Read: Transforming the early years
Seema Kennedy OBE sat down with Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP to talk about her work as Chairman of the Early Years Healthy Development Review, how she secured £500m in the spending review from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to fund the vision for the 1001 Critical Days, and why employers need to embrace flexible working as standard.
Seema Kennedy OBE: I know the early years are something you’re very passionate about. How did you first become interested?
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP: It’s a rather long story! 25 years ago I became involved with a charity called the Oxford Parent-Infant Project because my Mum was a midwife and a trauma counsellor. OxPIP was providing psychotherapeutic support for families who were struggling to form a secure bond with their baby. I helped with fundraising, and before I knew it I was chairing the charity -the rest is history!
Seema Kennedy OBE: You were elected to Parliament in 2010. Can you tell us about your parliamentary early career?
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP: When I came to Parliament I had my ‘3 B’s’ – Babies, Banks and Brussels. My first focus was getting onto the Treasury Select Committee, and looking at what we should do to regulate the banks in light of the financial crisis. On babies, I set up the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on conception to the age of two, and we heard from some fantastic experts about how the brain develops, what different countries are doing and how parents could receive better information. We know that a baby who is spoken to has a much bigger vocabulary than a baby whose early years are spent in silence, often because parents don’t realise that talking to your baby is an incredible way of stimulating brain development. The APPG culminated in producing the 1001 Critical Days Manifesto that called on the government to provide better support for families, better education, and interventions to reduce circumstances like domestic violence, substance abuse and smoking.
Seema Kennedy OBE: That sounds like a fantastic start to your time in Parliament, but very soon you were in government, weren’t you?
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP: My first job was as City Minister, which is slightly far removed from babies, but very interesting. You have to drop all outside interests when you become a Minister, including APPG work, but one of the things I was able to keep doing was talk to opposition parties. A lot of members of the public say we all must hate each other, but actually I had some really good conversations, with people like Labour’s Dame Tessa Jowell and Lord David Blunkett, Sharon Hodgson MP and former Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson. During her time as Prime Minister, Theresa May invited me to chair an Inter-Ministerial Group on the early years. It makes a big difference when you are able to command civil service resources, set out a plan and get other Ministers involved. In Parliament we were also able to introduce baby leave which meant MP’s on maternity or paternity leave were given proxy votes so they could continue to vote on parliamentary business.
Seema Kennedy OBE: Can you tell us about the Early Years Healthy Development Review?
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP: It was a specific appointment by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has always been very interested in the early years. The Review is supported by the Department for Health, and sponsoring Ministers in the Department for Education and the Cabinet Office. In phase one, we conducted lots of research, and spoke to parents and carers, academics and professionals across England. The Best Start for Life: Vision for the 1001 Critical Days was published in March 2021, and its 6 Action Areas were adopted as government policy. In October’s Spending Review, we secured £500 million of funding which is a game changer. This means that local authorities can provide seamless, joined-up support for parents, carers and babies for building parent- infant mental health services, for breastfeeding support work, and providing much better parenting programmes.
Seema Kennedy OBE: What role do you think businesses have as employers to support families?
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP: It is so important. When I was Business Secretary, I was working very hard on the Employment Rights Bill, and it is my view that there should be flexible working as standard. We introduced shared parental leave, and that’s great, but unfortunately too few Dads are actually taking it. I’d like to see employees put in bids when applying for a job as to the hours they’d like to work – it could be, for example, three days a week, or five mornings a week, and then the employer can weigh them up. We saw during the COVID lockdowns that people can work flexibly. I think this would create greater diversity, and many more women would choose to come back into the workplace. It’s incumbent on businesses to enable flexible working so they can attract and retain the best talent.