Phillipson highlights new nurseries in conference speech

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has told the Labour party conference in Liverpool that places in new school-based nurseries will begin opening next year. Labour pledged 3000 new school-based nurseries in their manifesto for the general election earlier this year. Primary schools will be able to bid from October for a share of a £15million capital funding pot to convert empty classrooms into 300 nurseries (an average of £50,000 per school). Schools with existing nurseries can bid to expand their provision, with these expanded nurseries also counting towards the target of 300.

Telling the conference that ‘change begins, delivery begins’, Ms Phillipson also confirmed that the roll out of breakfast clubs in primary schools would begin from April next year. She also referenced the ongoing curriculum and assessment review and also reiterated Labour’s pledge to impose VAT on independent school fees. She also went on to say that Labour ‘see education as so much more than what happens in the classroom’, and that there would be a  ‘new era of child-centred government’. She praised education staff who she said so often go ‘above and beyond’, and had criticism for the record of the previous Conservative administration – in particular on SEND, school absence and the state of school buildings. She concluded her speech with a call to ‘seize the moment’ to ‘deliver the brighter future our children and our country deserve’.

Greensheets will have news from the Conservative party conference in our next edition.