The Department for Education’s Childcare and early years providers survey 2013/14, published today, shows that just six per cent of primary schools with nursery and reception classes currently offer funded provision for two-year-olds.
In comparison, 74 per cent of full daycare providers and 68 per cent of sessional providers are delivering the 15 hours of free childcare to disadvantaged two-year-olds.
The government and Ofsted have backed school-based nurseries as being the best settings to improve early education for disadvantaged children, and have sought to boost the number delivering the free childcare entitlement.
But the new data shows just 12 per cent of school-based settings planned to offer funded provision from September this year, with three-quarters saying they definitely will not be. By comparison, more than 40 per cent of childminders, full daycare and sessional daycare providers said they planned to offer more places.
The findings have been seized upon by early years groups as further evidence that the government’s faith in school-based providers is misplaced.
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