Zoomchat with Bridget Phillipson - Thursday 28th September 11-12

[NicolaDMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to announce a Zoomchat with Shadow Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson this Thursday from 11am-12pm. You can book your place now by registering for free here.

Bridget has been the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South since 2010. In April 2020 she joined the Shadow Cabinet under Keir Starmer as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, before being appointed Shadow Education Secretary in November 2021.

Please post your questions below ahead of the chat. Please note that we will be closing the thread on Thursday morning so please ensure you have posted your questions before then. If there is time, there may also be an opportunity to ask additional questions live.

If you join the Zoomchat, your camera will be turned off by default. Your screen name might be visible, so consider whether you’re happy to use your RL name or want to use your MN posting name or something else entirely. The Zoomchat will be recorded so you can catch up if you’re unable to attend on the day.

Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be limited for time so do keep questions as short as possible so that we’re able to ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

Thanks,
MNHQ.

What will you do on Tuition fees? especially for NHS staff, recent pay rises for them were eaten up by extra loan repayments.

You will not tackle staffing issues across healthcare unless you reduce loan payments and the easiest way would be to increase threshold and reduce interest rates.

Hi Bridget, I think our national curriculum is outdated and designed to enrich children from upper middle class backgrounds, who already have access within their homes and families to resources and knowledge far beyond the average student. At school, I feel much of the content isn't designed to capture the attentions of the average student, and 'real life' skills aren't adequately explored. Bright, motivated children are at risk of alienation, and often leave school without any understanding of the opportunities around them or personal finance management. These might seem like disparate issues, but children cannot make good choices for their futures if they think they're not bright because school hasn't engaged them, they're uninformed about careers and don't understand the reality of family wealth + salary = lifestyle. Do you think this is fair and would you consider an overhaul of the national curriculum? Thank you.

Provision for Special Educational Needs in this country is in desperate need of a complete overhaul- what are Labours plans to address this?

Why are so many people in parliament who benefitted from the rigour of grammar schools against their return?
Streaming in state schools will not replace that facility if disruptive children are babysat in these classes.
For the sake of teachers, parents and pupils, what policies do you propose to tackle disruptive behaviour and disengagement?

I would like to know what improvements you propose to make to SEND provision. My DS was denied an EHCP when he was in primary school - he is Autistic, and has ADHD and dyslexia. Presumably it was going to cost too much. We had to fight for everything and eventually got him an EHCP, but it was very difficult, with the Council trying to block us all the way.

The best we can get in our county is EOTAS provision at home with tutors. It isn't good enough. He cannot get a place at a Special School - there are woefully insufficient places for the children who need them.

I am interested in where you will find the money to improve childcare and SEND provision, as well as increase teacher pay and increase the education budget overall. So far, as I see it, there is not enough in the pot from what the Labour Party has already announced. Thanks.

Following on from @twistyizzy have the Labour Party considered the further consequences for inequality for women (who will leave work as they will no longer be paying school fees) forcing women back into the home and reducing the income the Treasury will receive from PAYE and NI?

And have the Labour Party also considered the impact on society of creating even more elitist schools that only the very rich can access?!

I am a working class person from Liverpool. My mother died when I was a teen, and at times my life growing up was very difficult. I have worked very hard putting myself through Uni and I lived and worked overseas in 4 other countries, which entailed great personal sacrifices.

My children, who were born overseas, received a good education. On return to the UK, I put my DC in a private school, not taking up our state paid places, as was our right. I now hear that Labour are to add VAT onto these school fees, making it now unsustainable for them to continue. These children will move to the already overloaded state. This is a spiteful and ill thought out policy, an own goal.

My question is, why should anyone bother working hard and try to better themselves? As soon as you do, you are pulled back down to earth with a bang. It's known as Tall Poppy Syndrome. In other countries hard work and aspiration is seen as a good thing. Here it is demonised. No wonder we have so many educated expats living and working in other countries.

Hi, please can you clarify Labour's position on Women's sex based rights? At the moment it seems to me that Labour fully support trans rights and the teaching of Gender in schools over and above women's rights and I cannot vote for Labour because of this.

Why do we have a school system that is based on children being sedentary and indoors for most of their day? We have a mental and physical health crisis - we know that the rise in school refusal is linked to neurodiverse children struggling hugely in our rigid system.

I can't understand why politicians don't see and promise change in this old dated victorian system - children - from 4 to 17 - do not thrive spending several hours a day hunched over desks cramming facts.

The day is old fashioned - starting too early for teenagers - it is too long, rigid and authoritarian for younger children as well.

I have watched children go through the entire system and just can't understand why we continue with this totally broken approach - as our children get fatter, sadder , unhealthier and more anxious.

Why do you have such a problem with grammar schools? For many bright children who don't have rich parents it is the only avenue they have that gets them away from the chaos and disruptive behaviour that inhibits learning in comprehensives and into somewhere where being clever and wanting to do well is encouraged rather than something to be bullied for.

