Labour wants graduate-led nurseries and more training for childminders

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian Phillipson said, ‘We know that so much is determined for children early on and that you can make the biggest impact in the early years, yet the system we’ve got right now deprioritises so much of what goes on in our early years settings.

‘We need to raise the standing of the sector, make it part of the education system so that it is regarded with the same parity as our schools. What you achieve in the early years makes such a big difference.’

Phillipson said she was ‘determined to deliver graduate-led nurseries’ and more training for childminders with a workforce plan to get more highly trained staff teaching the youngest children.

According to the article, Labour is also considering how to create more early years places in primary schools where there is a shortage of childcare, and falling rolls in schools in parts of the country such as Cumbria and the south-west.

Phillipson added, ‘When I visit secondary schools, headteachers tell me: if you have any more money to spend, please go and spend it on the early years, because by the time children arrive at my door, so much has already been determined and we do our best but it’s really hard,” she said.

‘We need to start earlier and have a focus on early years because by the time children arrive at school that gap has already started to widen.’

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) welcomed Labour’s plans for a more skilled workforce, but said that the support needed to be made available to all providers, highlighting that nurseries already struggle to pay the wages they want and to attract graduates because of the low government funding rate for childcare places for three-and four-year-olds.

Tanuku said, ‘It’s good to see Labour is looking at early years as part of mainstream education, but before any expansion plans are finalised, they must look at bolstering the existing childcare infrastructure first.

‘The vast majority of settings across England are private and voluntary nurseries who offer flexible, high quality early education and care that parents and families need. These providers are already threatened with high costs, business rates, VAT and poor funding rates, so we have seen a 50 per cent increase in closures because they are unable to remain sustainable. Any additional threat to these nurseries could result in reduced parental choice, constraints on efforts to improve quality for our children and much less flexibility that working families need.’

Joe@joeb_EY, an early years teacher, said on Twitter, ‘I think the specifics of their Early Years policy remain to be seen, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too much. But I like Bridget Phillipson...She genuinely seems like she has respect for the sector.’

Education consultant Barbara Bleiman said, 'This is so important. I hope it signals that Labour is serious about some major changes, to address the deep-seated, long-term problems in our society - some of which can at least be helped, if not solved, by proper funding & thinking about education.’