‘Phillipson is right – universal early years education should be a core mission for the Labour Party’

Last week Bridget Phillipson openly criticised her own department’s policy, for the first time acknowledging that the government’s flagship childcare expansion is leaving the poorest children behind. She also set out an ambition to fix it, calling for a future of universal early education. 

It is yet to be seen whether Phillipson remains as Education Secretary but regardless of who ends up holding the education brief, Labour should see the expansion of early education as a core mission for the party going forward. 

The problem is one researchers have been warning about for years. The 30 hour entitlement, now fully rolled out for children from nine months, is the largest expansion of state-funded early years provision ever seen in England. But due to the focus on expanding childcare for working families, access to it depends on parents’ working status. While we know the poorest children are the most likely to benefit from early education they are also the least likely to receive it. 

READ MORE: ‘Support for children with additional learning needs is our red line’

Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated just one in five families earning under £20,000 a year would be able to access the expanded hours, with the share of early years spending requiring parents to be in paid work increasing from 47% to 66% in only two years. 

Decades of research has found that high quality early education is one of the best levers available to improve outcomes for children from poorer homes, but we have built a system in which the state invests most heavily in the early education of better-off children. Labour, the party of Sure Start and of comprehensive schooling, has overseen a widening of inequality of opportunity for the very youngest children during its time so far in government. 

And while Andy Burnham has stressed the importance of widening opportunities, with a particular focus on improving vocational pathways – opportunity is much harder to widen at age 16 if it has already been narrowed at age five. The gaps that determine who has the chance to thrive in any pathway, vocational or academic, open up before children ever set foot in the classroom. We cannot effectively tackle Britain’s NEETs crisis in the long term while ignoring inequalities in early education. 

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

As Phillipson acknowledged in her speech, there is also an economic case for change, with families not in work unable to afford quality childcare, but also often unable to move into work without that childcare in place. Those in education or training also cannot access the 30 hour funded offer, potentially disincentivising parents of young children from upskilling, more vital than ever in today’s changing workplace. 

How can the government get to universal coverage, and why hasn’t it happened already? 

Cost is likely to have been a major barrier, particularly given the long-term nature of the return to investment of spending on the early years. In the short term, improving the support targeted at the lowest income children would be a great – and more affordable – first step. 15 funded hours of early education is offered to lower income two-year-olds, but the group able to access it has been eroded over time as eligibility criteria have tightened, with the IFS recently finding that in 2024/25 the offer was available to just 24% of two year olds, a substantial fall from the 38% able to access it ten years ago. Bringing eligibility levels back up to around 40%, as was recently called for by the Social Market Foundation in a joint report with the Sutton Trust, could be the start of moves towards universal provision. 

Phillipson has started the conversation, but it cannot end here. There is no real route to breaking down barriers to opportunity that does not begin with action in the earliest years of life. A commitment to universal provision, with real steps towards it, would signal a genuine change of direction for the party as it looks to renew itself in government.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].