As a parent, I want to ensure that the world which future generations inherit is one in which they will be safe, happy, and healthy. I am on a mission to ensure that all children in Wolverhampton have a great start in life, with good schools, training opportunities, and personalised careers support. As part of this, I am working with leaders from across our city to create a brighter, better future for young people.
Supporting Families:
- Wolverhampton has access to a share of £301 funding to help 75 local authorities to deliver better early help and intervention for families across a range of services, including health visiting, mental health support, parenting courses, and infant feeding advice - all of which can make a great difference to families.
- Working parents could get up to £2,000 a year to pay for regulated childcare, including holiday clubs and out-of-school activities in the school holidays as part of the Tax-Free Childcare Offer. For every £8 deposited into an online account, families will receive an extra £2 in government top-up. It is available for children aged up to 11, or 17 if the child has a disability.
- Wolverhampton Council has been allocated £1.9 million to coordinate and provide free provision including healthy food and enriching activities in the school holidays in 2022. The Government is investing over £200 million in the Holiday Activities and Food Programme this year and has committed to do so every year for the next three years.
Improved Schools Funding:
- Over the past 10 years, school standards have improved rapidly – 86% of schools are now rated Good or Outstanding, compared to 68% in 2010. Schools across Wolverhampton South West are set to benefit from an extra £2.4 million, as part of the Government’s Mainstream Schools Additional Grant - a £2 billion injection of new funding into schools, this year and next, to top up their budgets and help headteachers manage higher costs like energy bills and teacher pay. Schools can also choose to invest the funding in trips and learning materials.
- This is on top of the £1.5 billion increase schools were already set to receive in 2023-24, bringing the overall funding increase this year to £3.5 billion, compared to 2022-23. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the uplift means that 2024–25 will be the highest spending year in history for schools. In total, schools will receive £58.8 billion in 2024-25 – meaning that the Government is putting more into schools than ever before. It also means school funding is set to rise faster than forecast inflation in both 2023–24 and 2024–25.
- We are repairing and upgrading the condition of school buildings across the country through our transformative ten-year rebuilding programme. Our city has also been made an uplift area, equipping eligible chemistry, languages, mathematics and physics teachers with early-career payments.
Skills, Education and Training:
- I am thrilled that the Government has backed our ambitious plans to build a new, integrated City Learning Quarter with £20 million funding. Over a 10-year period, around 45,000 people would benefit from learning there. The project would also support 750 jobs and create around 7,500 apprenticeships.
- We are also increasing skills funding by 42 per cent in cash terms – meeting our National Skills Fund commitment. This includes more hours learning for 16-19, expanding T Levels, more traineeships, the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, upgrading our further education college estate, quadrupling the number of places on our skills bootcamps, and spending record sums on apprenticeships by the end of the Parliament. Find more details about employment support here.
Find out more about my work on this issue via the articles below: