With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on this Government’s vital work to change our country for good by giving every child the best start in life.
The focus today is firmly on our youngest children, but the impact will be much more broader. This Government are building a stronger, fairer society, and we will lay the foundations for it in the earliest years of our children’s lives. Because we are determined to tackle the root causes of problems, not just the symptoms, we begin at the start.
The inequalities that stain our country and the ways in which opportunity is heaped on some but hidden from others are disparities that do not suddenly spring up in adulthood. Our babies are born into an unequal world, and the inequality grows with them, right from the very first days when we carry them home from hospital.
Early differences in the support that families can get, in the early education and childcare that parents can access, and in the opportunities that children have to start exploring are all differences—these and many more—that take hold early on. The winds of fortune are already there on the first day of school—a gale at the backs of some; a blizzard in the faces of others. These differences mean that some children arrive in the classroom not yet ready to learn. They mean that while two thirds of children reach a good level of development by age five, a third do not. Half of our children on free school meals miss that important milestone, and this injustice is fuelled by those differences.
A Labour Government will not tolerate our children being failed like this. Within months of taking office, we set out in our plan for change our ambition to get a record share of children to reach a good level of development by the age of five, because it matters so much for those young lives. Our plan goes further—it sets the tone. Forty per cent of the disadvantage gap at the age of 16 is already there at the age of five.
Next month, we know that young people across the country will pick up their exam results. Some will do well, but sadly some others will be disappointed, and those results-day stories of smiles and frowns for our young people begin to be written in the first years of their lives, so if we want to build an education system where every child can achieve and thrive, if we want to grow a society where the opportunity to get on is open to all, and if we want to deliver the change that the country so desperately needs, we have to focus on the early years. We have to give every child the best start in life. That is where my priority as Education Secretary lies, and that is why, just 12 months after entering government, I am proud to be here today to set out our “best start in life” strategy, which we are determined will change the country for good.
Giving every child the best start in life begins with families. Becoming a parent or a carer is full of joy and wonder, but we all know that it can sometimes be hard—and it can feel isolating, too—so parents and carers need to know that they can tap into a community of support. They need to know that they are not alone, but we are falling short. One in four families with children under five struggle to get trusted advice; for families on low incomes, it is one in three.
It was not always like that. There was a time when Government cared deeply about children’s development. Members across the House will know all about Sure Start, the quiet revolution in the lives of our children carried out by the last Labour Government. Sure Start was one of the proudest achievements of that Labour Government, and I am proud today to build on its legacy. We remember all the good it did for our children, for our communities and for our country. Sure Start raised exam results and reduced hospitalisations. It improved early identification, boosted physical health and boosted mental health. It reached disadvantaged families and made a difference to their lives.
Sure Start was a triumph. Of course, it was not perfect —no programme ever is—but it worked in so many ways and for so many families, and never more so that when it stuck to its principles and brought together the excellent services that parents need. At the heart of its success were the children’s centres: one-stop shops where families knew where they could go for help; a comforting and consistent offer of support all in one place. There are many ways in which 14 years of Conservative Government damaged our country and our society, but the vandalism they inflicted on the lives of our youngest children—tearing these services out of communities, deepening inequalities and abandoning families—should never be forgotten. Today, the Government will right that terrible wrong and restore hope to families.
Our Best Start service will honour the proud legacy of Sure Start. Today’s Labour Government stand on the shoulders of those who went before, but we do so to look forward to the better future our children deserve, not back to the past. That is how we will deliver for a new generation of families.
We will introduce a new Best Start family service delivered through Best Start family hubs: the first step to a national family service that ensures that families can get the right support for their children from conception to age five, giving parents the freedom to focus on loving their children. This morning, we announced the national year of reading for 2026. We want to give parents more time to read with their children, to grow a love of learning that starts in the home and flows throughout a child’s life.
Best Start family hubs will be open to all, rooted in disadvantaged communities. They will work with nurseries, childminders, schools, health services, libraries and local voluntary groups—a whole community coming together around one goal: to give children the best possible start in life. Our Best Start digital service means that we are ready for the future, linking families to their local Best Start family hubs and exploring how the power of artificial intelligence can help parents find the right information.
We will also make early education and care more affordable and easier to access. From the day the Government won the backing of the people, we set about delivering the entitlement of 30 hours of Government-funded childcare a week for working families, backed by funding reaching £9 billion from next year. Last July, we inherited a pledge without a plan, but the Government are delivering on our promise to parents, because I know how much it matters that promises made are promises kept to the future of our country and to the trust between families and their Government. The cost of childcare will no longer price parents out of the jobs they love; instead, they will have the choice and freedom to work the hours they want and an average of £7,500 a year back in their pockets.
I thank all those who are working with us to drive that change, from private nurseries to school-based ones, group-based providers, childminders, dedicated professionals, and early years educators who are transforming life chances. Almost £370 million was provided by the Chancellor in the spending review, and we are building and expanding more nurseries in primary schools, with the first of the 6,000 extra places coming from September this year. Soon enough, 80% of childcare in this country will be Government-backed.
The message is clear: this Labour Government are on the side of families. The Labour party is the party of family. That means that childcare must be better linked to educational priorities, better geared to closing attainment gaps, and better focused on all our children succeeding at school. Our early years educators are too often the hidden heroes of our communities. It is past time that we backed them, so we will raise the status of our workforce. There will be a new professional register, because working in early years is just that: a profession. There will be more high-quality training for staff, guided by the golden thread of the best evidence, and we will train more early years teachers, because we know the difference that they make to our young ones.
Our stronger practice hubs will double in number, and we will offer new financial incentives to attract and keep great early years teachers in the nurseries that serve the most disadvantaged communities. Every child deserves a great education and a great start in life, and that must extend to our children with special educational needs and disabilities. Early intervention can work wonders to lower barriers to learning, so under this Government, inclusive practice will become standard practice.
This Government are driving a decade of national renewal, but there can be no decade of renewal for our country without a decade of renewal for our children. This is urgent, because children only get one chance. If opportunities are missed, parents do not get what they need. If that great nursery down the road has not been built yet, that is it—there is no going back. For 14 years, children’s lives marched on as services were ripped away. I will not stand by and watch as more and more children are let down. Through this strategy, I am bringing change—change for all our families, all our communities, and above all, our children. It is for them that our strategy was written, and it is for them that we will see it through, so that we give each and every child, from their first day in this world, the best start in life. I commend this statement to the House.