Yesterday in the House of Commons, shadow children and early years minister Tulip Siddiq confronted Ms Ford on the closure of nearly 3,000 nurseries, childminders and other early years providers since the start of the year, which she said was due to a lack of targeted funding.
'Earlier this year, in June, I stood at this Dispatch Box and confronted the Minister about the number of nurseries and childcare providers that were closing because of the Government’s inability to fund the early years sector properly. The Minister accused me of scaremongering,' she said. 'Since June, there has been a further loss of 500 childcare providers in the sector, which brings the net loss for this year alone to nearly 3,000. Will the Minister make up for dismissing the concerns of parents, children and carers by providing targeted funding for the early years sector from this Government?'
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