Childcare Bill

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 29th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Rodda]

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point, and the review I propose would, indeed, cover such issues.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about an independent person. Does he not see the benefit of the Children’s Commissioner? They are already in place and effectively already have that role, or will the independent person be under the Children’s Commissioner?

[Matt Rodda]

I will go on to make some further suggestions for the type of independent review, and I am grateful for that suggestion on the Children’s Commissioner.

The Bill does not propose changing the system itself, but it would allow the Government to appoint an independent person to lead a review of free childcare schemes in England. I believe this could have the same powerful impact as previous education reviews led by respected figures with cross-party support. I am thinking of—this goes back a bit into history—the Dearing review of A-levels in the 1990s, or the more recent Augar review of higher education funding. Sometimes, getting a fresh perspective can tease out problems and help to construct collaborative and co-operative solutions that are driven by the sector. Clause 2 would bring together, under the leadership of that independent person, providers, parents, research organisations and others that they saw fit, to take a proper look at how we take childcare forward in this century.

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[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda) on bringing the Bill before the House and on his tone. He is already working across both sets of Benches in the House, and I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden) and many others that this issue touches us all; it is important to every one of us and the conciliatory tone is—as you have said, Mr Deputy Speaker—very welcome, because we want to find a solution. I agree with other Conservative Members in not being able to support the Bill in its current wording, but I support the intention behind it and look forward to working on it with the hon. Member for Reading East.

I have said this quite a few times so I know it will bore some Members on my side of the House, but as a former teacher—[Hon. Members: “Oh!”] I know that comes a surprise to some, but as former teacher this issue is of course important to me. I worked with 11 to 18-year-olds and we would make the point time and again that what we inherited in secondary school was the foundation work set by primary school and even earlier than that, in the early-years sector.

It is probably only in recent years that we have started to take seriously just how important the early years of a child’s education are. I am proud to say that I am the father of a 15-month-old, Amelia, who is at nursery today dressed as a pumpkin for her Halloween party. Having that responsibility of being a father at first hand really does make one conscious of just how important getting that education right is. There are so many well-meaning parents up and down the country who want to do the right thing but perhaps did not come from households where the role modelling was in place for them or do not have support networks on their doorstep because of a lack of transportation, as they do not own a car and there is no good-quality public transport in place to access certain services. It can feel as though they are out of touch or things are out of reach, and that is certainly an issue in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and in Kidsgrove and Talke. Those areas have poor public transport, with the number of bus journeys having gone down by 10 million in the past decade, meaning that people have lost confidence in that public transport network. Some 30% of people in the city do not even own a car, so how do we make sure we get that support to those parents? That issue is critical.

I wish to praise my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt) for managing to remember all the fantastic things the Government have done in the past decade to support children in the early years. The Budget was extremely supportive, and I was delighted to see the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), tweet and then share this on his Instagram. I am not on Twitter, for the good of my mental health, but I saw there was £560 million for children’s social care homes, which is very important, and £300 million for the Start for Life package, for which my right hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom) and my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), have rightly been pushing—£80 million of that is going to be for family hubs, and that is superb.

The Minister will be aware that a letter was sent only yesterday from myself and Councillor Dave Evans, the cabinet member for children and families in Stoke-on-Trent, calling for Stoke-on-Trent to be one of the places for those family hubs. We were calling for at least one, Minister, although we are bit greedy and we would like three. The family hubs support children from 0 to 19, as well as offering support to the family. Whether through parenting and childcare support, debt advice or many of the other things available, that is essential. The £5 billion towards catch-up, as we have seen in the primary and secondary school years, and the £150 million for workforce training in respect of the early years is also extremely welcome. When my partner and I dropped Amelia off to nursery, we had the great delight of finding that Miss Angela, one of her teachers, is a former student of my partner, Nkita, at Burlington Danes Academy in London. Although that was a shock, it was a welcome surprise. As my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham said, we want more people entering that workforce; it is a fantastic career, as they get to shape the lives of so many children.

As other Members have said, the cost of childcare absolutely needs to be looked at as best as we can. I am fortunate to have this job, with the salary that comes with it, and my partner is a senior leader in a school, which comes with a very good salary, one that is well above the national average. Even so, £1,600 a month for childcare five days a week is an awful lot of money. We are lucky that we have that financial security, but this is not an option for many families. So although the 15 hours of free childcare for those on low incomes is absolutely important and we should use this opportunity today to encourage parents to take up that 15 hours, not enough in Stoke-on-Trent are doing so. I urge them today to sign up to that free childcare opportunity and use it to their full advantage, because it should not be thrown away.

The 30 hours of free childcare for working parents is essential and is helping children when they hit three and four, but we have to think about those one and two-year-olds, because it is not right that one parent has to decide whether or not to give up a career in order to stay at home, so as not to have to lose so much of their income to childcare. A look at that would be welcome, although I agree with my Conservative colleagues that we do not need necessarily to legislate for a review. The Children’s Commissioner can pick up the baton today and look into this herself with the powers she has. This could then be fed into the Minister, working with the hon. Member for Reading East, and then things could be taken forward to see what further strategies could be implemented. That would be a really positive step.

Overall, there is an awful amount being done. Let us not forget the announcement that disappointingly went under the radar a bit on Wednesday: the £200 million a year commitment from the Government for a holiday activities and food programme. That is absolutely welcome. I thank my predecessor, Ruth Smeeth, who was a doughty champion of this issue. She worked with Carol Shanahan, the co-owner of Port Vale football club and the Hubb Foundation, and Adam Yates, a former professional footballer who is now running the Hubb Foundation and is on the Government’s steering group for the holiday activities and food programme.

