Education Recovery

Baroness Wilcox of Newport Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, has withdrawn, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox of Newport.

[Baroness Wilcox of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, I speak as a former teacher with over 30 years’ front-line classroom experience. Kevan Collins’ resignation is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ education catch-up plan. He is an expert who was brought in by the Prime Minister because of his experience and expertise, but the Government threw out his ideas as soon as they needed to stump up the money to deliver them.

Labour has a comprehensively detailed recovery plan for our children and young people. Our teachers have had one of the toughest years of their careers, and it is only by supporting them with training to stay on top of the latest knowledge and techniques that we can give children and young people a brilliant classroom experience in these most difficult times. So what more does the Minister plan to do to help teachers and their pupils?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her support for the fact that the training of teachers is important. We have outlined in this package considerable support for them, and that will be over the next two to three years. Obviously we are aware of the situation. That is why the review of the school day needs to listen to the views not just of teachers but of the workforce generally. We should not underestimate the strain that has been felt by school business professionals running the money and often overseeing the building with additional demands, and all the administrative and teaching assistant staff who there are in our schools. We will be looking carefully at the extension of the school day.

Unfortunately there have been difficult decisions to make in relation to funding. As I have mentioned to noble Lords, the one-year spending review did not bring any money to the department for any new free schools, including SEND free schools, which is a big indication of where we are. We are hoping for a spending review that will be a multiyear settlement.