The money was supposed to be spent by local authorities on early years places in 2021/22 but was either redirected to other areas of council funding or returned to the Department for Education.
This includes £45.8m in councils underspending on early years funding.
More than a third of councils underspending used this money to offset deficits in designated schools grants. This amounts to £15m being redirected from early years to wider school budgets. Around £5m was specifically used to meet losses in supporting high needs pupils in schools.
The rest of the money was “clawed back” by the DfE, according to the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), which carried out the investigation by sending Freedom of Information Act requests to councils on early years spending.
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