To give every child the best start, the quality of early education matters

Expanding free state-childcare is a cause all of the mainstream political parties committed to last year’s general election. The legislation to introduce the government’s headline election pledge to double the amount of free childcare available to working parents of 3 and 4 year olds is now awaiting Royal Assent. Labour has supported this bill throughout its passage as undoubtedly the additional support has immense value for low income families struggling to meet childcare costs. However, we must not lose sight of the broader impact of good quality early years’ education and the dividends it pays throughout a child’s life. Policymakers must look beyond a narrow focus on working hours.

The rationale behind providing more hours of free childcare for working parents with young children is a sound one. It makes it easier for parents to go out and work, not having to weigh up the trade-off between the extra income earned and the cost of childcare for the extra hours they are out of the house. The Childcare Bill is therefore a valuable piece of legislation, albeit a third fewer parents will benefit than had been the promised by the Tories during the election campaign. However, as my colleague Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell has pointed out, it would be wrong to think of childcare as being purely about getting people into work.

Childcare plays a crucial role in providing early year’s education to children of 2, 3 and 4-years-old. Through interactive activities like playing games and singing songs, nurseries are performing a vital role in teaching children how to interact with their world, so that by the time they reach primary school age they have a strong foundation for further learning.

However, a new study conducted by the Institute of Education for Save the Children published this week has shown that children who struggle with language as they begin school, are more likely to fall short of expected standards in maths and English SATs tests when they leave. The government produce annual statistics on how well children are doing at the start of school based on an early years curriculum which is assessed in their reception year. The latest statistics show that in Redcar and Cleveland – my local authority – a shocking 45% of disadvantaged children have not developed the speech and communication skills expected at the age of 5. Moreover, there is a gap of 21 percentage points between those on free school meals and their better-off peers – one of the largest in the country.

Across the country children from poorer homes lag behind their peers in terms of educational performance and this inequality continues throughout their school lives and ultimately into adulthood. For instance, IFS analysis for Save the Children has shown the best readers at age 10 go on to earn 20% more on average than those with the poorest reading skills. This attainment gap is nothing new but if we are to ensure that everyone has the best chance in life we must do more to tackle it. It is simply not acceptable that the background of a child has such a huge impact on their educational ability. Given that we know that children who start off school at a disadvantage are more likely to stay behind, the implications are clear – thousands of children are being held back by a fluke of their birth, through no fault of their own.

That is why it is so important that early years education is top quality for every child. Good quality childcare has the potential to correct these inequalities at the start and enable our children to go on and succeed. It is this principle that inspired the development of Sure Start centres under the last Labour government, to give every child the best possible start in life.  The evidence shows that good quality nurseries with well qualified staff can level the playing field at the start of school to give disadvantaged children a fighting chance.

The additional hours of free childcare provided by the Childcare Bill will help, but let’s not forget that childcare is about so much more than quantity. We must also deliver quality, to get every child the best start.

Anna Turley is the Shadow Minister for Civil Society and Labour MP for Redcar