The Education Secretary failed to give the Government a top rating when asked to judge its performance.
Gillian Keegan said she would rate Rishi Sunak’s Government as “good” using Ofsted’s four-point grading scale – which ranks schools in England from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Asked how she would grade the Government’s performance during a phone-in on LBC Radio, Mrs Keegan said: “I would say ‘good’. Often a lot of the things that we’ve delivered nobody ever talks about.”
She added: “When you’ve gone from 68% to 89% good or outstanding schools. When you’ve gone from no apprenticeship system to one that’s training 5.7 million people. I think you can look and say there’s a lot that has been achieved.”
Her comments came after Mrs Keegan refused to guarantee on Sunday that the Government’s childcare pledge would be met on time as she said she was “not in control of all the bits”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted last month that all eligible children in England would be able to benefit from his Conservative administration’s expanded childcare offer being phased in from the spring.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in March last year that eligible families of children as young as nine months would be able to claim 30 hours of funded childcare a week by 2025.
I’m very confident in this programme. I’m very confident that 15 hours for two-year-olds will be available in April
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan
As part of a staggered rollout of the policy, working parents of two-year-olds would be able to access 15 hours of funded childcare from April.
This would be extended to working parents of all children older than nine months from September.
From September 2025, working parents of children under five would be entitled to 30 hours of funded childcare per week.
But some childcare providers in England have reported being unable to commit to offering funded places for eligible working parents of two-year-olds in April as they remained in the dark about final funding rates.
Speaking to LBC radio on Monday, the Education Secretary said a “small number” of local authorities had not yet confirmed the funding rates they would pay early years settings ahead of the first phase of the Government’s childcare expansion which is due to start in two months.
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The only reason I say I can’t guarantee, is strictly it’s tens and tens of thousands of businesses all across the country who are actually delivering it
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan
Mrs Keegan said: “The vast majority of them have already but there’s a small number that haven’t and this is causing a bit of friction in the system. I am leaning on them very, very hard.”
When challenged on whether she could guarantee that eligible working parents would be able to access the new funding, Ms Keegan said: “I’m very confident in this programme. I’m very confident that 15 hours for two-year-olds will be available in April.
“The only reason I say I can’t guarantee, is strictly it’s tens and tens of thousands of businesses all across the country who are actually delivering it.”
When asked to sum up the Government in one word, Ms Keegan said: “Delivering.”
