Ahead of the Budget NDNA submits evidence for more support for PVI nurseries
NDNA has submitted evidence to the Government, Treasury and ministers from the Department for Education that more needs to be done to support the PVI nursery sector.
Private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries deliver the vast majority of childcare places across England and yet the Department for Education continues to invest more in school-based provision.
NDNA has submitted evidence and research to the Government in its Budget Representation, referencing funding, investment, business rates reform and local authority inconsistency.
NDNA’s Chief Executive Tim McLachlan has also written to Paul Waugh MP, the Early Education Minister, asking for business rates to be scrapped for nurseries, or at the very least for a reduction in this taxation which does not impact school nurseries.
Tim McLachlan said: “We have raised the intolerable situation of business rates with the Chancellor and are now calling on the new Minister to look at the impact this will continue to have on providers.
“As the largest sector delivering funded places on behalf of the Government, they need to ensure they are supporting PVI nurseries, not just focussing on creating new nurseries in schools which could threaten existing provision.”
In our Budget Representation submitted earlier this month, NDNA included:
- Detailed argument and evidence on the importance of early education and care
- Business rates reform – this unfair tax is only paid by PVI providers but not public sector nurseries – and penalises nurseries with space for children to grow and develop – currently the average bill is £23,000
- Why the Government’s Best Start in Life strategy needed more investment, in particular to extend free school meals to children in ALL early years settings, not just school-based nurseries
- Evidence that the Government childcare funding rate has not kept pace with costs, detailing results of our latest sustainability survey
- Evidence showing that early years investment has fallen in real terms
- Reasons behind the workforce recruitment and retention crisis and why this is not improving, particularly with the higher cost of employing staff as minimum rates continue to rise and National Insurance Contributions increased
- Reasons why the existing PVI nursery infrastructure must be supported rather than investment ploughed into new nurseries in schools which in many cases threaten the long-standing existing provision
- Why the local authority funding system needed urgent reform, referencing our research into council underspends and inconsistencies in how councils fund providers.
The Budget, which will include the new minimum wage rates for 2027-8, will be presented by Chancellor John Healey on Wednesday 28 October.
Education is devolved in Scotland and Wales. NDNA Scotland and NDNA Cymru will be making separate submissions ahead of their respective Budgets.
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