Liberal Democrats pledge investment in disadvantaged children's education
Amrit Virdi
Monday, June 10, 2024
The Liberal Democrats have pledged a series of policies to narrow the attainment gap for disadvantaged children and boost educational opportunities for young people in their manifesto for the 2024 general election.
The party's manifesto pledges also include extending free school meals to all primary school children, appointing a cabinet level minister for children, and giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote.
The Liberal Democrats have said in their manifesto, titled 'For a Fair Deal' that “every child deserves the best possible start in life” and “we know that education is the best possible investment in our country’s future”.
The party has pledged to put dedicated and qualified mental health professionals in all schools, funded by increasing the digital services tax, a levy on the £1.5 billion revenue made by search engines, social media firms and online shopping platforms. They will also introduce a ‘Tutoring Guarantee’ and maintenance grants for disadvantaged students.
Increasing school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year, giving disadvantaged children aged two to four an extra five free hours a week of childcare and tripling the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1,000 a year is also among the party’s pledges.
A teacher workforce strategy, establishing a new National Body for special educational needs and disabilities and ending single-word Ofsted judgments have also been pledged.
Reacting to the manifesto, Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “It is very welcome and extremely important to see a strong focus on supporting disadvantaged children and young people. This manifesto certainly has some promising policies that we know would help tackle the growing education inequality for young people facing socio-economic disadvantage across England.
“From our own work we know that the pupil premium is a crucial tool to improve teaching and learning for disadvantaged pupils. Seeing commitment to extending and increasing this vital funding built into the manifesto is very positive and a step in the right direction if we are to make sure every pupil has the opportunities to fulfil their potential and educators have the right tools to be able to support them."
Support for young carers is also a key element of the manifesto, with a pledge to introduce a young carers pupil premium as part of an "education guarantee" for young carers and establish a cross-party commission to forge a long-term agreement on sustainable funding for social care.
The party also wants to make care-experience a protected characteristic and introduce a statutory definition of kinship care.
Greater investment in youth services has been pledged as well as making youth diversion a statutory duty to reduce strain on policing systems. A “public health approach” has also been outlined in relation to youth violence, with a call to treat “risk factors of violence rather than just symptoms”.
Help for families is also included in the manifesto, with a pledge to double statutory maternity and shared parental pay to £350 a week and introduce an extra use-it-or-lose-it month for fathers and partners, paid at 90% of earnings.
Other pledges include developing a career strategy for nursery staff, creating a reformed childminding system to attract new workers, fully reviewing and reforming the Child Maintenance Service and extending half-fares on buses, trams and trains to 18-year-olds while creating a ‘Buscard’, similar to a ‘Railcard’.
