Morecambe MP backs landmark legislation to save families £500 a year

The legislation will use a series of measures to improve school standards, reduce costs to families, support children in care and protect children at risk of harm.

Ms Collinge spoke in the House of Commons Chamber on Wednesday where she outlined her support for the bill, including on central measures to introduce free breakfast clubs and cap the number of branded school uniform items.

Recent research shows almost half of parents are concerned by the cost of uniform and more than one in 10 experience financial hardship as a result.

Estimates show the legislation could save parents more than £50 per child on the back-to-school shop as well as save families an estimated £450 per year per child on breakfasts.

The bill also drives up school standards by ensuring all schools follow the national curriculum.

Ms Collinge also spoke of her support for child protection measures such as registering all children not in school and tackling illegal schools.

She said these measures will protect children from parents using home-schooling as a cover for abuse, as in the recent national case of Sara Sharif, and shut down illegal schools that have also been used as a cover for horrific abuse.

Ms Collinge said: “Measures in this bill will make a real difference to the household finances of families and the life chances of children across Morecambe and Lunesdale.

“From my regular engagement out and about in the constituency, I know how much parents will value having a free breakfast club at their local primary and a cheaper back-to-school shop. Having spoken in the autumn to a number of different local schools and the local foodbank, it is clear that this support is much needed.

“I am also very pleased to see support for children who are in kinship care, with measures to support kinship carers and keep children within wider family networks.

“Every child deserves the best start in life and reforms such as ensuring all schools use the national curriculum will drive high and rising school standards which I’ll back every step of the way to break down the barriers to opportunity for children in Morecambe and Lunesdale.”

Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, said: “This bill will be a seminal moment for the Labour government as we put our vision of child-centred government into action.

“The bill will allow us to lead pragmatic, but radical, reform to drive high and rising standards in schools, make lives easier for families by cutting the cost of sending children to school and make real, lasting change by stopping children from falling through cracks.

“Children in our country deserve the best start in life, nothing less. Labour will make that a reality.”