There could not have been a better time for this matter to be taken on the Adjournment. While the country is being battered by storms and floods, a small army of people turn up in hail, rain and snow at schools throughout the country to ensure that children can safely cross the road at the beginning of their journey home. The job is done mainly by women who are described as "lollipop ladies" but whose official title is school traffic warden. It is not a glamorous job and only pays about £70 per week. However, it is a vitally important task. Up to this year when schools closed for the summer holidays, the school traffic wardens signed on at the local employment exchange and received payment. I presume that in the Minister's reply I will be told that people who sign on at such exchanges must be actively seeking employment, and I am aware that is one of the criteria laid down. However, in practice, what happened up to this year was that, very sensibly and practically, the people processing the claims in the local labour exchanges realised the value of the work these people were doing and simply paid them the benefit for the duration of the summer holidays. That system operated until this year when a number of the women working as "lollipop ladies" were told that they had to actively seek full-time employment. Prior to the change in their entitlement to benefit, there was already a crisis in local authorities concerning people who were available and willing to take up work as school traffic wardens. As a result of what I have been told about the changes in the way in which these people are dealt with, that crisis will become more evident as time goes on.
The Minister for Education and Science or the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs or both will have to address this issue. If we continue to deal with it the way it was dealt with this summer, it will force women, who in the main do this job, to seek employment in McDonalds or Intel or wherever they can get employment. They will be reluctant as a result to return to the job they were doing because it is not easy. They turn out in the worst possible weathers and do a very important and responsible job. If they do not turn out, it will mean local authorities, the Minister for Education and Science and schools throughout the country will be faced with a crisis with regard to how children will get across the road safely.
Either the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs recognises the precedent throughout previous summers and allows these people to sign on and receive their benefit or the Minister for Education and Science accepts that that is not appropriate and that they cannot be available for and actively seeking work during the summer and must return to work in September. If that is the case, there is a responsibility on the Minister for Education and Science to pay these people during the summer months they do not work as school wardens. They do not do so not because they do not want to but because the job is not there for them during the summer. They sign on, collect meagre benefit during the summer and go back to the job they enjoy.
It is an important job and not just from the point of view of the safety of children getting across the road. I know from my experience and from my involvement and friendship with women who are school wardens that children often speak to the school warden, the "lollipop lady", about problems and concerns they have which they might not approach other people with.
What happened this summer, where a large number of school wardens – lollipop ladies – were told they would not be paid during the summer, to go and get full-time employment or to hang around without being paid and return and do a very valuable job, is not acceptable. It should and must be addressed before the Christmas holidays and before it becomes a crisis for schools.
