Hansard

The early years are pivotal for children’s future development and opportunities. Their experiences and the environment at that stage of their lives shape the foundations of their futures. It is therefore critical that every child in Scotland has the opportunity to thrive. There should be no class or glass ceiling and we must work tirelessly to smash it in the earliest years. To do that, we need to have a laser focus on improving childcare and early education and we need health and family support that reaches beyond the child and extends more widely to their parents and families and the communities in which they live.

However, to recognise the challenges that hold too many children back is not, on its own, enough. We also have to find and then implement solutions to address those challenges. The ways in which we can do that have been demonstrated before. In 1997, a Labour Government took office with the objective of giving every child the best start in life. As Martin Whitfield highlighted, the legacy that it left behind was one of great success. Sadly, however, that progress has since been squandered.

In government, Labour introduced sure start centres because we recognised that parents needed a source of support that was truly wraparound, integrated and connected. We engaged with and listened to parents and carers and we designed our policies to meet the needs that they identified. We did that on the basis of their continuous involvement, as well as co-operation from all the sectors that impact on the crucial early years of a child’s life. We listened when they told us that they needed better access to support and advice on parenting, information about services that were available in their area and access to specialist, targeted services, and we ensured that the sure start centres delivered that.

We recognised that, alongside that, they needed easy access to child and family health services, and we made sure that that was also there. When parents told us that they wanted help to get into training and employment, we made sure that centres had strong links to Jobcentre Plus. We understood that people in the most disadvantaged areas faced greater struggles in accessing appropriate childcare, so we also guaranteed provision of childcare in those centres.

The Government’s current childcare offer is, however, not delivering for those families. They need a more flexible system to work around their lives but, because of the Government’s approach, the private and voluntary sectors that are needed to give some of that flexibility are struggling. The Government must address that if we are to give young people the fighting start in life that they need.

By listening to parents and putting all the services that they need in one place, Labour broke down barriers and removed the need for parents to jump through hoops just to get the support that is needed. In contrast, right now in Scotland, education can be disconnected and health and social care are far from integrated. Too many families fall between the cracks.

Earlier this week, I met a group of parents from different backgrounds and circumstances who told me how hard it can be to find the information that they need or to even know what information they are looking for. That, they said, leaves them disengaged, lost and overburdened. That is why the one-stop shop of a sure start centre was so successful. We have to see children once again in the wider context of their family and community. They need healthy, happy, empowered parents and carers, and both need supportive, encouraging and inclusive communities.

I recently met representatives of Govan HELP, an organisation that supports people to learn, volunteer and access support, advice, guidance and counselling all under one roof. It is providing hope and opportunity for people who have been left behind. A Labour Government would support and nourish such organisations, knowing that, in so doing, we would also be supporting the families who use them. However, in Glasgow, the SNP is still sitting on some tools to do that. Eighteen months into a four-year pilot, not a penny of the whole family wellbeing fund has been commissioned.

The success of sure start is what any future reform of early years should aspire to. Those policies saw children get physically healthier and living in more stimulating and less chaotic home environments. That is the sort of success that we have to replicate now. To do that well, as well as ensure that childcare is flexible and services are connected, we have to fully understand the problems that we are trying to solve. We need robust and comprehensive data and to empower parents and carers to tell us what it is like to be them. Neither of those things is happening enough just now. Until we fix that, the goal of giving every child the best start in life will be harder to achieve.

I urge the Government to reach out to children and their families, empower them to share their stories and solutions, listen to them and, most importantly, act on what it hears. Then and only then will we build the system that is needed for the challenges ahead and that will, once again, spread opportunity for everyone.