Shadow education secretary will use conference speech to promise ringfenced grant as part of plans for national education service

The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, will pledge to reverse £500m cuts in funding for Sure Start centres, in her Labour conference speech, which will draw on her experiences as a teenage single mother.

Rayner will promise a ringfenced grant from the Department for Education of an additional £500m a year for the children’s centres and early intervention services, as well as outlining Labour’s plans for a national education service promised in the party’s manifesto.

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“When I became pregnant at 16, it was easy to think that the direction of my life, and that of my young son, was already set,” she will say. “My mum had a difficult life, and so did I, and it looked like my son would simply have the same.



“Instead, the last Labour government, through support of my local Sure Start centre, transformed my son’s childhood, and made sure that his life would not have to be as hard as mine had been.”

Rayner will say her experience is evidence that “politics changes lives … I say it as someone whose own life was changed.”

The £500m pledge is based on new Labour analysis of DfE spending figures, which suggests £437m has been cut from Sure Start funding since 2012. One in three children’s centres have been lost since 2010 with at least two local authorities, Swindon and Solihull, reporting they no longer have any designated Sure Start centres.

“I am proud to say that we will give £500m a year directly to Sure Start, reversing those cuts in full,” Rayner will say. “Because to give every child a fair chance to succeed, we need to give them the best possible start in life.”

Speaking in the conference hall in Brighton on Tuesday, Rayner will unveil a 10-point charter for a cradle-to-grave education system, promising it will be “free at the point of use, available universally and throughout life”.

The charter sets out plans for democratic oversight of schools and colleges, as well as emotional and academic support for staff and learners. Plans include a boost to adult education, pre-school and skills training.

“Our national education service will be lifelong, providing for people at every stage of their life,” Rayner will say. “That is our national education service. Not just another structure. Not another new sign on the school gate. A promise from a Labour government to the British people.

“That we believe in all of them, in their talent and their potential, in all they give to our country, and that we will never limit their aspiration or their ability to succeed.”

The party has said it will consult on the principles of the charter across the education sector.