperity, and a fairer system. It shows that locally owned, clean power is not only possible but ready to go.

One of the Prime Minister’s ambitions is for 2/3 of young people to be in higher or further education or in an apprenticeship. And apprenticeships are traditionally the best way for young people to access and learn new skills while also earning a wage. Education should lead us to decent and rewarding jobs. The Government is backing apprenticeships with funding for training and I am working with Government to see how we can put more into them from the Apprenticeship Levy – particularly hospitality jobs. Hopefully, the new Youth Guarantee will help young people in Cornwall who are struggling out of work and education. Significant investment is being made to support young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET): Those who are between 16 and 24 on Universal Credit will be able to access thousands of new training or workplace opportunities in all sorts of sectors, including construction, health and social care and hospitality. Youth Hubs will be expanded to every local area. A new Youth Guarantee Gateway will give dedicated sessions and support to almost 900,000 young people on Universal Credit. For National Apprenticeship week I visited the Cornwall Apprenticeship Awards, where so many young people had overcome personal challenges, gained new skills and moved on in their lives and also gained huge amounts of confidence. I also met apprentices from Pendennis Shipyard who were helping do up Falmouth Primary School’s new breakfast club building.

It’s great that Falmouth Primary has been awarded funding for a Free Breakfast Club from April 2026. In Truro and Falmouth, we already have Free Breakfast Clubs at Tregony Community Primary School and St Francis CofE Primary School. These clubs give young people the best start to the day and support parents at the same time. So far, 7 million breakfasts have been served. Applications just opened for 1,500 schools to join the programme in September. See how to apply here: free-breakfast-clubs.education.gov.uk Falmouth Primary Academy also have an upcoming trip to London, where the travel fund from Parliament has helped fund their travel. I also want some some Cornish schools to benefit from the funding for the new school nurseries. I have been doing some work with the Parliament Education office, and they recently announced changes that will make it easier for schools from deprived areas far from Westminster to get tickets and travel funding. This is essential for areas far from Westminster, like us here in Cornwall.

My son will attest that I don’t have much of a grasp of technology, and I know many parents feel the same. Most of us don’t have a full awareness of what our children are doing online or the reality of the content they’re seeing. Change is needed to keep young people safe online, which is why the government’s consultation launched in January is so important. We are taking action to make the online world safer by: Considering and debating the introduction of a minimum social media age limit. Restricting harmful design features. Preventing children from sending or receiving nude images. Tightening online safety laws so AI chatbot providers must operate with proper controls. Ending high-risk features such as stranger pairing and live streaming. Work is also underway on automatic data preservation so that, in tragic circumstances, coroners have access to crucial evidence. Running the ‘ You Won’t Know Until You Ask’ campaign to give parents practical tools to start important conversations about body image, misinform ation, and harmful content. Stopping X’s AI bot, Grok, from creating non-consensual sexualised images. Protecting children must come first, and platforms must be held accountable. But our decisions need to be thoughtful, evidence based and grounded in the realities of children’s lives. Overly strict bans risk pushing young people to new and less regulated platforms or leaving them unprepared at 17. And lots of children, including those in rural areas, disabled children, or LGBTQ+ young people, use social media for connection, community and support.

Recently, I visited Crantock Beach, a beautiful surf spot and holiday destination, but also a coastline vulnerable to powerful Atlantic swells and storms. I met members of the Crantock Surf Life Saving (SLS) Club, who are fundraising for a new clubhouse, as their current building is deteriorating and now sits close to the cliff edge. The club has 160 members, many of them local children training to become lifeguards. With several rip currents caused by shifting sands, their skills play a really important role in keeping beach users safe in Cornwall. The RNLI also operates from the site. Jolyon from Making Space for Sand (MS4S), a project helping coastal communities adapt to erosion, rising sea levels and increasing storm activity, showed me how the dunes are moving faster than expected. This activity has forced the club to relocate equipment and reinforce its shed to keep operating. MS4S has provided secure storage units and contributed funding towards a more resilient clubhouse. If you can help, your donation will support the SLS Club to create a safe, future-proof space for training and community events.