Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Imran Hussain(2 weeks ago)
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Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)
Today in places such as Leicester, Birmingham, County Durham, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Northumberland, some of the last of our 750 early-adopter schools will launch their free breakfast clubs. We are now providing 180,000 pupils with the best start to their school day, boosting parents’ work choices and children’s life chances. Evidence shows why that matters so much: when schools introduce breakfast clubs, behaviour improves, attendance increases and attainment grows. It also gives parents 30 minutes of free childcare every day to juggle work and family life. That is why we will cement those freedoms and that opportunity through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, delivering on our plan for change.
Imran Hussain
To follow on from the two previous questions, 5,000 university jobs have been cut nationally, and the University and College Union projects that 10,000 more will be cut by the end of the year. In Bradford, up to 300 further jobs are at risk. Bradford University’s nursery service faces the chop, and some courses are long gone in a bid to meet funding shortfalls. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to protect staff and students in places like Bradford, given the growing crisis in higher education?
Safety of School Buildings
Debate between Bridget Phillipson and Imran Hussain(1 year, 11 months ago)
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Bridget Phillipson
My suggestion and the advice I would offer to the hon. Gentleman is to ask the Minister exactly what the state of school funding has been like over the last 13 years. His Government have been in power now for longer than the last Labour Government. He ought to take some responsibility for the state of schools in our country, not to blame others and not to deflect.
Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is, in her usual fashion, making an excellent speech. Does she agree with me that one of the reasons Government Members will not release the data is that they know that over the last decade 50% of the capital budget has been cut through their ideological austerity agenda?
Bridget Phillipson
I think we probably all have reasons to reflect on why the Government will not be upfront about that. There are many reasons why that might be the case, but we have the Minister with us today. He can tell us why he said previously that he would publish this and why he has now changed his mind. I look forward to hearing him set out that case during the debate.
The lack of ambition is there for our children in their earliest years. The vision of childcare is little wider than a way of keeping parents economically active. There is nothing on the start we should give our children—the best start they deserve—or on the power of early intervention to change lives for the better and the difference that early years education makes in building a brighter future and a better Britain. There is nothing to close the attainment gaps that were already opening up and widening as our children arrived at school long before the pandemic even hit. And the answer to the childcare workforce challenge is as bleak as it is simple: to spread existing staff more thinly, to pile demand on to a system that they know fails providers, parents, families and, above all, our children.
The lack of ambition is there for our schools, too.