Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important issue, which I know will be of concern to Members across the House. The Government know that all too often, children with special educational needs and disabilities do not have the good educational outcomes that we would all want for them. It is really important that we do more to support neurodivergent children and young people, including those with dyslexia and ADHD. That is why we have established a neuro-divergence taskforce—an expert group that will support us to deliver better mainstream inclusion, while ensuring that we have more specialist provision for children who need it. In order to strengthen the evidence base, we have commissioned work from University College London on the most effective tools and strategies to support children with a wide range of needs.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My constituents repeatedly raise with me the lack of affordable childcare as a key factor driving the gender pay gap. To give families real choice in those crucial early months, will the Government consider increasing paternity pay to 90% of earnings, with a cap for higher earners?

[Bridget Phillipson]

The hon. Lady will recognise that this Government have expanded workers’ rights, and are making sure that new mums and dads can spend more precious time with their young family. As she says, it is important that high-quality early years education and childcare is available for parents, so that they have good work choices. That is why we have expanded childcare provision and more than doubled the early years pupil premium. We are also rolling out new primary-based nurseries in schools across the country.