Government must learn from first round of school-based nursery funding
The DfE has announced the second round of funding for school-based nurseries will open later this month – but NDNA has warned that these new or extended nurseries must not create the unintended consequences seen in the first round.
Some of the nurseries created in the first phase will seriously threaten the sustainability of existing PVI nurseries. NDNA has shared several case studies of nurseries who have been removed or fear closure as a result.
The Government’s language leads parents to believe that children in school nurseries are best placed to make the transition to school when the time comes.
In announcing the second round of funding to create another 300 school-based nurseries, the DfE says:
- Over 4,000 more school-based nursery places available this month across England – delivering government’s Plan for Change.
- Parents accessing new school-based places benefit from fewer stops and less stress on the school run in the same week as government delivers 30 hours of funded childcare.
- More children access best start as government confirms further 300 new or expanded nurseries next year with focus on childcare in disadvantaged communities.
This month 189 of the first 300 funded nurseries open in schools across England.
The second phase is open for bids of up to £150,000 from a £45m pot to create a new nursery in schools from 22 September. Successful bids will prioritise quality bids from schools in the most disadvantaged communities. Second phase nurseries should be opening from September 2026.
Purnima Tanuku CBE, NDNA’s Executive Chair told the press: “Creating more early education and care places to meet demand is vital to support our youngest children and their families, particularly in disadvantaged communities. However, it’s important for the Government to remember that private and voluntary nurseries deliver the vast majority of places to under threes, while school nurseries only offer 6% of these places.
“Nurseries have worked hard to meet the ambitious expansion by September but due to workforce pressures, we know that around 70% of nurseries are not operating at full capacity as they are carrying an average of four vacancies.
“Private and voluntary nurseries are the experts in this field, offering flexible, high quality provision for working families. One in ten of the newly opened school-based nurseries are being delivered in partnership with PVI providers and we hope more schools will explore this option with their local providers.
“The last round of school-based nursery funding displaced a number of established nurseries who were already running on, or next to, school sites. Using public money to displacement existing providers went against the policy of creating new places.
“Having provided case studies like this to the Department for Education we have been re-assured that the guidance has been updated to ensure this funding only creates new places and schools have to take account of existing nearby provision.
“These are important decisions for schools, nurseries and communities. Councils have to ensure they are working with up-to-date information. Last year we saw that around a third of councils could not provide a recent childcare sufficiency assessment for their areas. These must be a priority to ensure we don’t see any more unintended consequences.
“We will be analysing the updated guidance to make sure that applications from schools will be assessed fairly.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
“The change we have delivered for working people this September is just the beginning – through our Plan for Change we are determined to give more children the best start in life.
“School-based nurseries can offer a nurturing and stable environment for children that carries through into primary, and a helping hand for working parents tackling dual drop off.
“Delivering more school-based nurseries – under our Best Start umbrella – means more choice and convenience for parents, and more opportunities to target parts of the country where families are most in need of additional support.”
Read more about NDNA’s research about capital grant and expansion grant: https://ndna.org.uk/news/more-than-65-million-for-childcare-expansion-not-reaching-providers/
And our staffing sufficiency research:
- Department for Education
- early years
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