LABOUR has backed calls for early years to be at the forefront of education recovery after a charity found the majority of parents of pre-school children are concerned that a lack of play during the pandemic has negatively affected their child. 

A new report by the Sutton Trust found that 56 per cent of parents are worried about the impact of Covid-19 on their young child’s overall development. 

The charity’s poll of more than 500 parents of two to four-year-olds found that a fifth feel their child’s physical development had been impacted negatively, and a quarter feel similarly about their language development.