Every Child Matters

Labour’s educational policy is best summed up by the phrase Every Child Matters. This means that each child has the right to an education which will give them the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential in life.

The last year has shown the importance of schooling within a child’s life. Not only have children of all ages missed out on their learning but they’ve missed the social interaction of normal life with friends and teachers. The mental health impact of the Covid pandemic is as yet unknown but it is likely that there will be far reaching consequences on all aspects of society.

Let’s Support Our Children

To try to alleviate some of these issues, a Labour controlled County Council would focus on working with schools to implement a catch-up programme.  There are no short-term fixes and the structures put in place would have to be sensitive to children’s needs.

Labour’s policy would also address children’s mental and physical well- being by extending the psychological support system that already exists. Some children will be ready to return whilst others may be ‘school shy’. There will be a need to recruit more teachers who could be drawn from a pool of retired or non-working teachers as has already happened in the Covid pandemic. There are funds available within the County Council to deliver these much-needed services but a refusal by the current Conservative administration to do so.

Bring Back “Sure Start”

It is vital that children get a good start in life and so a Labour Council would also re-introduce and expand the Sure Start and Children’s Centre programme across our existing centres.  Targeted at parents and children under the age of four in most need of support, these projects deliver a range of services to support children’s learning skills, health and wellbeing and social and emotional development  – and also help parents at the same time.

Improve Access To High Quality Education

We also have plans to increase funding for the education of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.   More capacity has been created in the last few years, but many specialist school buildings need updating. Many children with complex physical and medical needs are still travelling significant distances to attend school and there is a need for places to be made available across the county.

These are just some of Labour’s aspirations so that we can give all school children in Lincolnshire as good a start in life as possible.

Councillor Julie Killey

Labour Spokesperson for Childrens Services

Lincolnshire County Council

Vote Labour on May 6th for a fairer Lincolnshire