That programme has not just helped primary and secondary children; it has also created intervention programmes over the school holidays, including the current October half-term, for children in early years. That has been of huge support. It has been done smartly, by using the school building to its full potential, so that there were no additional costs. The programme used facilities that were already in place, that parents trust, and that children feel safe and can be safe in. That was a really good idea.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Reading East for his tireless work on the issue. I am sure that he will have those conversations with the Minister, who I know from first-hand experience is keen always to extend the hand of friendship across the House and find solutions. I hope that we can come to some agreement. Unfortunately, with the current wording of the Bill, I cannot lend the hon. Gentleman my support, but I certainly support his intention.

Coronavirus: Education Setting Attendance and Support for Pupils

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Thursday 23rd September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alex Burghart]

I thank both the hon. Lady for her question and the school in her constituency for the work that it has done to look after its pupils; it sounds as though it has gone above and beyond. As I said in answer to the shadow Secretary of State a few moments ago, the Department has invested considerable amounts of money in supporting children’s mental health. There has been £79 million across the piece, and £17 million for training for mental health and wellbeing in schools. We are fully aware that this is one of the lasting consequences of the pandemic, and we will step in to support schools every inch of the way.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I find the irony of this urgent question being called by those on the Labour Front Bench somewhat mystifying, because they went missing throughout the pandemic, and there was silence on the issue of schools. It is not just me who thinks this. Let me quote:

“Labour’s silence on closing schools is completely ridiculous.”

That was Corbynista Owen Jones saying that, so it is not just we on the Conservative Benches who think it. The NEU—or the “not education union” as we should refer to it—continually wanting to shut schools, and Labour keeping silent despite the donations running into its party coffers tell us everything that we need to know. Can my hon. Friend confirm to me that, no matter what happens this winter, schools will be kept open, pupils will be learning face to face and, in that way, they will catch up exactly as they need to.

[Alex Burghart]

I thank my hon. Friend for his passionate question. He has first-hand experience of working in schools, and I look forward to leaning on his expertise while I am in this job. It is absolutely the Government’s intention to keep schools open. We are clear that schools are the right place for children. The cost of children not being in school is extremely serious, so it is very much our hope that schools will be open from this point on.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Monday 6th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

The pupil premium this academic year will be £2.5 billion, up from £2.4 billion last year. This Government introduced the pupil premium because we are committed to ensuring that a child’s background should not reflect their outcomes in their education.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

The Institute for Government has estimated that it will take about three years for the dust around grade inflation to settle. Will my right hon. Friend tell us when the chair of Ofqual will outline a plan to tackle that; and will he please squash the ridiculous rumours about an A** or grade 10 being brought in?

[Nick Gibb]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. I can assure him that there will be no change to the grading system for 2022 but we are looking at the longer-term issue about grading in GCSEs and A-levels.

Awarding Qualifications in 2021 and 2022

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Thursday 22nd July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

We published the consultation, jointly with Ofqual, on 12 July, and it sets out our proposals for how we will conduct exams in 2022. The Secretary of State has made it very clear that our plan is for exams to go ahead, and we want schools to teach the full curriculum. The purpose of the adaptations is to make the exams as fair as possible for students and to give them confidence in taking those exams, given the disruption they have suffered over the past 16 months.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

It is likely that this summer will see a huge rise in grade inflation, beyond what we saw last August. This benefits nobody in the long term, particularly those in future exam cohorts from disadvantaged backgrounds in places such as Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke. Can my right hon. Friend explain how grade inflation will not be baked into the system, to use the words of my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), in the 2022 exams and beyond?

[Nick Gibb]

Parents and pupils can have confidence that the grades awarded this summer will be valid. They are supported by detailed guidance, as I said in answer to a previous question, and there is a robust quality assurance process. We trust teachers’ judgment, as they are best placed to understand the content that their students have covered, their students’ performance and how it compares with other students this year. Grading is a matter for Ofqual, and some decisions will be made about that in the autumn term.

Covid-19: Education Settings

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Tuesday 6th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

It is as if the hon. Gentleman’s constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Simon Fell) and the hon. Gentleman think incredibly alike—perhaps not on absolutely everything, but certainly on this issue. My hon. Friend met me just last week, and we spoke about that exact matter. The best thing we can do to help those outdoor centres is ensure that their doors can open to welcome not just day visitors, but those who want to stay there on a residential basis. We will continue to look at what other measures we can introduce to support the sector. I know the value and enrichment that comes from doing so many activities, whether on Lake Windermere or in many other excellent locations around the country, and it brings real benefit. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Minister for School Standards would be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement, and the four schools in Stoke-on-Trent North, including Goldenhill Primary Academy, have received condition improvement funding. Rather than flogging the dead horse of exams, which I was going to do, I will jump to a different issue. Let us take 10% of pupil premium funding and ensure that it goes into high quality, extra-curricular enrichment activities, as laid out by me previously in the House, and by the Challenger Trust, which does excellent work in Gateshead. Let us ensure that we give those disadvantaged pupils the access to high-quality enrichment activities that many enjoy, such as those in the school that I attended, the private school Princethorpe College.

[Gavin Williamson]

My hon. Friend is a man who likes to chew off a Secretary of State’s ear, especially when it comes to condition improvement funding for his schools. It is great to see four schools benefiting from his assiduous lobbying, making sure that he is delivering for his constituency.

