She said, ‘To make sure that every child has the best start in life, regardless of background, further measures will be taken to improve the quality of education for young people.
‘Plans will be developed to help working parents with childcare, increasing its availability and helping with cost.
‘My Government will also take forward plans for a new national curriculum, a world class exam system and greater flexibility in pay for teachers.’
4Children welcomed confirmation in the speech that supporting families with childcare was a Government priority.
But referring to plans previously announced for tax-free childcare, chief executive Anne Longfield said, ‘While additional help for families is of course welcome, hard pressed parents will struggle to wait until 2015/16 when the changes come into effect.’
The charity’s Fair4Families campaign is calling for no more cuts on services and benefits for families with children and more investment in childcare and housing.
Seventeen new Bills were announced for the next session of parliament, including the Care and Support Bill, which will set out the framework for adult care and support services in the future, including new rights for disabled people and for funding long-term care.
Two new public bodies will be created: Health Education England and the Health Research Authority, which will provide training and support for health professionals.
The Bill will apply to England only.
However, Contact A Family, the charity for disabled children and their carers said that because the new rights only apply to adults caring for other adults parent carers of disabled children will be left in ‘a no man’s land’, falling through the gap between the Care and Support Bill and the Children and Families Bill.
Srabani Sen, chief executive of Contact a Family, said, ‘While we welcome improved rights for carers we are extremely disappointed that parent carers will be denied these new rights. Although parent carers with disabled children will not lose rights, the care and support bill means parent carers will have lesser rights to assessment and support compared to carers of disabled adults.
‘Contact a Family thinks this is wrong and wants to see legislation that ensures parity of rights for all carers whether looking after a disabled child or adult. We will continue to use the parliamentary process to call for equal rights for parent carers and a number of other changes for carers through our participation in the care and support alliance.’
National curriculum
The teaching unions criticised the Government for pushing ahead with changes to the curriculum too quickly.
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said, ‘This Government risks doing immense damage to children’s education by rushing through ill-though out and deeply flawed plans which lack any evidence that will improve children’s education by rushing through ill-thought out and deeply flawed plans which lack any evidence that they will improve children’s education.’
‘The draft national curriculum is far too detailed, much of it is inappropriate for the age of the pupils, and it risks narrowing the opportunities for many children.
‘Instead we want a slim, skills-based curriculum framework, which defines essential content and gives a broad and balanced curriculum.’
The National Union of Teachers said that plans to reform the curriculum, examinations and deregulate teachers’ pay were ‘plain wrong’.
General secretary Christine Blower said, ‘The pace of change to children’s education and teachers’ pay and conditions, on the basis of no informed evidence or advice is quite simply unacceptable. The NUT is determined to act with others to expose the need for changes to the curriculum and for a fair and coherent national pay policy.
‘Michael Gove does not have the monopoly of wisdom on either the curriculum or teachers’ pay. He must listen to the profession.’
