Liberal Democrats Outline Their Early Years Education and Childcare Priorities at Party Conference

Liberal Democrats Outline Their Early Years Education and Childcare Priorities at Party Conference

During the Liberal Democrats party conference in Bournemouth recently, Munira Wilson, the party's education spokesperson, unveiled their priorities for childcare and education ahead of the next general election. Some of these priorities include:

• Offering free, full-time childcare to all children starting from the age of two, and from nine months for working parents.
• Reevaluating funding rates to ensure they accurately reflect the costs associated with delivering high-quality childcare.
• Provide an additional five free hours of early years education each week to disadvantaged children aged two to four, while also tripling the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 per year.
• Establishing a comprehensive career strategy for childcare staff, which would include an extensive training programme to ensure that staff working with children aged two to four possess relevant early years qualifications.

The party also announced plans to grant all workers the right for parental leave and pay from the first day of employment and doubling the parental pay, after the initial six weeks, to £350 per week. Alongside this, an enhanced rate of child benefit for one-year olds which they called the ‘toddler-top-up’ was proposed. There was also mention of prioritising the identification and support of children with SEND in the new training program for early years staff.

Based on recent political polls, it seems highly unlikely that the Liberal Democrats will hold a sizeable portion of seats in next year's general election. However, in the past they have been critical to negotiations in a hung Parliament and so their views may nonetheless shape policy.