1. Daniel Greenhough Office of Catherine McKinnell MP Newcastle CVS 20 February 2012

2. Newcastle MPs Nick Brown – Newcastle East Former Chief Whip, Minister for North East Catherine McKinnell – Newcastle North Shadow Minister for Children and Young Families Chi Onwurah – Newcastle Central Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation & Skills

4. MP’s role MPs represent constituents by : Contributing in Parliament Taking up individual cases Speaking in the media Campaigning on specific issues

5. Parliament Questions to Ministers (written and oral) – including the Prime Minister Debates – initiating debates, speeches, interventions. Early Day Motions All Party Parliamentary Groups eg APPG on multiple sclerosis, international anti-corruption

6. Working together through Parliament MPs can use parliamentary questions to raise issues and obtain information useful to voluntary organisations MPs can raise the cases of individual organisations (or service users) in debates APPGs work with many voluntary organisations Tours and visits to Parliament

7. Individual casework Make contact with agencies on behalf of individuals Strict protocol that MPs can only take up the cases of constituents Data protection of paramount concern

8. Working together on casework Collaborating on individual cases Sharing briefing information about cases or trends Potential for joint surgeries on particular issues

9. Media Commenting on constituency, city or regional issues Events : meeting service users What’s the story? What’s the image? Real life examples

10. Working together through media Building profile eg supporting campaign / launching report Highlighting issues / experience of individuals Ongoing campaigns

11. Apprenticeships Economic development Front bench policy – including adoption and looked-after children

12. Communications Email/post but follow-up by phone MPs normally in constituency on Fridays / recesses Briefing : who, what, when, where, why? Constituency-level information