Bridget Phillipson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  The hubs will be key to our vision for how we better join up education and health services in the community, but they will also work with voluntary and community groups, childminders, libraries and others to bring services close to local people. My hon. Friend talked about the important links between early years settings and the start of school. We are setting out through the strategy how we will do more to better join up the support between early years settings and schools. We will use that not only as the basis for greater expertise, training and development, but, crucially, as the basis for better life chances and opportunities for children. If we can identify where children are struggling and not making the progress we would hope they were making, and share that at the start of school, it will make a really big difference.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  It is only through my hon. Friend’s election and through a Labour Government that this investment will be coming to her community. The first investment will start to flow this year, allowing her local authority to get the systems and structures in place that will enable them to open up next year. I am delighted that in the first year of a Labour Government my hon. Friend’s constituents are already starting to feel the benefits that come from having sent her to this place.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady asks a number of questions and I am grateful for her broad welcome for the intent of this Government to make sure that all of our children get the best start in life. On early years, she will know that as of next year we are investing £9 billion into the system along with a near-doubling of the early years pupil premium. That goes hand in hand with the £75 million expansion grant to support the sector ahead of the September further expansion. In addition, we are working across Government, as the strategy sets out, on how we might consider simplification of funding and how we can make sure it is working as intended for both providers and for parents. I would of course be happy to discuss further issues on that with the hon. Lady. As she said, the Minister for early years education, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), met Genevieve’s family and the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) last week. To answer directly the question on Ofsted, from next April Ofsted will inspect new early years providers within 18 months of opening and will move towards inspecting all providers at least once every four years, compared with six years currently, alongside there being additional investment to strengthen quality assurance and inspector training to make sure that all children are safe, loved and protected. I also join with the hon. Lady in sending my condolences to the families affected.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  As a Government, we want to ensure that more brilliant people want come and work in early years, and that they can gain qualifications and training, and build fulfilling careers. We will work with the sector to do that. We will recruit more early years teachers, particularly in the areas where they are needed most, more than doubling the number of funded early years initial teacher training courses by 2028, and rolling out a new early years teacher degree apprenticeship. That goes hand in hand with consulting with the sector on introducing a new £4,500 early years teacher incentive to attract and keep early years teachers in nurseries serving some of our most disadvantaged communities.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  Children will continue to receive the high-quality support that they need—I can give the hon. Gentleman that absolute and categorical assurance. Once again, I observe that Conservative Members did not show the same level of interest when they were in government. That is why we have ended up in this sorry state, with far too many children being failed by the system left behind by his party. We are determined to improve outcomes for children with SEND and to put in place better support, and that is backed up by the extra investment already going into the system. Of course, there is much more that we need to do to deliver better outcomes for all children. That is what we are working towards, and the reform that we will set out will be properly informed and shaped by the conversations, discussions and meetings that I, ministerial colleagues and officials are having with parents, groups and campaigners in order to get this right. If the Conservatives would like to be constructive about that—just for once—I would be happy to engage with them on it, but I am afraid that is not what we are seeing this afternoon.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Through the announcement today, his local authority will benefit from extra investment in Best Start family hubs. Again, that is the difference that comes from electing him to this place. He is right to identify the growing challenge that many of our young people experience with their wellbeing and mental health, including at a young age. Alongside the early support that we need to put in place, I know that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is determined to ensure that we are taking action on more acute services to tackle the unacceptable waits for child and adolescent mental health services. In addition, the support for parents through the Best Start family hubs will be critical. It is parents, working together with their children and professionals, who make the biggest difference. The evidence from Sure Start was clear about that.