My hon. Friend raises an important point about the use of pupil premium funding. We want to see schools considering how it can be more effectively targeted, especially at pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and those who need extra support. In the past, far too often, pupil premium funding has been seen as just another stream of funding going into schools. We need schools to consider how pupil premium funding is delivering for the pupils it is targeted at.

Catch-up Premium

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Tuesday 15th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I would like to start by thanking and congratulating all the fantastic teachers, support staff, parents and pupils across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke and by giving a special shout-out to Lisa Ackley, who was a The Times Educational Supplement awards finalist for classroom support assistant of the year for her work at Ormiston Horizon Academy. I would also like to thank the fantastic year 10 students I met last Friday at the Excel Academy in Sneyd Green, who are fully supportive of an extended school day. I look forward to going around and rallying that cry from all the students across my constituency to pass that on to the Minister.

But we are back here again. On Twitter, the Labour party clearly did not get the likes and retweets it wanted, so decided to try to repeat this debate all over again. The Not Education Union seems to own the Labour party when it comes to education policy. Let us not forget that Labour was silent when the NEU said in March last year that teachers should not be teaching a full timetable or routinely marking. Labour was silent on the 180-point checklist of things that the Not Education Union wanted to see before schools could open, and it was silent about the scaremongering that was being done by the Not Education Union over school safety, ignoring the JCVI’s advice, wanting to vaccinate teachers instead of those who are most vulnerable to coronavirus, which means our top nine categories.

Also, let us not forget that the Not Education Union spent over £500,000 from its general funds to basically play party politics. It was accused of breaking the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. So let us be quite clear: Kevin Courtney and Dr Mary Bousted are a shambles. They should do the honourable thing and resign with immediate effect. I will happily go and pack up their stuff and send it to their home addresses, because I am sick and tired of boring socialist trade unionists who are focused on their own political agenda rather than on educating children and looking after their teachers properly—that is why so few people pay into the party political fund—yet they shower their money on the Labour party to try to get it in their grasp.

Let us have a look at what this Government have done over the last 12 months: an increase to core school funding of £2.6 billion for 2020-21 and a further increase of £2.2 billion for 2021-22; raising the pupil premium to over £2.5 billion; £1 billion of investment to improve the school estate; increased high needs funding, with £780 million more for 2020-21 and £730 million extra next year; £520 million for free school meals national voucher scheme; £410 million to provide more than 1.3 million digital devices; £220 million for the expansion of the holiday activities and food programme; £63 million to local authorities to help with food; exceptional funding to cover specific, unavoidable costs incurred by schools due to coronavirus worth £102 million in total—over £14 billion, with a £3 billion catch-up. This is a Government who care about our families and young people.

Investing in Children and Young People

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Wednesday 9th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kate Green]

I am grateful for the opportunity to echo the appreciation of the work that school leaders and staff have been doing over the past 15 months of the pandemic, and of course we must respect and recognise their professional judgment.

The suggestion that last week’s announcement is just an instalment and that there will be a review of what more is needed is both wholly unnecessary, when Sir Kevan Collins has laid out a clear and comprehensive plan, and is an insult to children who have already lost between two and four months of classroom time and should not have to wait another term or more for the support that they need to recover from the pandemic.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

In the proposals that Sir Kevan Collins made, how much of the £15 billion was related to the half-hour extension of the school day? Does the hon. Lady agree that if we are to do something as radical as extending the school day, which I support, the evidence base should be looked at and it should be done carefully? We will have trade unions to negotiate with, and rightly so, as well as teachers who are not on contracts and may have had their hours extended beyond 4 o’clock already. There are problems with suddenly announcing things without having carefully thought them through.

[Kate Green]

If I may say so, I think that the hon. Gentleman is probably building up more problems than actually exist in the provision of extended activities at the end of an enhanced school day. We already know that many schools are able to provide some such activities, and that it is not just through schools, but through youth and community organisations, that such activities can be added to the school day. We are talking about ensuring that every child has the opportunity to benefit as soon as possible—we had 15 months to plan this— from the enhancement that those activities can bring to their childhood.

The Conservative party’s plans are a terrible betrayal of children and young people’s excitement at being back in class with their friends and teachers, their optimism and their aspirations for the future. Today, I hope that we can come together as a House to resolve to do better. Last week, I was proud to publish Labour’s children’s recovery plan, which proposes a package of measures for schools, early years and further education settings to address children and young people’s learning loss and their wellbeing.

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[Kate Green]

My reading of Sir Kevan’s proposals is that the longer day would be used for exactly the kind of activities that the Labour party supports: social and emotional play, learning and development-related activities, including sport, the arts, drama, debating, music and so on. There is also time, of course, for some focus on formal, more structured learning, but we have heard again and again from teachers and parents, as I am sure Conservative Members have, that children get tired and their concentration wanes after seven or eight hours.

[Jonathan Gullis]

indicated dissent.

[Kate Green]

There is no point in the hon. Member shaking his head. That is what they told us. Any parent will recognise the fact that expecting children—

[Jonathan Gullis]

Children are far more resilient.

[Kate Green]

I am coming on to children’s resilience, so it will be good to speak about that in a moment. I think we have to be realistic about expecting children to work full on, especially children who may already have a large amount of homework. We have to be realistic about what childhood is for. Enhancing a school day, of course, increases some learning opportunities, but we have to recognise that play, social activity, arts, culture and music are also learning activities and will therefore enhance children’s attainment.

