Speeches by Phillipson.

“I am delighted to hear about the good news for St John’s. I am sure that the Minister for Early Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), and I will receive lots of invitations to visit fantastic breakfast clubs across our country. We will do our best to service those invitations, but …”

“I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the importance of supporting local providers where that is possible and the fantastic contribution of British food and wider produce. I just observe that it is my understanding that his constituency is set to benefit from the early adopters scheme. I hope that he will be able to se…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this important area. She is right that breakfast clubs must be fully inclusive and take account of the needs of all children, including children with SEND. That is why, as part of this process, we have announced 50 special and AP schools that will be taking part in the early …”

“I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her questions. Turning first to the question of funding, there has sadly been some misunderstanding about the funding rates, so I will set those out for the benefit of the House. In the summer term, funding will be paid in two parts: an up-front, one-off payment of £500 to cover initi…”

“The shadow Minister asks a number of questions, but at no point did he welcome the massive investment and the benefits that this provision will bring to children across our country, including in his own constituency—not a word of support. I hope when the breakfast club in his constituency opens, he might take time to v…”

“With permission, I will make a statement updating the House on the Government’s work to deliver free breakfast clubs and give every child the best start in life. This is a Government who act on their principles, deliver on their promises and drive the change that the country needs—change that is felt in our villages, t…”

“Some 754 schools have been selected to take part in the early adopters scheme, of which 704 are mainstream schools and 50 are special schools and alternative provision settings. That is important, because we want to make sure that all children in time are able to benefit from the roll-out of breakfast clubs. We will wo…”

“I can say to my hon. Friend’s constituents and those across St Helens that we will ensure that schools have the resources they need to deliver the roll-out of breakfast clubs, both for early adopters and beyond. As we get this initial phase under way, it is essential that we learn what works ahead of the national roll-…”

“I can certainly ensure that that is raised with colleagues across Government to make sure that updates are provided as the Committee requires.”

“I will add a bit on children and young people, if it is helpful for the Committee. We have seen increases in diagnosis connected to education, health and care plans partly because there is a much wider understanding of neurodivergence and autism, and that is a welcome development. But where it comes to schools in parti…”

“Our first priority is to appoint the new chair, and the recruitment campaign for that began in November last year. The advert closed on 8 January. A recruitment campaign for additional commissioners will begin after the chair is identified, including for a Wales and Scotland commissioner. In the meanwhile, we have exte…”

“Anneliese, do you want to speak to that, because it covers legislation as well, doesn’t it?”

“We are committed to enacting the socioeconomic duty, and we intend to set out in due course when that will happen, but there is also the relationship with the opportunity mission, which is cross-governmental. The key focus of that is to ensure that background is no barrier to opportunity. We are looking at the measures…”

“Great question.”

“I will just add that, alongside the work that I have talked about today, I co-chair the child poverty taskforce with the Work and Pensions Secretary. We know that far too many children in our country are growing up in poverty and, again, this is an area where we are working right across Government to make sure that we …”

“Would you like me to address the precise measure as well?”

“What is central to the work across Government on poverty overall is that we want people to have more money in their pockets to make the choices that are right for them. It is a scandal that so many of our fellow citizens do not have enough money to provide for the basics, whether that is food for their children or peri…”

“This is a crucial area. I am incredibly passionate about making sure we have really high-quality and accessible early education and childcare in terms of women’s life chances. It is women in particular that we are talking about here, who often suffer that disadvantage when childcare is not available and accessible. Alo…”

“I understand the argument, and there is a need to reform the system overall. We will reform the system through the course of this Parliament. There are elements of the offer that are available to disadvantaged families, in the parlance, but I appreciate that there are cliff edges within the system. That is something th…”

“I am not aware that I have, but I am happy to check and come back on that point. Just to re-emphasise the point that Anneliese was making around the approach that the Government take in these areas, when it comes to single-sex exemptions, we want providers to have absolute clarity on what is covered by the law. Before …”