Nursery World - Labour pledges £110m for early years out of total £14.7bn Children’s Recovery Plan

Proposals for children to ‘play, learn and develop’ are central to Labour’s post-Covid education recovery plan released today [Wednesday] but it has been criticised for a lack of focus on the early years.

Labour's plans for early years funding account for less than 1 per cent of its overall education investment.

Labour states that its Children’s Recovery Plan is ‘fuelled by widely held understanding that children make academic progress when they are happy and well-supported’.

The plans include a £110m investment into an ‘Early Years Recovery Premium’ out of a total proposed spend of £14.7bn. This would see the current Early Years Pupil Premium increase to match primary Pupil Premium levels (from £302 to £1,345 per child) but the Early Years Alliance says, while this is higher than the Government’s current spending, ‘more ambitious action’ is needed.

Labour’s proposals also include:

Labour’s announcement came with a warning from the Shadow Education Secretary, Kate Green, that the Conservatives are ‘showing no ambition for our children’s futures’, after reports that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will only spend £1.5bn on children’s recovery, ten times less than their ‘Catch-up Czar’ Kevan Collins has said is needed.

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