Bridget Phillipson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2026 · Child Poverty · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with my hon. Friend. The joy of reading should be open to every child, and that is really important in this National Year of Reading. Local libraries are special places, and Reform should be investing in our libraries, so that children can access them, not shutting down displays that make all families feel welcome. Sadly, this is characteristic of a party that, in my area, let back in a councillor who said that Nigerians should be “melted down” to fill potholes. Not fit for power at any level.

• 22 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee for raising this shocking case. Our thoughts must be with all those who loved and knew Preston, and it is right that the evil abusers who committed those sickening and shocking crimes are now behind bars. The House can be assured that we take this extremely seriously. I have asked for independent experts to look at Oldham council, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS trust and the regional adoption agency to consider carefully all the issues and concerns that have been raised through this process. The child safeguarding practice review is commencing, led by the local safeguarding partnership with the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel working closely alongside to make sure it is of the highest quality. In response to the question that the Chair of the Select Committee asked, it is our intention to roll that out by March. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act represents the biggest upgrade to child protection legislation in a generation, and it is through those changes that we will make sure we keep all our children safe from harm.

• 29 Apr 2026 · Special Educational Needs Support · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a true champion for children and young people and families right across his community. He raises an important point. The SEND consultation we have brought forward is a joint document with the Department of Health and Social Care, because we know that this is about having a system that better responds not only to children’s educational needs when they are in school, but to wider health needs. That is why our Experts at Hand initiative will make sure there is better, targeted specialist support for all children who need it, avoiding the lengthy waits, the arduous process and the adversarial system that too many parents have to endure at the moment.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Falling School Rolls · Hansard source

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  I do not recognise the characterisation offered by the hon. Gentleman. He will know that through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are making changes that will allow local authorities and local areas to manage school places within their communities better, especially where we are seeing demographic change. Let me add that far too many schools were not serving children well—that was a situation that we inherited—but we are being taking firmer and swifter action to support those schools through our regional improvement for standards and excellence initiative. We cannot wait for late-stage failure before we go in and make change happen. Children and families deserve much more than that, and they deserve much better than the failed approach of the party opposite.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Educational Capacity · Hansard source

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  I completely agree that there can be no place for antisemitism in our school and colleges, or indeed anywhere in our society. That is why I have asked Sir David Bell to lead an independent review to look at what more we need to do to root out antisemitism from our schools and colleges. I encourage the right hon. Gentleman to share any thoughts with Sir David as he takes forward that important work. On the school that the right hon. Gentleman refers to, I encourage him and the school to work together with the local authority. However, I continue to believe that raising money to invest in our state schools is the right decision.

• 11 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right: women often spend years being dismissed, being misdiagnosed, or just not being listened to. That is unacceptable, and we are determined to tackle it. In order to improve early diagnosis of the condition, we continue to roll out community diagnostic centres, and our renewed women’s health strategy, which we will publish soon, will focus on speeding up diagnosis and treatment of both mental health and gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.

• 2 Mar 2026 · School SEND Provision · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. This is about how we can deliver more support earlier to a much larger number of children than is the case at the moment: EHCP-like support without the fight to get that EHCP. There is already brilliant practice out there, showing the best of what can be achieved when schools work together with parents. We saw that last year when I visited Golborne All Saints Catholic primary in her community—a real beacon of what can be achieved. We want to see more of that, and the extra investment will make that possible in more schools and in more parts of the country.

• 2 Mar 2026 · School SEND Provision · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend; I know he brings real expertise in this area. I completely understand the point that he makes and that parents have made, given the lack of confidence they have in the system after years of failure, but we are determined to put this right and turn the situation around to make sure that there is more flexible, earlier support available for children. Settings will have a duty to create individual support plans and deliver high-quality provision, drawing on national standards. If schools are not following the plan, it will be clear and obvious. Parents should seek to resolve that directly with the school. Where that does not work, we are strengthening the school complaints process, with independent SEND expertise on the panel. I encourage parents and staff across my hon. Friend’s community to share their views to ensure that we get this right.

• 2 Mar 2026 · Service Children · Hansard source

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  Yes, of course; I will be more than happy to make sure that that meeting takes place. I commend the Garrison Assist project for its excellent work. We have looked at the work it has done, and that has given us a strong foundation for many of the changes that we are bringing forward in the SEND system. For example, education, health and care plans and individual support plans will be digital, and that will ensure smoother transitions when children move between local authority areas. It will make a big difference to many children, but particularly children from service families.

