Stephen Twigg MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education visited Dover on Thursday (7 March 2013). Mr Twigg joined Clair Hawkins, Labour's PPC for Dover & Deal on visits to Happy Feet Pre-School in Tower Hamlets and St Edmunds Catholic School.
Sharon Lucas, the Operational Manager at Happy Feet took Mr Twigg and Ms Hawkins around the pre-school to see the facilities on offer to children between the ages of two and four years old. They also met members of staff to discuss the problems currently facing pre-school care such as increasing the number of children a nursery nurse can look after and the cuts made to their funding.
Sharon Lucas said: "The recent announcement regarding the proposed changes to ratios is not a well thought out idea and we would invite those who make these proposals to come and spend a week in our two and younger or three year old room and then decide if their ideas are going to bring quality to learning and development."
Ms Lucas continued: "The well trained staff and I at Happy Feet were really pleased to meet Stephen and to have the opportunity to show him what we do here. This is a very deprived area. Happy Feet and Home Start together offer lots of activities here at the Ark, helping to provide excellent learning and development opportunities for young children as well as support for families.
"Cuts to funding for staff qualifications, including continuous professional development, have tied our hands in terms of who we can train and when. We have made our thoughts clear to Stephen and Clair who were concerned to hear how it affected us here."
While at Happy Feet, Mr Twigg and Ms Hawkins also had the opportunity to meet staff working for Home Start Dover. Scheme Manager,Tracy Perrow, highlighted the key areas of Home Start's service and how the charity works with volunteers to offer regular support to hard-to-reach families.
Mrs Perrow said: "Stephen was interested in how volunteers are able to go on to further education and often employment themselves as a result of volunteering. He agreed that Home-Start offers a crucial support to families struggling to bring up their children and acknowledged how important the service is."
Clair Hawkins was impressed, saying: "It was fantastic to see and hear about the important work that Happy Feet Pre-school and Home Start are doing to support children and families in Dover but it is such a shame that they have to spend so much time and effort fundraising in order to continue such a valued service."
Following their visit to Happy Feet Mr Twigg and Ms Hawkins moved onto St Edmunds Catholic School for a "Question Time" event with staff and pupils from the Politics A-level class and Years 10 and 11. The wide ranging discussion included questions on how education policy fitted into Ed Miliband's One Nation vision, Labour's plans to reduce university fees down to £6000 and concerns for the future such as unemployment and the availability of apprenticeships.
Ms Heather Scott, Head of Citizenship at St Edmunds, was pleased to see Mr Twigg in Dover and that her pupils had the chance to ask him questions. She said: "It's always fantastic too see students taking part in a political forum. I thank Stephen Twigg for coming to visit and for reminding our students that political action can take place away from Westminster too."
Kayleigh Balch, a Year 10 pupil who attended the school's version of Question Time was also enthusiastic about the Shadow Minister's visit: "Meeting with Stephen Twigg was an amazing experience. I learnt so much about how education could change and it was interesting to see how, even though people don't experience what we do, they still care!"
Clair Hawkins added: "It was great to take Stephen Twigg to visit St Edmund's Catholic School to answer questions and listen to the views of students and staff. And we will feed suggestions from all the visits into Your Britain - the Labour Party's forum for developing policy ideas."