In recent months, parents and teachers have told us again and again that socio-emotional wellbeing and time for children to be with their friends is their top priority. That is why our plan would see all schools offering new extracurricular activities, from breakfast clubs to sport, music, art and drama, creating time for children and young people to play and socialise, and removing the cost barrier that prevents all schools from offering those activities or all children from participating in them. Such targeted programmes can also help to accelerate children’s academic development, delivering two months of additional progress, which rises to around three months for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is therefore all the more disappointing that the Government have failed to invest in these activities.

Of course, as the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Jonathan Gullis) rightly says, children are resilient, and many will be able to overcome the challenges and disruption of the past 15 months, but some will struggle and need more help to recover. That is why Labour’s plan also proposes funding to meet their needs by providing schools with additional resources to hire specialist counselling or mental health provision.

Mental health support, and activities that make use of schools’ fabulous facilities to provide an enhanced offer at the end of the school day, are important in and of themselves. They also free up teachers to concentrate more of their time on children’s learning. However, more must be done to make up lost learning. Although small group tutoring will help, the truth is that most children are going to do most of their learning in class, alongside their classmates.

That is why Labour would reverse the Government’s £133 million stealth cut to the pupil premium, and why we are calling for a further boost to the pupil premium in early years and schools, as well as for its extension to further education, to reach the most disadvantaged children and young people—including, of course, those with special educational needs and disabilities or in alternative provision. That targeted funding will enable teachers to focus extra attention on the children who need it most, helping to close the attainment gap, which Sir Kevan suggests could have increased by between 10% and 24% as a result of the pandemic.

Finally—hon. Members must forgive a sense of déjà vu here—our motion calls on the Government fully to deliver free school meals to every child eligible for them over the summer holidays. The current guidance for the Government’s holiday activities and food programme proposes that children should receive that support on just 16 out of 30 weekdays this summer. No one in this House would think it acceptable for their children to be fed only once every two days, so why do the Government think it is acceptable for the 1.6 million children eligible for free school meals? Children do not go on half rations just because it is the holidays. The Government really must put this right before this term ends, to ensure that no child goes hungry over the summer.

Today, more than 200 charities, education experts, business leaders, unions and young people have called on the Government to put children at the heart of the recovery, so it would be especially fitting for every hon. Member in this House to support our motion today—to support our call for the development, by the summer, of an ambitious recovery plan that enables our children to access world-class education, receive support for their mental health and wellbeing, enjoy the opportunity to make the most of their childhood, and achieve their full potential.

As adults, we have a responsibility to match the ambition that children have for their own future. That is why addressing the impact of the pandemic on young people must be our priority, for their life chances and wellbeing, and for our country’s future success and prosperity. Today, we have set out how Labour would make Britain the best country in the world to grow up in. This afternoon, I hope that Members across the House will join us in voting for that bold ambition.

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[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

As the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) has just done, I would like to thank my local teachers, support staff, parents and pupils for all they done throughout this global pandemic across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.

I would like to ensure that it is on the record that when the £3 billion announced over the last 12 months specifically for catch-up is added to the increase in core school funding, the raising of the pupil premium, investment in the school estate, increased higher needs funding, investment in the free school meals national voucher scheme, in digital devices and in the holidays, activities and food programme, and the exceptional funding to cover specific unavoidable costs incurred by schools due to covid, it racks up to a total spend of £14 billion from this Conservative Government on education and young people. So the idea that the Conservative party, which I am proud to be part of—I am also a proud ex-teacher—somehow has not invested in young people and education is for the birds.

There must be an immediate response, but there also has to be a longer-term vision. I wish to focus on the idea of extending the school day, of which I am a huge advocate. I am delighted that there will be a review of it. Especially for disadvantaged students, such as the 31% of children in low-income families in Stoke-on-Trent, an extended school day could have a transformative impact in the long term, not only for them, but for their parents. We are talking about parents who have to take half a day out of work, and therefore lose their earnings, because they are having to go to collect their loved ones at 2.45 pm, 3 pm or 3.30 pm. It is simply unfair on those people, who are working hard to put money on the table for their kids. Having an extended school day will go a long to helping with that.

I was shocked to hear the shadow Education Secretary saying that she does not want children doing maths in the evening. I completely concur with Katharine Birbalsingh, the fantastic headteacher of Michaela Community School, who, in response to a BBC news clip, tweeted:

“What is it…where we think ‘doing maths’ is some kind of massive strain on our brains?!”

Ultimately, an extended school day means the opportunity for kids to learn and have that extra time with their teachers, just like many a private school child has had the advantage of being able to. That is about creating equality and fairness in our education system. Not just the academic, but the extra-curricular is important. Some 500,000 young people currently do not get to enjoy those sort of activities or holidays outside school. I want every child who attends a state school in this country, especially disadvantaged children, to get access to the very best, rounded education possible, such as the one I was able to have, as were many other Members in this House. So when we are thinking about post-pandemic recovery, we have a huge opportunity to get this sorted, and there is a simple way we could overhaul after-school activities in order to so do.

[Robert Halfon]

My hon. Friend is a brilliant member of our Education Committee. Does he agree that a wealth of evidence shows that an extended school day, combined with academic, mental health and wellbeing activities, increases educational attainment, as well as helping pupils’ mental health? There is a wealth of evidence out there that makes his case absolutely.

[Jonathan Gullis]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that and could not agree with him more. Even though we sometimes cross swords in the Select Committee, on this we are absolutely united in understanding the importance, both academically and to the wellbeing of the student.

