As is customary at this time of year, I thought I’d use this week’s column to reflect on the year just gone, but also to look to the year ahead.

Of course, on a personal level, this will go down as one of the most significant years of my life – and I have my voters to thank for that. In my maiden speech, which you can view on Hansard or on my website, I promised to keep them and the constituency in my heart through everything I do as an MP, and I have stayed true to this ideal from day one.

To begin, I felt it was important to ensure the centre of gravity for my office is the constituency. We have an office opposite Oxford station and most of my staff are here, not in Westminster.

Since June we have received over 9,000 emails or letters which we have done our best to get responses to as quickly as possible. Some are fairly straightforward but others are very challenging personal cases indeed. I have also held surgeries across the constituency and engaged with some heartbreaking stories involving housing, neglect, medical malpractice, and fraud.

It was only the week before Christmas that we were finally fully-staffed and it has been a challenge to both learn on the job and build an efficient operation from scratch, but we are getting there.

In Parliament, I have taken on a wide variety of issues. As a Remain-voting constituency, I continue to campaign for a Brexit that protects jobs and services, as well as allowing people a say on the final deal. I have also taken our local concerns to ministers, speaking with the Health minister about Abingdon Hospital bed closures, setting down over 250 Parliamentary Questions on issues from local bus services to the engagement of the Foreign Office on missing constituents abroad, and hosted debates on children’s centres and period poverty. I also beeline for any local schools coming to visit Parliament, if I can make it, to meet the students and answer their questions.

To the year ahead, I am sure Brexit will continue to feature. But I am determined to ensure local issues, which include the A34, schools and the NHS, are not forgotten. As education spokesperson for my party, we will be unveiling new education policy where I am determined to put children’s well-being at the centre of the debate, and I will continue to hold local councils and central Government to account on the decisions that affect our area.

The last few months have been an incredible learning curve. I value your feedback, complimentary or critical, on this column or anything else. If you have yet to get in touch and want to, please do. After all, in the end, I work for you. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.