Early Education and Childcare

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank the hon. Lady for welcoming our expansion of childcare. I note again that nine in 10 parents received one of their first choice childcare places. We are determined that our childcare expansion will deliver safe, quality care for children. I know that the whole House agrees that the safety and wellbeing of children is of paramount importance. That is why alongside this expansion, which will support hard-working families, we are increasing the frequency of Ofsted inspections and enhancing recruitment checks to prevent unsuitable individuals from working with children, alongside new whistleblowing requirements. The strengthened safeguarding requirements have been added to the statutory framework from this month, giving parents greater confidence that as we expand childcare access, it will be of high quality.

The hon. Lady makes a number of points about the challenges faced by the sector. The number of people working in the sector has increased by 18,000, and as I mentioned in my statement, there are now 5,800 new private providers delivering the entitlement. We will review funding distribution later in this academic year. I welcome the opportunity to continue to work with the hon. Lady on these issues, as we continue to increase access to high-quality education across our country. I look forward to meeting her in due course.

[Ms Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome the Minister’s recognition of the impact of this policy on equality. He will know that this Monday was Mums’ Equal Pay Day. Mums earn 33% less than dads, so from 1 September, mums in this country basically work for free. Affordable childcare is critical to closing that gap. As new organisation Growth Spurt points out, a third of women who are not in work at the moment say that it is caring responsibilities that stop them from working. Will the Minister meet me and Growth Spurt to look at how we can get jobcentres, which do not routinely tell parents about tax-free childcare and the funded hours process, to help in this respect, so that together we can end the motherhood penalty?

[Stephen Morgan]

My hon. Friend is a real champion for mothers, and I commend her for all her hard work in this place over the years. In our “Giving every child the best start in life” strategy, published in July, we set out that we plan to make the process simpler for parents, and we will be working across Government to ensure that issues are addressed so that all children are able to access the entitlement offer. I would be delighted to meet her to discuss these issues further.