I have an idea for the Minister on how this can be achieved without having to get any new money. When it was originally brought in, the pupil premium was intended to offer activities and enrichment opportunities to pupils. If we were to ring-fence just 10% of the existing pupil premium budget—worth about £2.7 billion—for its original purpose, we could ensure that disadvantaged children get the same access to activities outside school as their better-off peers. Schemes such as The Challenger Trust are ideally suited to deliver this model. Run by Charlie Rigby, the trust offers activities to disadvantaged children that have been shown by the Education Endowment Foundation to boost confidence and motivation and, from this, improve attendance, behaviour and attainment in school.

The trust is already working with schools to offer after-school activities and is trialling its model in Gateshead. Working in local partnership trusts with school staff and youth services, who volunteer to carry on beyond the normal 3 pm closing time, the trust can extend the school day up to 6 pm, without increasing teacher workloads. Without allocating any more money, in this way we can extend the school day by three hours, seven days a week. We do not need masses of extra money to give all our children a better future. If we all use the pupil premium funding in the way it was originally intended, the funding will already be in place.

I would like to talk about the fantastic holiday activities and food programme. I am delighted that the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford), came to visit Ball Green Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent North to look at the unbelievable Hubb Foundation, led by Carol Shanahan and Adam Yates, a former professional footballer who delivered 140 activity sessions for young people across the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the Easter holidays, not just to boost their education and socialisation but to give them the skills to be able to cook and eat a really good cooked meal throughout the day.

The idea of shortening the summer holiday is something that my right hon. Friend the Minister has heard time and again from me by text. Estimates in a report I did with Onward show that reducing the school summer holiday from six to four weeks would save the average family £266. That has a huge financial impact in the pockets of parents while also helping to tackle the plight of children not being able to get fed over a long summer break. More importantly, it means that the attainment gap of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, which widens during the six-week summer break, can continue to be narrowed, so that when they return they do not have to spend the first seven weeks of term, on average, catching up to where they were in the previous academic year. Longer school days, shorter summer breaks, and ring-fencing the pupil premium: these are realistic long-term solutions that I hope the Minister will have in his mind when the review is undertaken.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Before I call the next speaker, let me just say that I am absolutely not against taking interventions, but it would be helpful if colleagues who do so still stick to the five minutes, because otherwise we are preventing others from speaking later. I want us to help each other out and do the maths as well: you can see from the clock that you are keeping within the five minutes.

Child Food Poverty

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

May I start by saying what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bone? I congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), who is Chair of the Petitions Committee, on which I am proud to serve, on securing the debate and thank her for her introductory remarks.

During my career as a teacher, I was responsible, as a head of year, for the wellbeing of hundreds of children, so the issue we are debating is incredibly close to my heart. From my eight years as a teacher, I know how important it is for children to get the support they need and make the most of their lives. That is why, when we look back at the pandemic, we should think about the fact that, so far, the Government have issued over £380 million-worth of vouchers that have been redeemed for free school meals, which was entirely the right thing to do, particularly as children were not in school as we had asked them to stay at home.

We should also think about the £170 million given out through the covid winter grant scheme, which did a fantastic amount of work across the Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke area, and the uplift of standard universal credit weekly allowance by £20, which has been extended until the end of September 2021.

The petition has gathered a mass of national support. I want to focus on the holiday activities and food programme, of which I am a huge advocate. In my constituency, I am lucky to have the Hubb Foundation, run by Carol Shanahan and Adam Yates, a former professional football player. Since 2017, it has gone above and beyond, introducing programmes to ensure kids have activities that improve their mental and physical health, and receive a meal during the day. It works closely with schools to target those children who are most in need.

I believe we can also help by shortening the school summer holiday break. A report I wrote for Onward, which I know the Minister has seen, estimates that on average UK families spend £133 per week in childcare. Reducing the six-week break to four weeks would put £266 back in parents’ pockets. That would help to cover the cost of the summer break and help to prevent the widening of the attainment gap, which we know happens in the long summer holiday, particularly between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers.

In Stoke-on-Trent, we received over £1 million from the covid winter grant scheme, which helped 18,640 children through free school meal vouchers over Christmas and February half-term. Money also went to the Hubb Pots project, run by the Hubb Foundation, which provided up to 150 families with a slow cooker, ingredients and recipe cards for one meal a day for 12 weeks. Such action will ensure that families can continue to benefit independently and in the long term, because education is so important. We need better home economics education in our schools, so that children understand how to cook on a budget, how to prepare food and how to store it, so that food lasts longer in the fridge and the freezer. That will go a long way to ensuring that those young people have better access.

I thank the Minister for coming to Stoke-on-Trent, where we received £1.4 million for holiday activities. She visited Ball Green Primary School with Councillor Dave Evans and Councillor Abi Brown to witness the fantastic work of the Hubb Foundation, which provided 140 activity sessions across the city of Stoke-on-Trent—one of the largest programmes in the country. It was brilliant to see the confidence that the children were gaining—not only in the skills they were learning, but in the cooking that they were learning from.

I send another big shout out to Port Vale Foundation, which has given more than 300,000 meals to families throughout the pandemic. It won the English football league’s community club of the year award—rightly so, because in Stoke-on-Trent we wrap our arms around every single man, woman and child in our city, and we take very seriously the care and support that they need.

A Brighter Future for the Next Generation

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Thursday 13th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kate Green]

I am very grateful to the hon. Member for enabling me to be able to put on record in this House my regret for those remarks. They were inappropriate and insensitive and will have been offensive to people who have suffered terribly in this pandemic, including those who have been bereaved and lost those that they loved and will be missing terribly. I should not to have used those remarks, and I thank him for giving me the opportunity to put that on record in this Chamber.

