We need “sensible implementation plans” for childcare, says Labour

Kate Green has called for “decent, sensible implementation plans” to get schools and childcare settings back to full capacity, and has accused the government of a “tendency to wash its hands of all of that detail”.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, the Shadow Education Secretary reiterated Labour’s call for a task force to work towards the return of children to schools in September.

Green said: “We want to see children back in childcare settings because that’s a good experience for children… but you can’t just make these grand announcements if you’re the government.

“You’ve got to make sure that decent, sensible implementation plans are being put in place and I’m afraid the government has a bit of a tendency to wash its hands of all of that detail.”

She added: “That’s why Labour was calling for a task force from the outset so that we can properly plan these things on a cross-party basis with experts in the room, and I’m afraid that’s been totally ignored by the government.”

The comments follow the announcement from Boris Johnson on Friday, calling for parents to return to work. Labour has accused the PM of placing parents in an “impossible position” by not also providing adequate support for childcare.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “We all want society to get moving again, but it requires a clear plan and national leadership from the government. Despite ordering millions of parents back to the office, the Prime Minister has refused to provide any extra help for families, penalising parents by putting them in an impossible position.

“Parents got a back-to-work notice on Friday just as the summer holidays began. But they got no support for structured activities, no summer catch-up schemes, and no support for a childcare sector on its knees.

“If we are going to reopen our society and economy safely and successfully, we need the public to have confidence in the government’s advice, we need test, track and trace to be working properly, and we need proper support for children to learn and for parents to get back to work.”

The call from Green for more detail this morning also comes as Johnson is today unveiling the government’s pupil funding plans, boasting a year-on-year increase – one of the Tory manifesto commitments in the 2019 election.

Labour has said that this will still leave children worse off than in 2010 – highlighting analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which shows that the plans do not reverse the cuts seen over the past decade.

On funding, Green said: “Additional funding for schools is necessary and welcome, but it was this Conservative government that cut school budgets for the first time in a generation, and only began to provide additional investment due to tireless campaigning from parents, school staff, and the Labour Party.

“The fact is schools will still be worse off in 2023 than they were in 2010 under these plans, as a direct result of the Conservatives’ decision to cut school budgets. Far more must be done for every child to have the opportunity to reach their full potential.”