Tulip Siddiq

I am coming to my questions to the Minister; I know she is highly focused on the early years sector and has done an enormous amount for it. One of those questions is about Ofsted; I will get to that in a minute. The Secretary of State talked about appointing an expert panel on CCTV. Can the Minister give an update on that panel, and is there an opportunity for me to sit on it as a representative of the parents in my constituency? I ask the Minister for her response to the Lullaby Trust’s Campaign for Gigi. One of its three objectives is mandatory CCTV in nurseries, stating that CCTV “should not only be checked once there has been a serious incident. CCTV can give staff the confidence to speak up when they see something that is concerning, and could help Ofsted to monitor regular practices in nurseries even before there is a concern.” In addition, the Lullaby Trust is “calling for Ofsted and the Department for Education to explore reviewing CCTV footage as part of Ofsted inspections. This can act as an active safeguard, revealing concerns that may not be visible during a short, scheduled inspection.” Cost is an issue, which we are all aware of. Will the Minister commission a study to look into the costs for nurseries to install CCTV? Before I finish, I want to make it clear that although I have talked a lot about keeping our children safe in nurseries, I am a huge champion of the early years sector. There are thousands of workers out there who work really hard to love, protect and look after our children. I sent my children to Pinocchio nursery in my constituency; it looked after them better than I did, and they still call their nursery manager Jana their second mother. In no way is this debate a slight on the people who work hard to look after our children. We owe them a debt of gratitude. My focus today has been on the safeguarding crisis in some of our nurseries. There were almost 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in English nurseries in the five years to March 2024. That was up 40% on the previous five years. Meanwhile, the number of legal claims involving injuries to children in nurseries has increased tenfold over the past decade. I spoke to the late Genevieve’s father John last night. He told me categorically that, without CCTV, the investigation into his little daughter’s death would not have opened. It would not have taken place, the case would not have gone to trial, and the deputy manager of the nursery would not have been convicted of manslaughter. I am not naive to the challenges; I do not think CCTV is a silver bullet, but I do think it is one step closer to safeguarding our children in the future. If there is any Government who should put forward policy to look after the most vulnerable, it should be a Government with Labour values.