Alliance comments on Labour's plans to introduce breakfast clubs in primary schools
The Early Years Alliance has issued a comment in reaction to Labour's plans to introduce breakfast clubs for every primary school in England. The plans were announced by shadown education secretary Bridge Phillipson at the Labour Party's annual conference on 28 September.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:
鈥淟abour鈥檚 plans to introduce breakfast clubs for every primary school in England will make a real difference to parents with school-aged children trying to balance their careers and their childcare needs, as well as ensuring that no children start the school day hungry, and so we warmly welcome this proposal.
鈥淭hat said, if Labour is truly committed to transforming the childcare landscape in this country, plans to address the severe challenges that nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are facing must also be central to this drive.
鈥淵ears of underfunding and poor policymaking has left the early years facing a severe recruitment and retention crisis, and mass setting closures 鈥 with around 4,000 providers shutting in the last year alone 鈥 leaving children unable to access vital early education and parents struggling to find the affordable, reliable childcare they need.
鈥淎s such, any plan to solve the 鈥榗hildcare crisis鈥 must start with the early years and must include a long-term plan for the sector based on realistic, sustainable funding.鈥