Hi Bridget, there is a dire need for support (not punishment) for students and their families to improve attendance and help with mental health, as well as tackling barriers to student wellbeing created by poverty. I know funds are limited and all pledges must be costed, but can you commit to widening FSM/access to free school uniforms/free travel to school and have you considered funding an attendance officer and mental health worker in every school? The scale of challenge is vast and needs to be part of a wider radical programme to rebuild a strong society but I think schools can really help. Also, the capital programme required to rebuild schools structures is daunting, but hopefully someone else will ask that question. I think you are absolutely brilliant btw.

Hi Bridget - thanks for doing this.

Another VAT on private school fees one. What assumptions have been made in the £1.7b saved calculation for what proportion of private school pupils will be pushed into state because whoever’s funding them cannot afford it with VAT, and has the cost of this on the state been factored into the £1.7b? Thank you.

Hi Bridget, what is being done to ensure that every school teacher has regular and up-to-date SEND training and can refer children for assessments and provide additional support in school ?
Accessing appropriate early primary school support (essential to have learning strategies established prior to secondary education). For families of children with dyslexia and dyspraxia getting diagnosis and appropriate level of support in education is extraordinarily challenging unless the child is severely “behind” their peers. Parents with time and money have the choice of providing home support with additional teaching, tutors and adaptive equipment , physical ed classes or letting their child slide enough to get legally obliged support in school. Children of families where parents do not have either money or ability to support them at home get very little help until they are significantly behind (2-3 years below expected level) , by which time the emotional and mental health issues that are borne from consistently failing to achieve compared to peers are established. 1:10 children are affected but less than 1:30 get the support that allows them fair chance to benefit from education at an equal level to their peers and avoiding mental health issues. Too many children go into school every day anticipating being to be one of the last to finish, not understand tasks, and mask their learning and behaviour to avoid embarrassment. There are relatively small adjustments that can make education a level playing field and prepare our children to be resilient and ask for the adjustments that they will need for their whole lives (at school, work and play) without embarrassment or lack of understanding from employers, schools, healthcare providers

Given how MH has such an impact on school attendance, are Labour planning on significantly increasing funding for CAMHS so our young people get the early intervention support they need?

Will Labour listen to Teachers and Heads about what schools need in order for children to thrive?

I would like to ask about the VAT on private school fees. What is the full justification for this and how will it be implemented? What processes have the Labour Party gone through to develop the policy and understand it's impact and unintended consequences? Has there been input from educationalists, economists, commerce, think tanks and forecasters? What rigour is behind the policy?

Hi - I can’t be there so not sure if can ask but here goes
Will Labour change the system so that a young person at 19 in education with very severe disability getting PIP can get universal credit (or at least a claim open during an assessment for illness)

What is your stance on the current DBV plans to cut funding for EHCPs and lower funding for SEN schools?

I read that 8000 schools still need to be properly surveyed because somehow we don't know if they were built with RAAC.

Are children in those schools safe for the 18 months it's going to take the 8 surveyors to check them all?

Will Labour commit to implementing clean air in schools?

Hello Bridget

My disabled daughter has epilepsy (like 1 in 104 people in this country) so is at risk of collapsing and having a seizure. There are very many more children at risk of collapsing too - diabetics, those with heart conditions, head injuries etc.

My daughter was specifically not allowed to use the disabled toilets in her educational support plan. The girls toilet block had gaps at the bottom of the doors, so if she did collapse without warning, she was able to be seen. This was fundamental to her safety and ability to go to school.

In my job as a teacher, visibility was a very important part of safeguarding. I was shocked to learn that at least one pupil is raped inside a school premises every school day https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34138287. Drug taking, self harming and sexual assaults also take place where visibility decreases.

I am concerned that toilets with doors with gaps at the bottom (for visibility) are being replaced by full height doors. This is discriminatory against boys and girls who need visibility to keep them safe due to the chance of a medical condition occuring.

Girls and boys need access to single sex toilets for safeguarding and medical reasons that are overlooked. When there’s door gaps in mixed sex toilets, boys get their phone out to video girls. Mixed sexed toilets have a higher degree of sexual assaults.

My question to you is: can you ensure schools will continue to be safe for children who need the safety net of visibility by keeping traditional toilet door gaps?

As one of the 500,000 paernts (and 20% of sixth former parents in the UK) who has paid or pays school fees, I am interested in Labour's school fees plans. Is it going to be 20% VAT on education fees in which case will that also apply to university fees? Would it not be better to give all parents a voucher they can use in a state school or against part of private school fees given the huge contribution high tax payers and school fees payers pay towards education in the UK and given how much we save the state by not using state school places?

I won't be able to be in the Zoom as I will be at work.
Will a Labour government ensure that BSL is offered as a language in GCSE!?

I am hoping there will be a transcript of the Zoom chat as otherwise the education workforce are being excluded!

I'd like to know what Labour aim to do to improve teacher recruitment, retention, pay and conditions. We have a vanishing workforce and this is a crisis. It's clear form the chat above that parents expect a great deal from us all on very little time , pay and funding.