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Like many young mothers, Jenna was unsure where to start. But that’s where her local family support service came in. Offering breastfeeding advice, a space to come together with other parents and for her son Billy to play with other babies, it reassured Jenna that she was on the right track – and crucially, that Billy was set up to achieve when he got to school.
Jenna’s service was the first of Labour’s renowned Sure Start centres in Washington, my home town in north-east England. I knew it well: before becoming an MP I ran a refuge nearby for women fleeing domestic violence. I linked up the women who used our refuge with Sure Start. It was a lifeline for those women who, despite everything, were determined to give their children the very best start in life.
But, sadly, after 14 years of Conservative government, stories like Jenna’s, and those of the many women who were offered that lifeline, are much less common. Funding was stripped out of Sure Start centres and services scrapped in rebranded family hubs. Today, 65 councils, and the children and families who live under their authority, have missed out on recent funding. Many more are lacking the childcare places that so many families in our country need.
For every Jenna, there are a host of other young mothers, and families, who missed out on crucial pillars of support, whose children have fallen behind before they have even started school.
One in three five-year-olds enters year 1 without the basic skills – like holding a pencil and writing their own name – that they need to make the most of what education has to offer them. Some haven’t reached essential milestones such as putting on a coat or going to the toilet by themselves.
For the most vulnerable children, the situation is graver. Just over half of those eligible for free school meals reach a good level of development at age five. For children in social care, it’s just over one in three. And for children with special educational needs, it’s one in five.
The gap in achievement we see between our poorest and most affluent children at 16 is baked in before they even start school, creating a vicious cycle of lost life chances that’s all too visible in the shameful number of young people not earning or learning.
It’s this government’s moral mission to bridge that gap, but to do it we must build an education system where all children can achieve and thrive, starting from day one.
That is why reforming the early years education system is my number one priority. And it’s why, just 12 months after Labour entered government, I am so proud to be setting out our strategy to give every child the best start in life.
Backed by £1.5bn over the next three years, it brings together the best of Sure Start, health services, community groups and the early years sector, with the shared goal of setting up children to succeed when they get to school.
We will create 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs, at least one in every council area, invest a record £9bn in funded childcare and early years places – and hundreds of millions to improve quality in early years settings and reception classes.
These hubs will bring disjointed support systems into one place, allowing thousands of families to access help with anything from birth registration to breastfeeding, from housing support to children’s speech and language development.
The strategy takes inspiration from around the world. I’ve been really impressed by what happens in countries I’ve visited, such as Estonia, where early education and family support are bound tightly together with stellar results. Its disadvantage gap is negligible because children get to school ready to learn. Its children outperform those from much larger, wealthier countries in international rankings. The country punches above its weight economically as a result.
At the heart of our strategy is the recognition that for our country to succeed in a fast-changing world, it is not enough for only some children to do well in education: every child must have the opportunity and the tools not just to get by, but to get on in life.
Working people have always known that education is the best way to break the link between their background and what they go on to achieve, the route to prosperity not just for individuals, but for all of society. It’s a common thread that runs through every Labour government: that we must use education to spread the freedoms that today too few enjoy, so that tomorrow they are common to us all.
It’s the essence of our politics, the socialism of extending freedom to allow working people to choose their own path to fulfilment: to get better employment, to achieve a better quality of life or even to start a family.
This strategy is a watershed moment for our government, but more importantly for every single family who needs our support. To make it a reality, we will begin unprecedented collaboration between parents, councils, nurseries, childminders, schools and government, enmeshing family support, early education and childcare so deeply that no rightwing government can ever unpick it, as the Tories did with Sure Start over 14 long years.
Our plan for change will ensure Jenna’s experience – and Billy’s future success – is shared by every family and every child in our country.
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Bridget Phillipson is the secretary of state for education and Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South