• 2 Mar 2026 · National Year of Reading: Phonics · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend knows well, ensuring that all our children, in every corner of the country, learn to read quickly and to enjoy reading is one of this Labour Government’s key priorities. We are building strong foundations for every child in this National Year of Reading. Our best start in life strategy will expand support to improve phonics teaching, and through our regional improvement for standards and excellence English hubs, we are doubling the reach of our “reading ambition for all” programme, so that every child achieves and thrives.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, who cares deeply about this matter as both a parent and a politician, for the approach he has taken, and I look forward to working with him and his party in the weeks and months to come. We share a commitment to ensuring that the move from one system—one that we can all agree is not working—to a better one is phased and done carefully. I agree that the voices of parents must be heard right throughout that process. The right hon. Gentleman asks about early support. I completely agree with what he says, which is why we are investing £1 billion in rolling out Best Start family hubs, expanding early years education and school-based nurseries and investing in local authorities’ ability to develop early help. [ Official Report , 2 March 2026; Vol. 781, c. 6WC.] (Correction) Colleagues will note in the material we have published that we will continue to see an increase in EHCPs in the years to come before we see a plateauing and then a reduction. The reason for that is that we want to do this in a managed way. I hope that we can reduce those numbers more quickly—not for any arbitrary reason or because we are chasing a number, but because we should be supporting children much earlier. The evidence from Sure Start was clear: if we step in earlier and support families, we reduce the need for SEND support later on in school, especially in areas such as speech and language support, because we have met that need more quickly. I understand the right hon. Gentleman’s point around transition and education, health and care plans. We have already set out some detail on specialist provision packages, which will be shaped by an expert panel independent of Government—we will put that on the statute book. There will also be clear national accountability and national standards to move away from the postcode lottery that we have seen recently. I know that the right hon. Gentleman is also interested in how we can ensure that cases of high need and low incidence are addressed through regional models, which we have committed to considering through the consultation. The voices of parents will be heard as we move forward. We have launched our consultation, which will run for 12 weeks. There will be events the length and breadth of the country to enable parents to take part in that conversation, and I urge parents, health staff, education staff and others to share their views on what we have published to make sure that we are getting this right. On the pupil premium and the targeting of disadvantage funding, I am keen to address the fact that free schools meals are quite a blunt way to assess disadvantage in a family. We know that children who are on free school meals or who face persistent disadvantage and poverty right throughout their school career are far more likely to have bad outcomes than children who spend a period of time in poverty. We need a more nuanced approach to how we can better target resource to better improve outcomes for children. We will be consulting on that, and I look forward to discussing it with the right hon. Gentleman further.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving · Hansard source

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  I will seek to respond to the right hon. Lady’s questions. I welcome the broadly constructive approach she has taken, but it would be remiss of me not to point out that so many of the problems we are dealing with were left behind by the Conservative party, and an ounce of humility, contrition or understanding as to how we got here would really enlighten our understanding of what we need to do to make change happen. As I said in my statement, I recognise that the intentions behind the 2014 reforms were good intentions, but it became very clear, very quickly that problems were developing within that system. The right hon. Lady asks about council deficits and about the challenge. That became pretty clear, pretty quickly, and in 2019 the Conservatives brought in the statutory override, because it was clear that councils were struggling with the increasing demands they were facing. [ Official Report , 2 March 2026; Vol. 781, c. 6WC.] (Correction) That, however, did not happen in isolation. It happened because, between 2010 and 2019, family support services were stripped away—Sure Start centres closed, early help went, children were left to struggle—and we stored up problems for the future. The failure to identify and support children sooner is part of the reason we continue to see escalating need in our school system. Today, we are putting that right. We will address the challenges that children and families face at the earliest possible point, not wait until years down the line when things have reached crisis point. That is as true in our schools as it is in children’s social care. It is also why we will take action to clamp down on the massive expansion in private equity-backed, independent specialist provision that is sucking money out of our education system into profit when it should be focused on outcomes for children. The right hon. Lady asks about specialist provision packages. We have published a document setting out the shape and nature of those packages. I intend to appoint an expert panel with clinical and education expertise to shape them, to make sure that we have clear national standards—not a postcode lottery, as we have seen in the past. On individual support plans, our intention is that they will be easy to use, digital, and able to move between different settings. In many settings that will happen already, but we want the consistency that comes with having one system. Ofsted will also look carefully at how settings are using ISPs in order to judge effective inclusion. The right hon. Lady asks whether this is about saving money, what the time period is, and about the OBR’s projections. The figure quoted by the OBR was a projection based on an unreformed system. We are reforming the system and investing up front to deliver reform. This is not about cutting costs, saving money, arbitrary targets or reducing numbers; this is about better support and better outcomes for children. The way in which the right hon. Lady framed her point about inclusion was fundamentally wrong and misjudged. Of course schools should take action when violent incidents take place, but that is not the same thing as making sure that schools are catering to children with special educational needs and disabilities. There is a need for caution in how we approach this point. The transition to the new system will be a careful, phased transition over the course of the decade. It will not be until 2030 at the earliest that the new system will be fully operational. We are taking the time to manage this and get it right, as children move from one system to the next. Finally, the right hon. Lady asked about the role for trusts and the Government’s approach. It was the last Labour Government who introduced academies to drive up standards in our most disadvantaged communities, but I see no conflict at all between the approach that we are taking and insisting that children should be taught by qualified teachers and that their parents should be confident that the national curriculum is being followed. It was the Conservatives who first introduced the national curriculum. They were right to do so then, and we still back that now, but it is right that parents should expect a qualified teacher and should not expect to pay the earth for a school uniform. This is a conversation that I have no doubt will continue in the weeks and months ahead. I relish the opportunity to set out the Government’s ambition for every child in our country. This is a golden opportunity to shape our school system to deliver better, earlier, and more timely support for children who have been let down for too long. This Labour Government will turn it around.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving · Hansard source

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  Through what we have set out on local government funding, we are putting in place support for councils to deal with the long-standing deficits that have accrued, but I want to be absolutely clear that the support is conditional on local authorities working with us to provide places, and to deliver the clear systems of support that families all too often find are not there. But the wider pressures will be met by Government. We will do what we need to do, but we need health authorities and local authorities to play their part as well.

