Southwark Liberal Democrats have submitted a response to the council’s ‘Childcare Commission’, which is tasked with finding a response to the growing problem of high childcare costs. Our response is published below. ————————————————————————————— LIBERAL DEMOCRAT SUBMISSION TO SOUTHWARK CHILDCARE COMMISSION Cost of childcare Every parent in our borough will have faced challenges with childcare. The […]

The Liberal Democrats will more than triple investment in the early years ‘pupil premium’ cash for children from disadvantaged backgrounds under manifesto plans announced by Schools Minister David Laws. The early years funding was announced in March 2014 and is currently worth £300 for every disadvantaged child. Liberal Democrats want to extend this to £1000, […]

Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon has been on London Live TV today talking about children missing from care, in relation to the recent abuse scandal in Rotherham. Watch the clip here Caroline has done a lot of work on this topic, including putting together a full report on London’s missing children earlier this […]

There’s not long to go now until the local elections, and if we take control of the council on 22 May, one of our top priorities will be to introduce a day of free childcare every month for all 2, 3 and 4 years olds, on top of the government’s own allowances. We’ve put this […]

The proportion of Southwark children being offered a place in one of their chosen primary schools is at a five-year low, according to new figures released yesterday. Official admissions figures for the borough show that 5.8% (197) of four and five-year olds were not offered a place at any of their six preferred schools for […]

As reported on Cllr James Barber’s blog, ‘outstanding’ school provider Haberdashers’ Aske Federation has announced it will open a new secondary school in East Dulwich, which will help tackle the shortage of permanent school places in the area. The campaign for a new school has been led by the three Lib Dem councillors for East Dulwich – James […]

Southwark Liberal Democrats have responded to the formal launch of a new ‘childcare commission’ in the borough, saying it would be better if the council took real action for parents rather than just “another long-winded review”. Liberal Democrat councillors have already committed to offering free childcare hours to local 2, 3 and 4 year olds […]

The cost of childcare seems to be one of the big topics at the moment.  Earlier this month, the Family and Childcare Trust put out figures showing childcare fees were now “more than the average mortgage“. The story was similar to the research Southwark Liberal Democrats did last year about childcare in the borough often being […]

Southwark must take urgent action to deal with its school places ‘timebomb’ after remaining one of the worst performing boroughs in the country for new admissions to secondary schools, local Liberal Democrats councillors have said. Official figures released this week show that over 1,000 pupils were rejected from their first choice of secondary school this […]

Southwark Liberal Democrats have announced they will offer free childcare to local parents if they win control of the council this year, in what is set to be the group’s flagship policy going into May’s local elections. All two, three and four-year olds will be given an extra one day a month of childcare under […]