The Early Years Alliance is probing the wider impact on private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries after receiving a string of reports from existing providers that their primary school hosts have terminated their leases since the launch of the £37 million policy.
The government has described the proposed 3,000 new or expanded school-based nurseries as being at the “heart” of its 'Plan for Change' and earlier this month, the Department for Education announced capital grant funding for the first wave of 300 such settings. These are intended to provide 4,000 places by September 2025, in preparation for the full rollout of the 30-hours funded childcare expansion.
“The Alliance has been made aware of a number of recent instances of primary schools terminating leases with PVI providers previously operating on their premises in order to open their own provision, in order to apply for or obtain funding under the new government grant,” said the early years body.
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Among them is St Michael's Playgroup in Northants, which has been running from the Apple Tree Club on premises of Finedon Infant School since 2017. In March 2025, it received notice from the school that its contract would terminate at the end of the summer term.
The charity-run nursery, rated "good" by Ofsted, has supported high rates of economically disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), according to manager Rebecca Stanford-Durdan.
“As of the beginning of the school year in September 2024, we had nine two-year-olds that accessed the disadvantaged funding," said Stanford-Durdan, adding: “Since 2018 we have had 11 children with identified SEN, all with education, health and care plans.
“We have been recommended to parents of children with SEN by the specialist support services team due to our provision.
“We built a dedicated area as a sensory room to support children with SEN.
"The school nursery that will be created will be for children from three years – although in their interim consultation they sent out they have stated that they are open to take on existing children from our setting, that are not quite three."
Stanford-Durdan has taken the opportunity to expand her services and rebrand as The Berrypatch, and says that all bar one of the children are following her to the new location, at nearby Finedon Community Centre, in September.
"As a consequence of moving we will now be able to expand our services to provide care for children age nine months to 11 years for the majority of the year," she said.
As part of the school's consultation on the proposals, it told parents who had raised concerns about the impact on the community of losing St Michael's: "The infant and junior schools are long standing, well-established, consistently good schools who are at the heart of our local community.
"We are looking to enhance our impact on the community by utilising the space in our school building that we have previously rented to St Michael’s Playgroup and establish our own teacher-led nursery for the long-term educational benefit to our children.
"Our recent parent survey (March 2025) was overwhelmingly positive and particularly praised the practice in Reception and its strong communication with parents. We are looking to further build on the role we play in supporting the development of children in our community."
It also summarised Ofsted's description of the infant school in a 2023 report as "caring and happy", "ambitious for all of its pupils to achieve", meaning "pupils do well, especially those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who are disadvantaged", adding: "It is an inclusive school. Pupils with SEND are well supported."
The Alliance has made a request to the DfE under the Freedom of Information Act, to try and uncover the full extent of the impact of the school-based nursery expansion on PVI settings, including how many have operated on primary school premises in receipt of the funding in the past two years, and how many PVI providers, childminders or pre-schools are within two miles of such premises.
Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said: “We have been repeatedly assured by government that school-based nursery provision is intended to work alongside, and not replace, PVI provision, and that only schools that can demonstrate that there is a local need for additional places would be awarded funding.
“And yet, despite this, we are now receiving reports of high-quality PVI providers being forced to seek new premises – or worse still, close altogether – because the school whose premises they were previously operating from has told them to leave. This is completely unacceptable.
“Private, voluntary and independent providers are an absolutely critical part of the early years sector, delivering the vast majority of early entitlement places. They provide the kind of flexible care and education that so many working families around the country desperately need, and we know that many provide vital support to disadvantaged families and children with SEND and other additional needs.
“Any policymaker who thinks that school-based nurseries can ever replace the provision delivered by PVI settings has fundamentally misunderstood the early years.
“Our hope is that our Freedom of Information Act request will help shine a light on the true impact of the push for more school-based nurseries on PVI settings, and ensure that those working in the private, voluntary and independent sector don’t end up as collateral damage as a result of this policy.”
