Speeches by Sewards.

“I thank the Minister for the strategy and I agree with its stated aims. I especially welcome the ending of the unlawful use of B&Bs for families. We have already heard the case powerfully made by my hon. Friends the Members for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) and for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme…”

“My hon. Friend tempts me to say something I am not allowed to in this place, so I will say that they absolutely would prefer me—of course they would. AI Mark could also be exploited to say things that just were not true. So I lifted the guardrails to reduce the risk before I released him to the public, but this made hi…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I congratulate the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) for securing this timely debate. In August, I created the first AI prototype of a British MP. It was made by my constituent, Jeremy Smith, who ran an AI start-up in my constituency. I will g…”

“I have a specific question for Beatrice. Maintained nursery schools are a very small part of the sector and also very expensive because of the staffing costs. They need to have qualified teachers and all of that. Can they function in this market? Is it possible to structure staffing in such a way that they can continue…”

“Is there a reason why you want to regulate them? What impact would that have on the sector more broadly?”

“It is good to get those stats on the record. Another stat is 62% of them are rated outstanding by Ofsted and we are looking to them as the model on which other childcare providers should base themselves and replicate. Is there nothing that can be done to restructure them to make them more affordable?”

“Sorry, I might have missed it. Do you know how many children they care for?”

“That is absolutely fine. Is that the sort of thing we should collect data on?”

“Thank you very much for your answers on that. I have another specific question, this time for Ka Lai, about nannies. We know that Coram PACEY has called for greater professionalisation and regulation of nannies. Can you tell us how many nannies there are in the UK and how many children they look after?”

“Thank you. Point well made.”

“I am pleased to hear that you are taking account of the feedback, looking at those pilot breakfast clubs, and then making adjustments to the financial arrangements going forward so that they are viable, because it is so important that they succeed in every school. Turning to free school meals, I am extremely pleased to…”

“I want to turn to child poverty, breakfast clubs and free school meals—I will start with breakfast clubs. I acknowledge how amazing they are. They are absolutely the right thing to do. They make sure that children do not have to start the school day hungry. They provide wraparound care and amazing benefits for parents …”

“A number of councils have adopted auto-enrolment policies—I think Lambeth, just over the river, has done so—but of course councils have to expend a greater amount of their resources to do so. A national scheme of auto-enrolment would simplify the process and essentially save councils money, as well as feeding more than…”

“We know that since the pandemic the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and those who are not disadvantaged has grown significantly. The Education Policy Institute has said that this is “entirely explained by higher levels of absence for disadvantaged pupils.” I would be interested to know whether you agree w…”

“Absolutely. On that difference, my final question is about how you will assess the impact. What plans does the Department have to assess the impact of breakfast clubs and the extension of free school meals on things like attainment and attendance?”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech and a powerful argument. I have been dealing with an advanced manufacturer of metal and steel wires in my constituency that has been put off by the very thing he describes. That company stands ready to support the Government’s mission on clean and green energy—it wants to su…”

“I take your point. You mentioned earlier that you had doubled the early years pupil premium in an attempt to address this gap, but if you accept that attendance is the biggest driver, are these efforts fruitless? Is it pointless to do these additional things if you cannot even get these pupils into school?”

“Absolutely, and I wish you the best of luck in ensuring that the trend continues. I am conscious of time, so I will ask only one more question on this. Why did the Department have to withdraw the recent AI-generated attendance target reports for individual schools, and what lessons have been learned from that?”

“As someone turning himself into the first AI MP, I can appreciate that there are always pitfalls in this area.”

“To pick up on something you said there, you talked about there being a culture—I do not think you used this word—of fear challenging the leadership on financial assumptions. The independent report into what went wrong at Dundee University certainly said that there was a culture of fear and that people would not dare te…”