Sarah Coombes MP: Support families to make sure every child has the best start in life

Last week I went to Lodge Primary, where I met with pupils and their wonderful teachers to talk about International Women’s Day and hear about their views and hopes for the future. They grilled me on everything from fly-tipping to GP appointments!

I can see all their ambition and dreams when I meet these children, but I know that the education system has not been giving them all the chances they deserve in recent years.  

In Sandwell 50 per cent of children get to the age of 18 and they haven’t got the qualifications to get an apprenticeship or go to college or university. That isn’t because children in Sandwell aren’t as smart as children in Surrey, it’s because the education system has been starved of investment and teachers have been doing their best with too few resources.

This Labour government is determined to tear down the barriers to opportunity – and that includes making sure children have the best start to every school day from an early age. 

It’s a sad fact that many children in poorer areas are going to school hungry. That’s not right, which is why the government is introducing the free breakfast clubs – to make sure children start the day hungry to learn not hungry for food. Schools which already have breakfast clubs have seen how they improve children’s behaviour, attendance and attainment. 

A school in West Brom, St Mary Magdalene CofE Primary, is going to be one of the schools benefiting from the first phase of these breakfast clubs. Pupils at the school will be able to get a free breakfast and parents will be able to get at least 30 minutes of free childcare, every day, helping to support parents go to work.  

67,000 children in poorer areas across the country will benefit from this. And this will save parents £450 a year, which is important after years of rising living costs under the previous government. 

And it’s not just breakfast clubs that will cut the cost of living for families. I voted to support a bill that will significantly cut school uniform costs through limiting the number of branded items that have to be bought, which will come in alongside the government’s childcare plans to roll out more school nurseries. 

Education is absolutely crucial to children’s development and life chances, and I am proud that the Labour government is delivering the reform needed to give every child in West Brom the best start in life.