If we are to seize this generational moment and deliver the fair, low-carbon recovery that we need to tackle the climate crisis, which is imperative if we are truly to pass on a bright future to the next generation, many people will need to retrain in new industries as old jobs disappear, as the Secretary of State said. But in the Queen’s Speech and in his remarks just a few moments ago, all that the Secretary of State could announce was a months-old commitment to a lifetime skills guarantee that simply is not guaranteed for everyone. It is not guaranteed because people cannot use it if they are already qualified to level 3; they cannot use it unless they are getting a qualification that the Secretary of State has decided he thinks is valuable; and they cannot use it if they need maintenance support while they are learning. If they are already qualified to level 3 in their existing field but need to retrain for a new industry, there is nothing on offer for them. Ministers have chosen to close the door on millions of people who need to retrain, and who need to do so now. I am at a loss to understand the Secretary of State’s position on this. Can he tell the House why a promised guarantee will not in fact be available to some of those who will need it most?

On maintenance funding, we are awaiting Ministers’ response to the Government’s Augar review, which is now over two years old. Augar said that those in further education should receive the same maintenance support as those in higher education. Does the Secretary of State agree with that proposal? If he does, why is it absent from the Queen’s Speech? While everyone will agree that employers have a central role in creating jobs and training opportunities for young people, they do so in the context of local economic and regeneration strategies driven by metro Mayors and local leaders, who seem to have been sidelined in the creation of the local skills plans and with the Government having abandoned a national industrial strategy.

After a decade of Conservative damage to the sector, I desperately want the Government to get skills policy right. Labour believes in a high-skill, high-wage economy that offers fulfilling, rewarding work and jobs in which people will take great pride. That is why, for years, I and my colleagues in the Labour party, including my right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the Opposition in his speech opening the debate on the Loyal Address on Tuesday and my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) during her time as Shadow Secretary of State for Education, have championed lifelong learning, further education and all those who learn and teach in this sector.

In contrast, in a startling, if only partial, conversion in the Conservative party after a decade spent in power, including times when the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister sat around the Cabinet table and nodded through cuts to further education and a loan-based funding model that, by the Government’s own admission, directly reduced the number of adults in education, we have reforms that offer, at best, a mere reversal of some of the worst excesses of Conservative ideology over the past decade. It is a desperate attempt to polish the windows, having taken a sledgehammer to the foundations.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

The hon. Lady will know that I was a school teacher who started in 2011, just after the Conservatives took power. I want to remind her of the situation that I, as a teacher, inherited on the frontline. Between 2000 and 2009, England fell from seventh to 25th in reading, eighth to 28th in maths and fourth to 16th in science in international league tables. In addition, we had 350,000 young people aged 16 to 19 who, according to the independent Wolf review, received little to no benefit from the post-16 education system, which provided students with a diet of low-level vocational qualifications—[Interruption.] It is interesting that the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle) is angry that a former teacher is speaking about education; I am interested to hear what he knows better than I. Is the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) proud of the record of the Labour party in that decade?

[Kate Green]

We should never accept less than the highest standards for young people in this country. I will compromise with nobody on being ambitious to deliver a world-class education and achieve world-class standards for our young people, but let me remind the hon. Gentleman of the progress that we made under Labour between 1997 and 2010. In London, for example, we massively narrowed the gap in attainment. Will he acknowledge that what we are seeing now, under his party’s Government, is the attainment gap once again widening? Our young people deserve better than that.

There are so many measures that I believe the Government could and should have included in the Queen’s Speech. Ministers could have gone beyond the platitudes on early years that we heard a few minutes ago and set out a plan to reverse the damage their decade of cuts has produced and to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality early years education and childcare for all children. They could have set out how they will transform the national tutoring programme, creating the space for children to socialise and recover the time they need to develop and grow, and ensuring that no child loses out because of the damage that Ministers’ failure to manage the pandemic has created. They could have addressed the horrifying rise in child poverty—not mentioned once in the Queen’s Speech, although it is the driving cause of the widening attainment gap. They could have ensured that education professionals’ and school and college leaders’ expertise and hard work during the pandemic were recognised with a fair pay rise.

Instead, the Secretary of State has decided that it is more important to focus on free speech on university campuses. Free speech and academic freedom are important, but suggesting that we should use up valuable legislative time while the employment Bill has been quietly dropped and while, nearly two years after the Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street telling us that he had plans for social care ready to go, nothing has appeared, will make people up and down the country think that this is the wrong priority.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Steven Bonnar). I am sure he is much more fun over a beer than he is in the Chamber right now, and I look forward to enjoying one with him next week, as we reopen.

Areas such as Stoke-on-Trent, Kidsgrove and Talke had been forgotten, but this Queen’s Speech reaffirms that, under this Prime Minister, we are delivering on the people’s priorities and levelling up our United Kingdom. Like the geothermal potential that lies beneath the Potteries waiting to be unleashed in the green industrial revolution, Stoke-on-Trent is a hotbed of potential and talent. For levelling up to mean something in Stoke-on-Trent, Kidsgrove and Talke, we need to make sure that people can get access to the skills they need and the opportunities to use them.

As a teacher, I saw the impact a good education can have, but, sadly, Stoke-on-Trent currently has one the lowest take-up rates of level 3 and 4 qualifications in the country, with too many children not reaching their full potential. So the introduction of the skills and post-16 education Bill and the new lifetime skills guarantee is transformative, offering access to skills across the country that will allow people to reskill or upskill for the jobs of the future.

While education is crucial to levelling up, so too is the opportunity to access high-skilled and well-paid jobs in our local area. That is why I continue to campaign for the Home Office to make its second home in Stoke-on-Trent as part of the Places for Growth programme. I hope my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, a Keele University graduate and former Stoke-on-Trent resident, will hear my calls once again this afternoon and deliver for her adopted city.

