Shadow minister warns against focus on 'school readiness'

Speaking to delegates at the Pre-school Learning Alliance's annual conference, shadow children's minister Sharon Hodgson, a former childminder, said that while the government had invited sector specialists to help develop its early years policy, she was eager to see how much their advice would be heeded.

"We’re expecting an early years policy statement from the government in the autumn, which will apparently be co-produced by sector specialists," Hodgson said. "It will certainly be interesting to see just how much influence the group will have over the final statement. If we see the term ‘school readiness’ peppered through it then we can probably conclude that it wasn’t very much at all."

Hodgson also said that despite the focus on early years policy by the coalition practical problems remain, most prominently with the administration of the early intervention grant.

"The grant not only pits funding for early years sustainability, disabled access to childcare and workforce development against short breaks for disabled children and funding for teenage pregnancy and substance misuse prevention," she said. "It pits it against the kind of services that are more politically beneficial to improve, like road sweeping or libraries."