THEY say a week is a long time in politics — so I’m glad that out of the 52 that have passed since being elected, local people are starting to tell me that I am making a difference in St Austell and Newquay.

Of course, I recognise work has only just begun but, I hope people are encouraged by last week’s announcement by our Labour Government of a record £29-billion investment on transforming the NHS via a 10-year health plan. Alongside, I have supported refurbishments

of Newquay Health Centre and Brannel Surgery — both of which will free up additional appointments for patients.

We’ve also invested in the rollout of 300 new or expanded school-based nurseries — Pondhu School in St Austell being one of the first earmarked for funding.

In parallel, I’m proud to have progressed the three election pledges I made to local people — Revitalising Towns, Tackling the Cornish Housing Crisis and Creating Jobs and Prosperity — which I explain a lot in these columns. What I can’t convey enough though, is the satisfaction when I can directly help constituents, such as people who need to leave abusive relationships.

Some political change is cultural, or about the sense of feeling. But when you look objectively at the direction of tax and spend, it shows more benefits both financial and in-kind in the form of public services and investment going disproportionally to those on lower incomes. But given the state of public discourse, people are surprised to hear that that is what’s actually happening.

Where we take progressive decisions, people need to know. Where we take the so-called difficult decisions, people need to see them in the round. But, above all - and a hard lesson learnt in the local elections - people need to feel the benefit of those progressive decisions first-hand.

To be brutally honest, a major learning for me as a previous non-politician has been about the behavioural aspects of policy making, which is probably best summarised as: Do the bad stuff big but do it on the down-low. Keep the good stuff small but salient.

This may sound cynical, but I've found constituents appreciate it when I lift the lid on the good, the bad, and the ugly of politics and tell it how it is.

But I have also learnt, given the inevitable potential for waffliness, how important it is to put business brains to work in politics -to project manage, work towards clear outcomes, communicate well and, quite simply, get stuff done.

After a year, I know for sure that having frequent, open and honest dialogue with constituents isn't some folly that leaves you exposed to gaffs — it's a must that people are crying out for in modern politicians — equivocation is no substitute. So whilst it's sometimes exhausting to be, against my colleagues' advice, the person behind the social media, it's been worth every minute. Hats off to my three Cornish Labour colleagues for their down-to-earth approach.

It's been a joy to work collaboratively cross-party both locally and in Westminster, through my committee work.