Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 20th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. I welcome the Government’s focus on further education and skills, which have been overlooked for far too long and are critical to the delivery of the Government’s missions. My Committee has recently undertaken an inquiry into FE and skills, and I am pleased to see a number of our recommendations reflected in the statement, particularly in the commitment to address the vortex of failure in which the current system of English and maths resits traps far too many young people.

I welcome the priority of increasing the quality of further education, but there are two key contributors to quality that the Secretary of State did not mention in her statement. The first is the 15% pay gap between teachers in schools and teachers in FE colleges, which is a barrier to recruitment and retention for colleges. The second is the inability of FE colleges to reclaim VAT, a situation for which my Committee found no justification and which City College Norwich told us made the difference of a whole floor to a new building that it had recently completed. How does the Secretary of State plan to ensure that the further education sector has not only the policy framework to improve quality but the necessary resources?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to the Chair of the Education Committee. We continue to keep all such matters under review, and I can be clear with her that we believe that further education colleges are engines of growth and opportunity in our communities. This White Paper is about ensuring a prestigious, world-class system in which we will reform initial training in further education, continue to invest in whole-career professional development for FE teachers and build ties with industry to ensure that FE teachers have the greatest opportunity to develop their teaching skills and subject expertise to help young people to achieve and thrive. Alongside that, we will match that support with appropriate challenge, so that we continue to raise the bar on standards through the new Ofsted system with the backstop of the FE Commissioner.

Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I warmly welcome the statement from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on restoring a comprehensive and strategic approach to early years support, childcare and early education—an approach that has sadly been lacking during the 14 years of the last Government. In that time, we saw Sure Start dismantled, the cost of childcare soar, and the absence of any focus at all on quality or addressing the disadvantage gap.

I welcome the commitment that there will be a SEND co-ordinator in every Best Start family hub. Given the shortage of SENDCOs in schools, what are the Secretary of State’s plans for the training and recruitment of this workforce, and what qualification will they have? How is she working with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care on the wider challenges in the workforce for educational psychologists and speech and language therapists?

I welcome the approach to inclusion in early years. My right hon. Friend will know that there are huge differences in the approaches to inclusion taken by different providers. How will individual settings be held to account on inclusivity under this strategy?

Finally, my right hon. Friend will know that there is huge expertise and quality in our maintained nursery schools across the country, but many are struggling with significant financial deficits. What role does she envisage for maintained nursery schools in this new strategy, and how will they be helped to be sustainable?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Chair of the Select Committee for her detailed questions, and for the welcome she has given the strategy. I would be more than happy to discuss all the areas with her in more detail, because I appreciate that time is often short here, Madam Deputy Speaker.

We want to ensure high-quality training and support for all staff working across our education system, but my hon. Friend is right that we will have a SEND trained professional in every Best Start family hub, because the evidence from Sure Start was clear about the importance of early identification of need, aligned with better parenting support and wider health service access, so we will deliver that.

Maintained nurseries have an incredible role to play, given the expertise that they can share across the system, and we are considering further steps to support them in sharing and building on that expertise. As my hon. Friend will know, maintained nurseries often have a large number of children with SEND in their settings, and we think there is a lot we can do around inclusion there, too. On inclusion across the board, there is an important role for the revised Ofsted framework in ensuring that all schools and education settings are genuinely inclusive.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

One of the biggest challenges affecting the delivery of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities is the extent of local authority funding deficits. They are currently dealt with through the statutory override, which allows local authorities to set a balanced budget without accounting for their SEND deficits. Given that the statutory override expires in March 2026, does the Secretary of State agree that a White Paper in autumn 2025 provides far too little time for the Government to implement meaningful change without extending the override further, and when does she expect local authorities to be able to have the certainty that they need to plan for the coming financial year?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I agree that in addition to longer-term reform, which the White Paper will deliver, it is imperative that we take action now in order to make sure that the school system better caters for children with a wide range of needs. That is why we have invested £740 million to support councils to create more specialist provision in mainstream schools. I have seen some fantastic examples right across the country, and we need to see more. On the precise question about the statutory override, we want to make sure that councils are better supported through the process, and we will set out our position very soon.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 28th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

The crisis in the SEND system is a source of distress for parents and children who have to fight far too hard for support, and for professionals working in local authorities and schools who face an extremely challenging funding situation. Does the Secretary of State agree that in this context blaming parents and GPs for the increase in the number of SEND diagnoses, as some Reform party politicians have done in recent days, is both inaccurate and insulting, and that solving the SEND crisis requires listening to parents and professionals rather than denigrating them?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I could not agree more, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend and the other members of her Committee for the important work that they are doing through their inquiry on this matter. We look forward to hearing more from them in due course.

My hon. Friend is entirely right: just days before the local elections, the comments of the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) will have sent shivers down the spines of so many parents throughout the country. His comments were completely irresponsible and totally wrong. This Government are focusing on better outcomes for all children, including those with SEND.

Breakfast Clubs: Early Adopters

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 24th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement today. I welcome the news that St Luke’s Church of England primary school in my constituency will be one of the early adopters of a universal breakfast club under the programme.

