Speeches by Paffey.

“Do you think there is scope to amend, for example, the work allowance in universal credit, which would allow more lone parents and second earners in families with children to keep more of their earnings, thus alleviating family poverty?”

“Dame Diana, we have heard evidence that it will be difficult to substantially reduce child poverty through employment because a lot of the benefits of that work have already been banked. For example, two-thirds of lone parents are now in work. At the start of the new Labour Government that was 45%. Do you accept and ac…”

“I think we would all agree with the principles of work being a route out of poverty for adults, and of education being the foundations to a route out of poverty for children. However, we have seen evidence that the curriculum is still overly rigid and does not reflect the needs of children who want to take alternative …”

“Do you believe there is still room for that two thirds figure to go up, so that more are supported back into work? Is that your aspiration, whether it is a target or not?”

“Are you looking to respond to some of those challenges that parents have reported to us as witnesses? Of course, that will come out in the final report, but, while I am not asking you to announce government policy on the hoof, is it something that you are aware of? Would you acknowledge that there are still some challe…”

“A lot of the stats have shown that the price of childcare to families has come down significantly in the last two years, but we are also hearing that, beyond the 30 hours, it is costing many parents who need to top up to 50 hours a week £150 a week, for 38 weeks. If they have to then go full-time out of term time, cost…”

“Finally, can you say today what the shortfall currently is of the staff that you need? What is the gap you are looking to plug?”

“Did you say you can or cannot then track the conversion rate of that initial interest through to engagement through to then a qualified early years practitioner?”

“Is that something you feel you need to do in order to be able to effectively measure it, or are we not set up for that at the moment?”

“How are you measuring the effectiveness of each of those different interventions? Going forward, you will want to put most effort into where you get the best bang for buck and the best people out of it. How are you going about that measuring?”

“Because you mention data, what data do you have and what data do you recognise you need in order to be able to fully provide the support that you would wish to for those children? You say you need more of it. What is that?”

“Minister, you have rightly paid tribute to the fantastic people working across the early years sector. The reality, of course, is that one of the big challenges is recruitment and retention of the workforce, so I have a couple of questions on this. First, how confident are you that that workforce will be able to meet t…”

“Can you say a bit more about what those specific actions are that are already leading to that 14,000 increase, but also what more you will be doing as a Department to get it to the level that can best meet that demand?”

“That is good news on recruitment. Again, just coming back to retention, for primary and secondary school teachers, we have seen the rate of people dropping out of the career slow down, but they are still dropping out, so you need to keep that fresh flow coming in. What are you seeing in early years on retention and bei…”

“Specifically on them, who are the 25%? Who do you see them, as demographically or geographically? What are the factors that are making them the 25% who will not yet be within that target but need targeted support? What is going on with them?”

“Yes, of course. I should have declared an interest as somebody who is taking full advantage of the 30 hours of free childcare. It is fantastic, and it is fantastic that it is finally funded.”

“Minister, the Department set a goal of 75% of children being school-ready by 2028. Are you on track to meet that?”

“It is holiday activities and food.”

“I am interested in getting people’s views on the child poverty strategy that has been introduced. You might be aware that it includes measures such as the scrapping of the two-child limit, measures around breakfast clubs, limiting school uniforms, increased minimum wage, childcare, et cetera. There are lots of differen…”

“You have started to answer my next question actually. What practical changes at local or national level do we need to see that would make the greatest difference to improving that collaboration that we have said is so necessary across early years and children’s support services? In particular—Dr Callan, you started to …”