Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Tom Hayes Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

While I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s concern about ensuring that his constituents get the support that they deserve, including children with SEND, I gently say to him that it does no one any favours to scare parents. The guiding principle of any reform to the SEND system that we will set out will be about better, strengthened and improved support for children both inside and outside special schools. We want improved inclusivity and more specialist provision in mainstream schools and absolutely to draw on the expertise of the specialist sector and create the places where we need them. There will always be a legal right to the additional support that children with SEND need. The hon. Gentleman and the Conservatives left behind a system that had lost the confidence of parents—he describes the waits, the delays and the bureaucracy that too many parents have had to endure. A period of reflection and an ounce of humility would get the Conservatives a long way.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

One of the very best things that the last Labour Government did was the roll-out of Sure Start, and one of the very worst things that the Conservative Government did was the hollowing out of so many hundreds of Sure Start centres, so I am thrilled by today’s announcement. Play has been squeezed out of childhood for so many years—stay-and-play was such a fundamental part of what Sure Start had to offer. Will the Secretary of State assure my constituents that stay-and-play, and play generally, will be a fundamental part of the offer of Best Start?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I know how hard my hon. Friend has campaigned on this issue, both on Sure Start and on the right of all children to play. Like him, I know that access to stay-and-play, rhyme time and those kinds of opportunities for children and families are incredibly important, especially for families who simply do not have the money for extras—who do not have the money to get on a long bus trip or take their children to soft play. That is why that kind of support for families is so critical, and it is why Best Start family hubs will make sure that children have opportunities to play and socialise and, critically, that parents get time together at what can be an isolating time. That will be a central part of everything that those family hubs deliver.