Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe (Lab)
My Lords, children in deprived areas benefit most from early years education and childcare. Problems can be identified and appropriate interventions arranged. They are better prepared for school and learn valuable social and cultural skills. Big nursery chains are expanding when they can charge fees. Poorer children’s needs are often met by smaller, stand-alone nurseries that cannot survive without adequate local authority funding. The projected increase next April will not be enough to cover the increases in costs of the minimum wage, national insurance, energy, pensions, resumption of business rates and so on.
The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)
My Lords, may I please remind noble Lords that this is Question Time, not speech time? Can we please have pithy questions so that everybody can ask what they want?
Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe (Lab)
How do the Government hope to sustain those nurseries’ vital contribution to social mobility if their funding remains inadequate?