We can also deliver jobs through the fantastic Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill in this Queen’s Speech. The new agency ties in neatly with the campaign of Lucideon’s chief executive, Tony Kinsella, whose global headquarters is based in Stoke-on-Trent, for £36 million of Government investment in an advanced ceramics campus, which would unlock £150 million of private investment and create up to 4,200 jobs. This campaign is being led by my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Jo Gideon), with the full support of my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) and me.

This Government are also investing millions in previously forgotten towns through the levelling-up fund and the towns deal fund, creating new jobs—all in the name of levelling up. Under a Conservative Staffordshire County Council, Conservative-led Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and a Conservative Chancellor, we have managed to secure £7 million of funding collectively, which will see this important community asset revived in 2022. In total, the £17.6 million towns deal fund for Kidsgrove is unlocking the opportunity to regenerate our high street, upgrade our railway station, create up to 2,000 new jobs at the Chatterley Valley site and invest in activities for young people, such as the 3G astro pitches at the King’s School or the soon-to-be completed pump track at Chinky Park. That is in comparison with when Labour ran Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council from 2012 to 2018, when it spent the grand sum of £15,000 over six years. It is a Conservative Government, a Conservative county council and a Conservative borough council—all of them are blue—that are delivering for local people.

In the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, again we have legislation that delivers on what the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke want—tougher sentences for child murderers, tougher sentences for the sex offenders, tougher sentences for the killer drivers, tougher sentences for drug dealers and tougher sentences for knife carriers. It also adopts the private Member’s Bill brought forward by me and my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (James Sunderland), introduced almost 12 months ago, which creates a distinct offence and punishment for anyone who desecrates war memorials and war graves to our glorious dead. How anyone can object to this baffles me, and I hope Opposition Members will have seen the recent local elections as a wake-up call and will now back the Home Secretary in passing this vital piece of legislation. I also hope that they will recognise that people want us to sort out the immigration system, and that they will back my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary as she brings forward the new sovereign borders Bill. This legislation is positive, long overdue and important to the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.

What I have mentioned today is only a snapshot of a bold and ambitious domestic agenda. It is therefore a shame that the Labour party has adopted such a negative attitude to this Queen’s Speech, but it is not a surprise. The Labour party is simply a party that represents the views and opinions of the few, not the many. In jest, I described it on BBC Radio Stoke as having become the party for the avocado-eating, chai latte-drinking elites, but I think that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr Mahmood) was much more succinct when he tweeted that the Labour party had become a

“London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors”.

That is no better evidenced than by the former Labour leader of Amber Valley Borough Council, Chris Emmas-Williams, who said after his electoral loss:

“The voters have let us down.”

That mentality shows that the Labour party has adopted a master and servant complex. The champagne socialists of north Islington carry on tweeting their ideology, violently denouncing anyone who does not agree with them, while Government Members proudly listen to and serve the hard-working men and women of this country—the silent majority who make our United Kingdom the best country in the world.

Adult Skills and Lifelong Learning

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Thursday 15th April 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con) [V]]

May I say what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Rees? I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) on securing this important debate, and on all the contributions that have been made. It is an absolute honour to speak on a report that I assisted with, alongside my right hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson), as members of the Education Committee.

Education is particularly important to me. I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, because I spent eight and a half years, before entering this place, as a secondary school teacher. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow and the hon. Member for Putney are sick to death of hearing about that. Also, my father benefited as an adult from going through the Open University process, which enabled him to get on the career path that perhaps was not expected for him, avoiding factory work in Trowbridge, and ending up working in accountancy. In fact, he has gone further into teaching.

Adult education is important—particularly for the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke. The sad reality is that a recent report by the Office for Students said that my constituency is the seventh worst of 535 English constituencies for people going on to higher education. In 2019 the number of people achieving a level 3 qualification by the age of 19 in Stoke-on-Trent was under 50%, and only three quarters of people achieved a level 2 qualification by that age. That challenge has only got worse, as we are facing a joint mission: getting millions of people back into work, because of the global pandemic, and driving up the skill levels of those who were already being left behind before it arrived. Put simply, there is a more pressing need than ever for people to be able to retrain, reskill and upskill throughout their lives.

One of the big, glaring holes is the fact that employers should be doing much more to train their workers. For a long time the United Kingdom has had a productivity problem, and business has often looked to the Government to come up with initiatives to tackle it. However, it seems to me it could be greatly helped if business would invest properly in its people. As an example, David O’Connor worked his way up from the shop floor and is now the chief executive officer of Churchill China in my constituency, which is a multimillion-pound company. That happened through the company investing in him, and giving him the opportunity to go to Staffordshire University and gain qualifications, so that he is now driving that company from the very top. Ultimately, it is one of the great success stories in my local area; there are so many others that I could rant about today, but I want to make sure that we focus on this.

I do think that the Minister has done some superb work with the FE reform White Paper. It is a real step forward in the right direction, and a real change in attitude towards adult education. I believe that we in this country have fallen into the trap of seeing education as beginning at four and ending at 18. Other countries, such as Germany, have managed to power on ahead. They have got rid of that silly gold standard when it comes to A-levels and said that a vocational, technical qualification is as important as an academic one. This has seen them drive massively forward in many of their vocational qualifications.

