Tracy Brabin MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Early Years, commenting on a report by the Sutton Trust and Sound Foundations, which found the government’s scheme to give working parents 30 hours of free childcare could harm social mobility, said:

“This report confirms exactly what we have been warning for months - the Tories are failing to provide high quality early years education for the children who need it most. The whole system is now being under funded and undermined. 

"They have created less than a quarter of the places they promised, excluded parents on the lowest incomes, and mismanaged the scheme so badly that many families simply can’t find a provider prepared to offer them the free hours they are supposedly entitled to. 

"Only this week Labour outlined the alternative - genuinely free, universal and high quality early years education for every 2-4 year old, with the resources needed to actually deliver it." 

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