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on this Government’s vital work to change our country for good by giving every child the best start in life. The focus today is firmly on our youngest children, but the impact will be much more broader. This Government are building a stronger, fairer society, and we will lay the foundations for it in the earliest years of our children’s lives. Because we are determined to tackle the root causes of problems, not just the symptoms, we begin at the start. The inequalities that stain our country and the ways in which opportunity is heaped on some but hidden from others are disparities that do not suddenly spring up in adulthood. Our babies are born into an unequal world, and the inequality grows with them, right from the very first days when we carry them home from hospital. Early differences in the support that families can get, in the early education and childcare that parents can access, and in the opportunities that children have to start exploring are all differences—these and many more—that take hold early on. The winds of fortune are already there on the first day of school—a gale at the backs of some; a blizzard in the faces of others. These differences mean that some children arrive in the classroom not yet ready to learn. They mean that while two thirds of children reach a good level of development by age five, a third do not. Half of our children on free school meals miss that important milestone, and this injustice is fuelled by those differences. A Labour Government will not tolerate our children being failed like this. Within months of taking office, we set out in our plan for change our ambition to get a record share of children to reach a good level of development by the age of five, because it matters so much for those young lives. Our plan goes further—it sets the tone. Forty per cent of the disadvantage gap at the age of 16 is already there at the age of five. Next month, we know that young people across the country will pick up their exam results. Some will do well, but sadly some others will be disappointed, and those results-day stories of smiles and frowns for our young people begin to be written in the first years of their lives, so if we want to build an education system where every child can achieve and thrive, if we want to grow a society where the opportunity to get on is open to all, and if we want to deliver the change that the country so desperately needs, we have to focus on the early years. We have to give every child the best start in life. That is where my priority as Education Secretary lies, and that is why, just 12 months after entering government, I am proud to be here today to set out our “best start in life” strategy, which we are determined will change the country for good. Giving every child the best start in life begins with families. Becoming a parent or a carer is full of joy and wonder, but we all know that it can sometimes be hard—and it can feel isolating, too—so parents and carers need to know that they can tap into a community of support. They need to know that they are not alone, but we are falling short. One in four families with children under five struggle to get trusted advice; for families on low incomes, it is one in three. It was not always like that. There was a time when Government cared deeply about children’s development. Members across the House will know all about Sure Start, the quiet revolution in the lives of our children carried out by the last Labour Government. Sure Start was one of the proudest achievements of that Labour Government, and I am proud today to build on its legacy. We remember all the good it did for our children, for our communities and for our country. Sure Start raised exam results and reduced hospitalisations. It improved early identification, boosted physical health and boosted mental health. It reached disadvantaged families and made a difference to their lives. Sure Start was a triumph. Of course, it was not perfect —no programme ever is—but it worked in so many ways and for so many families, and never more so that when it stuck to its principles and brought together the excellent services that parents need. At the heart of its success were the children’s centres: one-stop shops where families knew where they could go for help; a comforting and consistent offer of support all in one place. There are many ways in which 14 years of Conservative Government damaged our country and our society, but the vandalism they inflicted on the lives of our youngest children—tearing these services out of communities, deepening inequalities and abandoning families—should never be forgotten. Today, the Government will right that terrible wrong and restore hope to families. Our Best Start service will honour the proud legacy of Sure Start. Today’s Labour Government stand on the shoulders of those who went before, but we do so to look forward to the better future our children deserve, not back to the past. That is how we will deliver for a new generation of families. We will introduce a new Best Start family service delivered through Best Start family hubs: the first step to a national family service that ensures that families can get the right support for their children from conception to age five, giving parents the freedom to focus on loving their children. This morning, we announced the national year of reading for 2026. We want to give parents more time to read with their children, to grow a love of learning that starts in the home and flows throughout a child’s life. Best Start family hubs will be open to all, rooted in disadvantaged communities. They will work with nurseries, childminders, schools, health services, libraries and local voluntary groups—a whole community coming together around one goal: to give children the best possible start in life. Our Best Start digital service means that we are ready for the future, linking families to their local Best Start family hubs and exploring how the power of artificial intelligence can help parents find the right information. We will also make early education and care more affordable and easier to access. From the day the Government