• 19 Jan 2026 · SEND: High-quality School Places · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend rightly identifies that there are pockets of brilliant provision right across our country, and our schools White Paper will ensure that we spread that best practice and make it a reality for all children. Through the £3 billion of investment, we will deliver 50,000 more specialist places for children with SEND to ensure that children get the education and support that they need close to home. It was wonderful to visit my hon. Friend just last year at Peareswood primary, another school in his community that is doing fantastic work, but I would be delighted to go back and see some of the work that is under way to support children with SEND in other provision in his constituency.

• 19 Jan 2026 · Teacher Retention · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to push us on this issue. I know he has been working very closely with my ministerial colleague who is responsible for this area, and I can assure him that we will move as fast as we can. We understand the pressure that this is placing on the school and on the local community, and I will make sure he gets an update following this session.

• 19 Jan 2026 · SEND Support: Access · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all the work she is doing to make sure that the voices of parents and children are heard during the reform that we intend to bring forward. As she will have heard through those conversations, the system just is not working for children and families. Through that national conversation on SEND, I have heard directly from parents, educators and experts across the country, and they echo the themes that my hon. Friend has just set out from parents in Pimlico and elsewhere in her community. Accountability is an issue that I take extremely seriously, and we will set out more detail in the schools White Paper.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  Yes, I give my hon. Friend that commitment. In paying tribute to the amazing people who volunteer in our food banks, community groups, churches and community organisations right across the country, let me say that I look forward to the day when, as a Labour MP, I visit a food bank not to open it, but to close it down.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all the work that she did in the Department for Education and for all that she continues to do to champion the life chances of children in her community and across our country. She contributed a lot to the work that has gone into the strategy; I am grateful to her for that. I agree with her: I want to live in a country where families have enough money to go to the shops to buy the food that they want for their children and to make the decisions that are right for them. I pay tribute to the amazing volunteers in our community organisations and churches who give their time freely to run the food banks, but I hope that in the years to come we can shut down those food banks and make sure that all families have a good level of income and do not have to depend on the good will of strangers to get by.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  This is an enormous challenge, as my hon. Friend identifies. We announced a clear pledge to prevent deaths caused by gaps in healthcare. We know some of the terrible outcomes for children caused by poor-quality accommodation. We are investing more and we are determined to bring that down. It will require a lot of us, right across Government, to work on this issue. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will shortly be setting out its homelessness strategy, with further measures to bring down the use of temporary accommodation and to support families.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has always stood up for children in his community. It is through his election to this place, and the election of a Labour Government, that by the end of this Parliament, we will see the biggest reduction in child poverty numbers since records began.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has made his views known to Ministers at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, but I will ensure that they are passed along. Lifting the two-child limit, expanding access to childcare, expanding free school meals, increasing the national minimum wage and expanding rights at works are big changes that will make a real difference to children and families in his constituency.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is doing tremendous work in that area through the APPG. I would be more than happy to ensure that the Department—through officials or Ministers—continues to work with the APPG as we roll out Best Start family hubs and learn from the best evidence on how we can continue to support parents and families. Our new Best Start family hubs will offer universal open-access services for babies and children, with a real focus on the under-fives—we know that we can make the biggest difference to children’s life chances at that age. Best Start family hubs will be funded in every local authority and open to all families, but the focus will be on locating them in disadvantaged communities, where we know that the need for support is greatest.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  The Conservative party, as they have done over many years, since they introduced many of the punishing changes around social security, are using our children as pawns to make a political argument that is not borne out by the evidence. Children in my hon. Friend’s community will benefit from the difference that a Labour Government are making, whether through lifting the two-child limit, expanding free school meals or improved childcare for families. It is through his election to this place and through securing a Labour Government last July that we are seeing this difference.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend. I know he has done an incredible amount to champion the life chances of children in his community, which covers many towns and villages and a big rural population. That presents some unique challenges, and perhaps we could discuss that further and how we can ensure that more of his constituents benefit from family support services. The lifting of the two-child limit will make a huge difference, alongside the wider measures on childcare.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Child Poverty Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to say that child poverty blights the life chances of children right across our country, including in communities that might otherwise appear affluent. There will always be children who are enduring the hardship and injustice of poverty, and I am grateful for his support and everything that he does to champion the life chances of children in his community. The strategy that we are setting out will deliver real changes to children, not just in Bracknell but across our country.