Giving the keynote speech, Phillipson said that the childcare system was ‘broken’, for providers, parents and staff.
She also reiterated Labour’s commitment to breakfast clubs and developing a childcare system for all children from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.
‘I’m clear that things absolutely need to change,' she said. 'In normal times the gap from the end of parental leave and the start of primary school is shorter crucially than a parliamentary term and that has consequences, political ones, electoral ones, and policy consequences too. The parents of today’s toddlers will not benefit from the policy for tomorrow’s toddlers. And the parents of tomorrow’s toddlers don’t yet know the reforms that you and I know are needed. And you will know that the cost of childcare doesn’t go away when children go to primary school.'
Restating Labour’s commitment to breakfast clubs, she explained that she was talking about ‘childcare’ in the wider context of a child’s life because the need for childcare didn’t end when children went to school.
‘So, Labour will look again at childcare from the end of parental leave right through until the end of primary school. So that’s why when people tell me that I shouldn’t be talking about childcare and I shouldn’t use that term, that I should be talking about early education, I tell them two things. First that while early years education is essential, I’m talking about more than that because childcare needs don’t stop when children start school. Breakfast clubs for eight-year-olds are a huge help to parents and drive up children’s outcomes in reading, writing and maths.
‘The case for change is not made by using language that parents and voters don’t use. To win for reform means engaging with language that others use, not as you might prefer it. Parents talk about the cost of childcare, grandparents talk about the cost of childcare. Employers increasingly tell me about the challenges of childcare. I do believe that the best childcare has a clear and effective relationship with our education system. I use the language of childcare precisely because it covers all of our children from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.’
She said she was proud Kier Starmer had put reforming childcare and education at the heart of Labour’s five missions for the next election.
Reforming childcare was seen as a 'priority' for Labour and 'a moral cause', she said.
Phillipson said she is keen to share from the success of others around the world, and noted that Westminster sometimes suffered from 'parochialism'.
One of the reasons Labour was so keen on breakfast clubs, she said, was because ‘breakfast clubs have been a huge success in Wales’.
Phillipson went to Estonia in November to see how childcare works there, and was also in Australia last month, which has a new government that puts childcare at the heart of policy, she said.
Labour is also looking at what is happening in Ireland, which has a new core funding model and a new pay and progression deal for staff.
Phillipson said she wanted to reach out to everyone in the sector, and that reform would come from schools, the maintained sector, and private and voluntary providers having ‘a shared purpose’.
‘Labour stands ready to work with all of you’ and would ‘fix it’, she said.
Private providers 'crucial'
When challenged about Labour’s focus on breakfast clubs, she replied that it was only the start of what the party wanted to do to change the system.
During a question and answer session, she was challenged by one delegate who said, ‘I understand short-termism and the electoral considerations you laid out. There’s not much mention of private nurseries and what we need. We are struggling and what have you got for us?’
Phillipson replied that, ‘We are determined to work with business to deliver the change our country needs. Rachel Reeves our shadow Chancellor, [and] Keir Starmer has been completely clear about that. We do believe childcare and early education are central, right at the heart of what we need for our country. Breakfast clubs is not the entirety of what we need to deliver.
'When it comes to the role of private providers, as I said in my speech, private providers have a crucial role and I want to work in partnership with you to deliver a better system. I appreciate your frustration, but I’m not a Government minister. And we will set out ahead of the manifesto more detailed plans of how we can deliver a better country for you and for our children too.’
Another provider of a small group of settings in the North East, and who has also been a headteacher of a pre-school, read out a list of how schools have more benefits when they’re running early years, which she said included financial advantages, rate reductions, no rent, higher pupil premium payments, ratio advantages, and better access to service level agreements for Government-funded children.
‘That’s what we need looked at,' she said. 'My concern is that schools will mop up these breakfast clubs and that any children that already attend after-school clubs and before-school clubs will be taken away by schools leaving us in an even more difficult financial position than we’re already in at the moment.’
Her comment was met with wide applause.
Responding, Phillipson said, ‘We do need to look at how to fix the system overall.’ Part of the problem was that early education needed to be valued and recognised in the same way as schools, she said.
‘To be clear breakfast clubs is the first step in terms of what I’ve set out and there is a lot more that needs to change and I fully recognise that.’
In her speech, Phillipson said, ‘Our childcare system right now is broken, with parents often spending more on childcare than housing or on food, and they have to navigate such a complicated system of different entitlements when that support should be simple. And of course, it’s broken for you as providers when the Government’s choice to underfund those core hours means you need to cross-subsidise. And what that means is more difficulties for you in recruiting and retaining staff, and increasing numbers of providers being forced to close their doors for good.’
She also said it was 'broken' for staff that have low pay and low job security and feel they have little prospect of career progression.
She added that she wanted grandparents, and aunts and uncles, to see spending time with children ‘as a blessing never as a chore, not as a stop-gap so parents can get to work.’