Lucy Powell appointed new Education Secretary
New Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed late last night (Monday 20 July) that Lucy Powell is his new Secretary of State for Education.
The Manchester Central MP replaces Bridget Phillipson who served as Education Secretary under Sir Keir Starmer. Ms Phillipson will continue within the Department for Education as the Minister for Women and Equalities and will remain a full member of the Cabinet, reporting directly to the PM.
Lucy Powell was Shadow Minister for Early Years back in 2013 and was Shadow Education Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. She has also served on the Education Committee for a number of years. She has chaired the APPG on Maintained Nursery Schools, campaigning for more funding for them. This prompted the APPG for Early Education and Childcare to provide balance in Parliament.
NDNA has written to the new Secretary of State requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the immediate challenges that PVI providers are facing.
Tim McLachlan, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said:
“We welcome Lucy Powell to the role of Education Secretary at a crucial time for children, families and early education providers. Research consistently shows that investing in children’s early education and development is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet for tackling inequalities and improving outcomes for all children. As an MP who has led work on early education, we hope she will continue to recognise the significance of a child’s first five years and understands the value of investing fairly in all types of provider within our sector.
“The private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nursery sector has been crucial in delivering the expansion of government funded childcare and sustained improvements in the quality of early education children receive. Recent reports have shown that 92% of the growth in places for under threes have been provided by the PVI sector. At the same time, Ofsted reports suggest children are more likely to receive the expected standard of care and education or better in our sector than in schools.
“With the majority of providers still reporting financial and workforce issues caused by government underfunding, it is vital that the Government address the pressures that their policy puts on providers. Addressing the inequalities in the sector on free school meals for nursery children, universal credit and unfair business rates are all ways that Ministers could look at to reverse the growing attainment gap for disadvantaged children and reduce the financial drivers of higher costs to parents.
“We have requested an urgent meeting and look forward to working with the new Secretary of State in tackling these priority areas head on and resetting communications to stop the perception of pitting parents against providers.”
On Bridget Phillipson leaving her role after two years, Tim added:
“We also want to thank Bridget Phillipson for making early education a priority over the last two years, for launching the Best Start in Life strategy and for her reforms around supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities which now need to be seen through to a positive conclusion.”
We await confirmation of who will be appointed to the essential role of Minister for Early Education.
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