Speeches by Paffey.

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and I wish him every success in his constituency with the pilot breakfast clubs. We have all welcomed in the last week a restoring—let us be honest—of Sure Start-style family hubs which will provide wraparound support for parents. From the hubs I have seen in my constituency …”

“My hon. Friend paints the picture of the crowning glory of the previous Labour Government, in the Sure Start centres, not just because they were a nice feelgood thing but because of the strong evidence of the benefits they brought. What a disgrace that year after year the Conservatives cut council budgets and shut thos…”

“I am delighted to hear that each of these Best Start family hubs will have a fully trained and professional SEND co-ordinator to support families. Could the Minister say a bit more about how she envisages those co-ordinators working in partnership with local education, health and local authority partners to avoid silo …”

“My hon. Friend is making an incredibly powerful speech about the resilience of her community and the action that this Labour Government are taking. Her constituents, like mine, are being lectured on personal responsibility. Does she share my astonishment that, despite the opportunity to take some responsibility themsel…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“While the shadow Chancellor is engaging in such fascinating whataboutery at the Dispatch Box, will he take the opportunity to say which of the 25 tax increases in the last Parliament he regrets or would undo?”

“May I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks? At a recent coffee morning, residents in Southampton Itchen told me how much they still miss the Bitterne NHS walk-in centre, which was shut down a decade ago under the Conservatives. May I begin by welcoming this Government’s 10-year plan and its commitment to …”

“Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 9 July.”

“Yes, apologies.”

“Staying on the theme of jobs and careers and then motivation to learn, it is pretty obvious that if there is a greater knowledge of the potential careers that are out there, and you foster an aspiration in young learners to do one or multiple of those jobs, then there will be a greater engagement with studies and their…”

“It is the post-16, but obviously something is not working pre-16. This leads to a wider point: if enough children do not grasp, or are not motivated enough to grasp, why maths and English are crucial—do not get me wrong; I absolutely believe they are—is there not a wider point around what is in the curriculum? Is there…”

“It is really welcome that you are looking at it from primary because there is literally no other subject that we ask students to start aged 11 and then be assessed on aged 15, 16. I will just bring you back to the social justice point and the EBacc; there is a tension. In some cases, the EBacc is one of the sole driver…”

“The interim report that you produced said that the expectation to study maths and English beyond 16 for those who have not achieved grade 4 should remain. Others take a different view and describe it as demotivating, humiliating and in urgent need of reform. Given the low rates of grade improvement—just a third in Engl…”

“Why should it remain if your task in the review is to look at the fundamentals? Are we flogging GCSE maths and English, or should we be looking at the broader point of literacy and numeracy and how you achieve those? Is now not the moment to say in the review, “There is a better and more effective way of doing this,” r…”

“I want to ask a particular question about the broad and balanced curriculum which is designed to have children ready for the world around them. That world is not a monolingual world. I declare a bit of an interest: I was a linguistics researcher and teacher for 20 years. There is an increasing need for languages; we ha…”

“Without pre-empting what the final report will say, do you think that will result in changes to how it is taught or how it is assessed, or both?”

“There is evidence to suggest that the 30% of GCSE maths candidates who achieve below grade 4 are held back by misunderstandings of maths concepts that originate in primary schools. I visited a primary school last week and saw the work of the maths hubs. I saw some fantastic work there. Have you had discussions on how t…”

“Twenty five years ago this year, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, joined my predecessor, John Denham, in opening one of the first Sure Start centres in the country, on the Weston estate. We remember the good that that did for families there, and we remember the effect of over a decade of slashing council budgets an…”

“In that White Paper, do you accept that in some cases, responsibilities that should be Health’s, and therefore the cost of them, are falling to schools, colleges and local authorities? Do you accept that in the White Paper, that needs to be addressed by some change in the legislative levers?”

“One way of strengthening multi-agency working that has been suggested to this Committee by the charity Contact was to strengthen the Children and Families Act 2014 by making these joint legal duties between Health and Social Care and Education for delivering those EHC plans. In your view, would that be effective? What …”