Michelle Welsh

I thank everyone who has taken part in today’s debate. What is fabulous about this Parliament is the breadth of knowledge and experience regarding early years and childcare, women’s health and all those subjects. Although we may disagree sometimes on how to do this, I think there is a united vision to ensure that every child gets the best start in life. There have been moments of déjà vu in this debate when people have talked about outreach workers linking with social workers and ready-to-go-to-school programmes, because all those were around in the late 1990s under Sure Start and were sadly dismantled in front of my eyes. I will close by saying two things. First, I think we need to move from talking about school readiness to talking about learning readiness—that is really important. Secondly, and notwithstanding everybody else’s contributions, we have a real chance with the Best Start strategy to make a real difference, and the more voices that can be heard on that, the better. Where you are born should not determine your future, and I am convinced that this Labour Government will make sure that is the case. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered Government support for early years providers.