Bridget Phillipson

Bridget Phillipson

Labour — Houghton and Sunderland South

Speaking in the House of Commons on 7 July 2025

Debate

Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Contribution

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Chair of the Select Committee for her detailed questions, and for the welcome she has given the strategy. I would be more than happy to discuss all the areas with her in more detail, because I appreciate that time is often short here, Madam Deputy Speaker. We want to ensure high-quality training and support for all staff working across our education system, but my hon. Friend is right that we will have a SEND trained professional in every Best Start family hub, because the evidence from Sure Start was clear about the importance of early identification of need, aligned with better parenting support and wider health service access, so we will deliver that. Maintained nurseries have an incredible role to play, given the expertise that they can share across the system, and we are considering further steps to support them in sharing and building on that expertise. As my hon. Friend will know, maintained nurseries often have a large number of children with SEND in their settings, and we think there is a lot we can do around inclusion there, too. On inclusion across the board, there is an important role for the revised Ofsted framework in ensuring that all schools and education settings are genuinely inclusive.

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