Unions urge Greening to rethink nursery school funding changes

In an open letter to Education Secretary Justine Greening, union leaders say nursery schools provide an "efficient and cost-effective" way to improve social mobility, and should not have cuts to their funding.

Under government's proposals to introduce a universal early years funding formula, England's 400 maintained nursery schools will receive the same funding as private nurseries after two years of transition funding ends.

The change will shift an estimated £60m of funding from nursery schools to private, voluntary and independent providers, and campaigners say could lead to dozens of settings closing due to the higher cost of running nursery schools.

"By just setting out funding plans for two years, nursery schools cannot plan long term and deliver the stability that parents and employees need," the letter states.

Nursery schools are led by a head teacher, while two thirds of places are located in the 30 most deprived areas of the country.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: "The government has ignored the fact that early years settings come in all shapes and sizes and some have legitimately higher costs than others.

"The government must rethink its early years funding plans to ensure nursery schools are not forced to close."

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "Nursery schools make a real difference to children who haven't had the best start in life. But quality doesn't come cheap and the government needs to recognise this."

The letter comes as the government has refused to clarify whether the transitional funding promised to nursery schools will be ringfenced.

Lucy Powell, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes, asked in parliament how much supplementary funding each local authority will receive over the next two years, and if that funding will be ringfenced.

Childcare minister Caroline Dinenage said local authorities will be given a total of £55m funding to pass to nursery schools, but did not confirm the money will be protected.

"We will say more about the funding of maintained nursery schools later in the autumn in our response to the consultation on an early years national funding formula," Dinenage said.

Powell said ministers should be open now about how much funding local authorities will be allocated over the next two years from the £55m so that they can plan accordingly.

"Nursery schools are increasingly worried about their future viability and we need strong support from ministers for nursery schools to give a clear signal to local government that these institutions should be safeguarded in any budget decisions.

"The government must get enough funding to all providers to make their childcare plans work. At the moment, they are threatening the future viability of nursery schools because they cannot make their sums add up."

Last month, the government announced it will hold a consultation on the future funding arrangements for nursery schools soon.