All too often, children with special educational needs and disabilities are excluded from extracurricular activities, and it is the parents of children with SEND who often find it the hardest to access childcare. It is essential that children with SEND have equal access to breakfast clubs in both mainstream and specialist schools. What steps are being taken to ensure that that is the case, that schools have the capacity to provide specialist staff where needed and that any additional home-to-school transport costs, which are often essential in enabling children with SEND physically to access a breakfast club, will be met?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Some 754 schools have been selected to take part in the early adopters scheme, of which 704 are mainstream schools and 50 are special schools and alternative provision settings. That is important, because we want to make sure that all children in time are able to benefit from the roll-out of breakfast clubs. We will work closely with schools and sector experts to develop the programme as we intend to roll it out. I really want to learn through the early adopter schools how we can best create a truly universal and inclusive breakfast school provision.

I recognise that delivering breakfast clubs may be particularly challenging for special and alternative provision schools. We have invited them to take part in the early adopters scheme so that we can make sure that, as we roll out across the country, including in mainstream schools, the needs of all children are properly catered for as part of the programme.

Higher Education Regulatory Approach

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for confirming the Government’s approach to the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, and I welcome the clarity that she has provided today.

The implementation of the Act will present some challenges for universities and for students. The Secretary of State will know that there can sometimes be a fine line between free speech and hate speech, and between statements of views and opinions and incitement or encouragement to violence or intimidation in the real world. Can she assure the House that she will ensure that universities and students are absolutely clear about the limits to free speech, which are already enshrined in law, and that support will be provided on the interpretation of that when it is needed?

Professor Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor and president of King’s College London, has said:

“Universities are not there to function as a Speakers’ Corner where anyone can stand up and express an opinion not necessarily supported by facts. If academic freedom is to mean anything, it must be accompanied by the academic obligation for ideas and claims to be accompanied by evidence and reason. Proponents have an obligation to engage and respond to those questioning their assertions and conduct that debate and discourse in a civil manner.”

How will the Secretary of State ensure—particularly as the erosion of fact-checking and moderation on social media is taking place before our very eyes—that the implementation of the Act results in a high quality of evidence-based discourse conducted in a culture of civility?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her questions and her approach, and I look forward to discussing these issues with the Select Committee in due course should its members so wish.

My hon. Friend’s point about disagreement is important. Free speech should be robust and we should be able to express our views, but all of us, especially those in public life, have a duty to ensure that we do so in a way that is responsible. As for the tort—this is at the heart of the issue that she has identified—I was concerned that the potential impact of legal proceedings and the financial consequences for providers of breaching their duties under the Act might have led to some providers unduly prioritising free speech that is hateful or degrading over the interests of those who feel harassed and intimidated. These issues can be finely balanced. We will provide further clarity through the Office for Students, but let me make it clear that academic freedom and freedom of speech are crucial tenets of our country’s history.

Children’s Social Care

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I welcome the action that the Government have announced today to improve children’s social care. The Secretary of State will know that families from the poorest neighbourhoods are 14 times more likely to be referred to children’s social care than those from the richest areas, and that there is a growing body of evidence linking child poverty to the rise in children entering the care system. How will she ensure that the upcoming child poverty strategy delivers more stability and safety for children and ensures that fewer families enter the kind of crises that result in their children being removed from their care?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend has long championed this cause and brings considerable expertise to the role that she now undertakes as Chair of the Select Committee. I look forward to discussing these issues with her and her Committee in due course. She is right to identify that child poverty is a significant issue in this area. That is why we got the work of the child poverty taskforce under way in August; we know that that work is crucial. What she has set out today is something that I have heard from parents the length and breadth of the country as part of the work that we are undertaking. It is important that, alongside tackling child poverty, we ensure that all families have early support and early intervention to ensure that they can thrive, and that, as she says, problems do not escalate in the way that they currently do.

Higher Education Reform

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 4th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

First, let me put it on the record that I am the parent of a young person in her first year at university.

The Secretary of State has set out very clearly the case for our universities and the justification for her announcement today. However, as young people who might be applying for university as the announcement is being made might see only the headlines, what steps is she taking to ensure that it is communicated effectively, so that it does not deter young people from low and middle-income backgrounds from applying to university in the first place?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question, and I look forward to speaking with her and her newly constituted Select Committee about this issue and many others.

I recognise the importance of communicating the message that university should be for all young people who have demonstrated that they have the qualifications and talent required. This was not an easy decision, but as Secretary of State, I need to ensure that we secure the long-term financial sustainability of the sector. Alongside that, I am absolutely clear with the sector—with vice-chancellors and others—that it must do more to provide better support and to widen access and participation so that more young people, especially those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, have the opportunity to benefit from higher education.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Bridget Phillipson

Monday 9th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I share the hon. Lady’s concern about making sure that we target funding in the most effective way. That is why I have said that my No. 1 priority is ensuring that we support children and young people at the earliest possible point, and give a real commitment around early education and childcare, because that is the single biggest way to ensure that our children arrive at school really well prepared and to stop those gaps opening up as children progress through education.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

T4. The early years sector faces significant challenges in delivering the roll-out of the expanded childcare offer promised by the last Government. The sector consistently cites the inability to recruit and retain staff as the biggest difficulty. Can the Minister confirm when the Government plan to publish the promised workforce strategy for the early years, and what opportunities there will be for the sector to have its say?