Michael Payne

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart. I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) on securing this important debate on lifelong learning and on his incredibly powerful contribution. I pay particular tribute to the extraordinary work of the u3a, both nationally and across my constituency. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to more than 120 members of Arnold u3a, and I want to thank all the wonderful u3a groups across Gedling, which collectively support more than 2,000 of my constituents. Their contribution to lifelong learning, friendship and tackling loneliness is truly inspirational. The importance of that came home to me particularly powerfully last weekend when I attended a new friendship group in Mapperley in my constituency that was established by the inspirational Sarah Klotschkow. Sarah tragically lost both her beloved parents to cancer, yet out of the heartbreak of bereavement, she found the extraordinary strength and compassion to create something positive for others, bringing people together, building friendships and tackling loneliness and isolation. I pay a special tribute to Sarah today. She reminds us of the extraordinary difference one person can make to everybody else’s lives. I was also delighted to speak at the recent parliamentary launch of the u3a’s excellent “Retirement Rewired” report. Drawing on the experience of more than 10,000 of its 438,000 members across the country, it found that 95% had said that u3a had improved their lives, 90% said it had helped them continue lifelong learning, and 45% said it had reduced loneliness or isolation. Those remarkable findings remind us that retirement should never mean retiring from curiosity, ambition, learning or contribution to society. I therefore ask the Minister how a national lifelong learning strategy could better support organisations such as the u3a alongside grassroots initiatives like Sarah’s in my constituency, because surely the measure of a learning society is not simply how well we educate our young people but how successfully we enable every generation to continue learning, contributing and flourishing throughout their lives.