Our Plan for Change is rolling out the first 750 free breakfast clubs in primary schools across England. One of our five missions for government is to break down the barriers to opportunity at every level and our first step in doing so was to introduce these breakfast clubs. A promise made, a promise being delivered.
It is great to see that four schools in the constituency have been included in the first roll out. Whitegate End Primary, Richmond Academy, Westwood Academy and Northmoor Academy will each now benefit from a free breakfast club set to open in April. Their involvement in this scheme is a testament to these schools’ dedication to improving children’s attendance, attainment, wellbeing, behaviour and readiness for school.
At the same time, the clubs will save local families on the cost of sending children to school while providing a valuable source of childcare for working parents at the beginning of the day. Taken together, Labour’s breakfast clubs will boost parents’ work choices and children’s life chances by putting up to £450 a year back in parents’ pockets and making sure every child is ready to learn.
That’s why it’s such a shame that under the Tories, these clubs were available in just one in ten primary schools. Labour will make them available for all our children.
There is also another important element to this policy: it will help Labour bear down on the levels of child poverty that were left far too high by the Conservatives. The rate of child poverty in Oldham is simply unacceptable, and we must do more. Children growing up in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton deserve the best start in life, nothing less. That’s why we are taking this measure.
Labour’s mission is to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child so where you’re from, doesn’t determine where you end up and that if you work hard, you can get on in life. We are a Government on the side of working families.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 