Meeting with Shadow Education Peer

[FSFRebecca]

Last Wednesday I went to a meeting at the House of Lords to discuss the recently published report on sector Financial Sustainability (more details here). I was invited to meet Lord Watson of Invergowrie following the APPG meeting in July. Lord Watson wanted to understand in more detail the issues facing the sector and how we (at the FSF) heard the voices of our members and contributed to the sector wide discussion. I was able to share with him our frustrations about the low funding rates, the problems we all have recruiting and holding onto qualified, motivated staff, the issues we face with rising staff costs, rates and utilities and the concerns we all have about provision for SEND and disadvantaged children. 

We have further meetings planned in the near future and are working with the Early Years Alliance and the rest of the APPG sponsors to ensure that the sector frustrations are addressed in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. 

Since our meeting, the Chancellor Sajid Javid has announced £66m in additional early years funding. This is just a 10% drop in the ocean of the £662m needed to plug the funding shortfall. The FSF will continue to work to make sure that the concerns that we all share are recognised by parliamentarians and that the voice of the sector is taken seriously in Westminster.