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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday announce plans to reform early-years education in England so that 500,000 more children hit their learning goals by 2030, as the party considers bringing more graduate teachers into nurseries.
Speaking in Gillingham, Kent, Starmer will pledge to shatter Britain’s “class ceiling” by improving the nursery and school system and will call out a “fundamental lack of respect” and “snobbery” that leads to inequalities in the workplace.
Ahead of a general election expected next year, Starmer will set out his plan to expand “opportunity” while looking at offering more nursery places at primary schools. Nurseries are struggling to recruit and retain low-paid staff to often complex roles.
Social infrastructure across the country has been suffering from a debilitating mix of under-investment, rising costs and shortages of qualified staff, as well as low morale.
Labour’s drive to improve education services will mostly be funded by ending tax breaks currently offered to private schools that would raise about £1.7bn, according to the party.
Starmer will outline proposals to modernise the curriculum so that it better prepares students for the world of work. He will also aim to end the staff retention and recruitment crisis and make sure every child has access to a specialist teacher.
The plan also intends to create opportunities to learn workplace skills while putting academic and vocational training on an equal footing. “Academic for my kids, vocational for your kids, snobbery . . . has no place in modern society,” Starmer will say.
Iain Mansfield, head of education at the think-tank Policy Exchange, said that while Starmer was “right to focus on teacher recruitment and retention”, his curriculum plans “threaten to undo the progress of the last 13 years while creating needless burden for teachers”.
As many schoolteachers went on strike over pay and conditions this week, Labour said it would offer all teachers a £2,400 bonus for staying in post for two years, which it estimates would cost the government roughly £56mn.
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chair of the Sutton Trust and chair of the Education Endowment Foundation, said that Labour was “making all the right noises”.
He added that some of their policies were a “step in the right direction”, highlighting the party’s focus on life skills and strengthening the teaching profession.
But, he added, “turning the tide on social mobility will take time and substantial investment” and any government would need a national strategy and evidence-based policies to remove existing barriers.
Starmer will also on Thursday highlight an existing Labour ambition to bring 1.5mn more people into home ownership, up from roughly 14.5mn today.