The lifetime skills guarantee is something I am very excited by, as many other Members have said. I know that places such as Stoke on Trent College, run by Denise Brown, are extremely excited to take part, and Burslem campus in my constituency is really looking forward to hosting this. However, a conversation with Denise produced a few queries, questions and bits of advice about how we can make this lifetime skills guarantee really work, and I think they would be helpful to the Minister. One concern is that limiting the guarantee to adults who have not yet achieved a full level 3 qualification does not fully address the retraining issue. One way of avoiding the problem would be to offer loan-maxed graduates free retraining courses at levels 3, 4 and 5 in technical subjects.

Also, the qualification list that has been approved for the lifetime skills guarantee is too narrow, in my opinion. Local enterprise partnerships or chambers of commerce could be given the authority to include qualifications that are not on the national list if those qualifications met local or regional labour market demands. At the moment, we have a shortage of lecturers and teachers in higher technical subjects in colleges and other providers. Part of that is because of pay, and because enticing highly skilled technical people to teach in colleges is an uphill battle. As such, Denise Brown wanted me to put to the Minister the idea of a scheme whereby employers loan members of their staff to a college, and the college would pick up maybe 20% of the salary cost. In that way, employers and colleges can work much more closely than ever before and bring the very best of their business into the classroom, ensuring that those young people or adults are ready for the education ahead.

Finally, qualifications at level 3 are often a two-year programme, and this links into issues with the Department for Work and Pensions. If adults are to retrain and get back into the workplace, the level 3 qualification needs to be shorter. Work needs to be done with the awarding organisations to ensure that level 3 qualifications can be achieved as quickly as possible, so accreditation of prior learning needs to be taken into account so that adults follow courses that do not repeat what they already know. Awarding organisations also need to develop shorter qualifications that can be achieved in one academic year. I also put that challenge to the higher education sector. In many cases, a three-year degree can easily be done in two years, and in my personal opinion, that should be the approach that is taken.

We have heard fantastic comments and contributions from Members about the community learning centre in every town, and I fully endorse them. The school building sits there empty for so many weeks and months throughout the year, yet it is one of the biggest community assets. What I sometimes get very scared about with Government is that we look for the easy solution, which is the shiny building. To the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke, capital investment projects are nice, but people are so sceptical of these shiny buildings, because four or five years after they have been built, they are inevitably mothballing away and nothing is happening with them. It then costs millions of pounds of local tax payers’ money to repurpose them for the future, or millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money from the Government to turn them into housing or knock them down, creating empty brownfield sites. What we need is revenue funding, investing in people to support them.

I bang on about Hilary Cottam’s “Radical Help”, and I admit to being a late converter. It was Danny Flynn from YMCA North Staffordshire—a proud, self-confessed socialist—who told me to read Hilary. She talks about investing in people by having these community learning centres on our high streets, in our libraries, and in our schools or colleges. In them, we would have people from those communities who understand, empathise with, and can support and guide others from the community. An awful lot of adults feel very let down by the education system of the ’60s, the ’70s, and in some cases the ’80s as well. They feel it was an education system that did not serve them properly, so they are sceptical about what people want to do. If we invest in people to build community relationships and to network within those communities, and if we find ways to tackle other problems, which as childcare, which our report rightly cites—ultimately we can go a lot further. I really believe that if we can find ways to allow parents, particularly single parents, to have free additional childcare if they are taking up a qualification, so that they can do that course to the best of their ability while ensuring their child is also receiving a good education, good healthcare and safeguarding, it will be a big step in the right direction.

Ultimately, education is the biggest leveller that we have in society. If levelling up is really to be achieved, it will be through education. No matter how many things we build or how much money we invest, education is ultimately what will improve social mobility. Stoke-on-Trent is in the bottom fifth of the country for social mobility—a scary statistic that reminds me and the team I work with here in Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke of the sheer challenge that we face today.

I took the advice of my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow about apprenticeships. As the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on apprenticeships, I thought I should put my money where my mouth is, so I am advertising at the moment for my very own apprentice, who will get a level 3 qualification. I have not advertised for an 18 to 20-year-old, or even for an 18 to 25-year-old. I have said that anyone who wants the opportunity should apply regardless of age, because I want to make sure that I am reinvesting in my community and sending a signal out to many small and medium-sized enterprises that if I can do it, they can do it too and give access to earn and learn, which will hopefully drive so many more individuals into higher education. That is the way it will happen. It is about investing in people and showing that we are here to care.

I should discuss SEND provision in this country. An awful lot of adults were not diagnosed with dyslexia, dyspraxia or other learning needs when they were at school. In fact, those assessments were not even prevalent in the school that I went to, and I was privileged to go to Princethorpe College, a private school just outside Leamington Spa. I had school friends who were dyslexic and who were put in the bottom set; they were just assumed to be stupid, but actually that was far from the truth. They were people who needed support and help. We have to invest in making sure that such people have the opportunity to learn and have a support network around them.

The national tutoring programme, which I appreciate is slightly off-topic, is not delivering as it should be. That money could be going into colleges and schools to invest in the type of additional support that is needed, be it online or person-to-person, or more teachers being paid to stay on later in the day, so that they can work with individuals. Ultimately, there are solutions to all these problems.

I am proud to be part of the report. I am proud to see that the Government are taking the first big step, but there is still a long way to go and many challenges ahead. We cannot put up our feet and pat ourselves on the back at this very moment. We have to go full steam ahead and realise that if we are really going to change the mindset of a nation, it has to come from employers, the Government and the general public understanding that education does not end at 18—in fact, it never ends at all.

[Christina Rees (in the Chair)]

I call the Opposition spokesperson, Toby Perkins. If the bell goes, can you please continue?