won the backing of the people, we set about delivering the entitlement of 30 hours of Government-funded childcare a week for working families, backed by funding reaching £9 billion from next year. Last July, we inherited a pledge without a plan, but the Government are delivering on our promise to parents, because I know how much it matters that promises made are promises kept to the future of our country and to the trust between families and their Government. The cost of childcare will no longer price parents out of the jobs they love; instead, they will have the choice and freedom to work the hours they want and an average of £7,500 a year back in their pockets. I thank all those who are working with us to drive that change, from private nurseries to school-based ones, group-based providers, childminders, dedicated professionals, and early years educators who are transforming life chances. Almost £370 million was provided by the Chancellor in the spending review, and we are building and expanding more nurseries in primary schools, with the first of the 6,000 extra places coming from September this year. Soon enough, 80% of childcare in this country will be Government-backed. The message is clear: this Labour Government are on the side of families. The Labour party is the party of family. That means that childcare must be better linked to educational priorities, better geared to closing attainment gaps, and better focused on all our children succeeding at school. Our early years educators are too often the hidden heroes of our communities. It is past time that we backed them, so we will raise the status of our workforce. There will be a new professional register, because working in early years is just that: a profession. There will be more high-quality training for staff, guided by the golden thread of the best evidence, and we will train more early years teachers, because we know the difference that they make to our young ones. Our stronger practice hubs will double in number, and we will offer new financial incentives to attract and keep great early years teachers in the nurseries that serve the most disadvantaged communities. Every child deserves a great education and a great start in life, and that must extend to our children with special educational needs and disabilities. Early intervention can work wonders to lower barriers to learning, so under this Government, inclusive practice will become standard practice. This Government are driving a decade of national renewal, but there can be no decade of renewal for our country without a decade of renewal for our children. This is urgent, because children only get one chance. If opportunities are missed, parents do not get what they need. If that great nursery down the road has not been built yet, that is it—there is no going back. For 14 years, children’s lives marched on as services were ripped away. I will not stand by and watch as more and more children are let down. Through this strategy, I am bringing change—change for all our families, all our communities, and above all, our children. It is for them that our strategy was written, and it is for them that we will see it through, so that we give each and every child, from their first day in this world, the best start in life. I commend this statement to the House.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  That was very good. I slightly resisted being drawn into the Oasis references earlier, and now we have moved on to Blur. I will stay out of that one, even though I have my preference. My hon. Friend is right to talk about the importance of play for all children. It is striking—I am sure she will have heard the same thing from her younger constituents—that many children often do not feel safe to go out of the house and to be on our streets. We absolutely have to tackle that, because it is having a big impact on not just their mental health but their physical health. I would be happy to discuss that further with my hon. Friend.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  Yes, it is this Labour Government who will ensure that families get better access to health support and family services, and that they can do so much more rapidly. My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the record of the last Government in this area. She will know that it is not just in this part of our work that we are delivering real change for families in her community. I was delighted to join her to visit one of the first new free breakfast clubs opening at Denbigh primary school, and it was brilliant to be there right at the start of its breakfast club expansion. That is the difference she is bringing to her community for families, children and their life chances.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend, and I am pleased to hear about his experiences. It is important that services delivered through Best Start family hubs respond to the needs of mums, dads and carers alike. The example he gives demonstrates the importance of listening to parents about what they want to see. Through the measures announced today, his local authority area will benefit from extra investment in order to get up and running in the next year and on an ongoing basis. That shows once again the difference that a Labour Government are bringing to his community.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman will understand that I do not have at hand the precise details of the constituency school that he raises. I would be happy to arrange a meeting for him with the relevant Minister to discuss it further. We have secured additional investment in capital at the spending review. I recognise the wider question that he raises about making sure that there are more local places closer to home for children, to avoid them having to travel long distances, and we are looking at that carefully. As I say, I would be happy for him to have a meeting with the Minister to discuss it further.