Responding to both the speech made by the secretary of state for education, Bridget Philipson to Labour Party conference, and her plans to rollout nursery provision in schools, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union, NAHT said:

“We welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to work closely with the profession, and her commitment to bring about a new era of child centred government. For too long, leaders and teachers have succeeded in spite of, not because of government policy. It is refreshing to see the rhetoric is backed up by action - this year’s above inflation pay award, the scrapping of single word Ofsted judgments and the opening of the curriculum and assessment review - is helping to build trust with leaders and teachers.

“It is understandable that government is looking to expand nursery provision in schools where there is space to do so. An early adopters scheme will certainly help schools that have already been considering setting up nursery provision to move ahead with their plans. Crucially, it should also help government to learn more about what will be needed to make a future roll-out of the policy a success. Key to that will be meaningful action to tackle the current workforce crisis the early years sector is facing.”