Best Start Family Hubs
Debate between Baroness Bousted and Baroness Blake of Leeds
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Lord raises an important point. That is why the programme is committed to initially providing a hub within every local authority, expanding over the next two years to 1,000 hubs opening, recognising the diversity of need and that local areas will want to move the programme forward. There is clear guidance and there are clear expectations that every area will report on the outcomes they achieve, making sure that we drive forward the real desire for consistency that the noble Lord outlines.
Baroness Bousted (Lab)
My Lords, when in office, the party opposite oversaw an exponential rise in child poverty. It abolished Sure Start, the most successful programme which improved children’s physical and mental health, boosted their educational attainment and reduced serious youth crime. It imposed a two-child benefit limit, which condemned children to poverty. This Government have abolished the two-child limit and introduced Best Start to build on the Sure Start legacy. Does the Minister agree that this is the right way to reduce child poverty, rather than to ignore it?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I am tempted to answer with a simple and straight yes. My noble friend speaks absolute sense on this agenda. I want to highlight the devastation to provision that she outlines: between 2010 and 2022, 1,300 Sure Start centres closed; by 2024, one in three low-income families had no access to children’s centres at all. As she says, poverty soared and school readiness flatlined. I am delighted that this Government are making this one of their top priorities. I look forward to the outcomes and the benefits to families very soon.
Toilet-training: Support for Parents
Debate between Baroness Bousted and Baroness Blake of Leeds
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I am looking forward, as I am sure the noble Baroness is, to the professional strategy for nursing and midwifery, which will come out with our workforce plan through the 10-year plan for the health service. These are really important areas; we need to have a real focus. I am pleased that she recognises just what an important issue this is, how it can actually indicate further problems and what can be done to resolve them.
Baroness Bousted (Lab)
Does the Minister agree that the exponential rise in child poverty in the period in government of the previous Administration caused huge harm to children in school readiness, in toilet-training, and in speech and language development? Teachers reported that children came to school significantly harmed by the poverty in which their families lived. Does she agree that that is one of the major causes of the problems we now see?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend is right to highlight this. A situation where 4.5 million children in this country live in poverty and over a million children are reliant on food banks is a terrible indictment of what has happened to families and their children over the past decade or so. I am delighted that tackling child poverty is a top priority for this Government and look forward to rolling out the recommendations.
Young People’s Media Literacy
Debate between Baroness Bousted and Baroness Blake of Leeds
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
When I received the briefing for this, my first question was about parents—and, if I can express an interest, grandparents too. That is a very serious point, because so many young children are now looked after by their grandparents and older relatives. It is absolutely imperative that we address the issues, as the noble Baroness suggests. A report mentioned the number of children going to school who have never held a book, for example, and how we deal with that. On another point, in my experience a lot of schools are setting up parental groups to help schools navigate this difficult area. There is a strong recognition that, without parents’ engagement, helping to recognise the dangers and opportunities, we will not get as far as we need to.
Baroness Bousted (Lab)
Will the Minister agree that a renewed focus on media literacy, which is absolutely necessary, will require significant support for the profession? The number of media studies teachers has been decimated, and it has been written out of the curriculum—yet this is an essential skill for young people in today’s world. If they had better knowledge of media literacy, Andrew Tate would have less influence.