Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Laurence Turner Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for everything she does to champion our armed forces communities, not least given their importance to her constituency. I will make sure that we reflect further on how we can ensure that our forces families are able to access services.

My hon. Friend’s local authority is one area that currently does not receive funding but, after today’s announcement, it will shortly receive funding. Her area will share in a £12 million development grant that we will confirm in the next few weeks, to help it hit the ground running and get set up from April next year. There will then be ongoing support throughout the spending review period. I do, though, take seriously my hon. Friend’s challenge about making sure that forces families are able to access and benefit from the services. I would be happy to have a conversation with her, or if she can provide more information about what would be helpful to her constituency, I will happily look into it.

[Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) (Lab)]

I strongly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement. Under the Conservatives, 40 Sure Start children’s centres in Birmingham were shut down, including seven in my constituency, with devastating consequences for thousands of children who needed that support. I am so glad that Labour is taking action to turn the tide. Will she confirm that when funding allocations are made at local authority level, factors such as population size and child poverty rates, which are particularly important in an authority like Birmingham, will be taken into account?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Yes, we will consider the factors that my hon. Friend mentioned. Later in the autumn, we will confirm the allocations across all local authorities for the next phase. That runs alongside the development grant that will go to local authorities that do not currently receive funding. It will be a massive boost to my hon. Friend’s constituents and to people right across the country; it is half a billion pounds over the course of the spending review period.