Nursery schools 'at risk of extinction', MP warns
Jess Brown
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
The long-term viability and sustainability of nursery schools is "hanging by a thread", Labour's former shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, has said.
Powell, who has taken over as chair of the influential All Party Parliamentary Group on Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes has warned that nursery schools, of which there are currently around 400 across England, could become "extinct", due to government plans to change the way childcare providers are funded.
Under government proposals, outlined in August, all childcare providers, whether they are private, voluntary or maintained, will receive the same funding rate by 2019.
However, there have been concerns from the sector that this will leave nursery schools, which are council-maintained, worse off because they typically have higher costs due to employing higher qualified staff.
Last month, the Family and Childcare Trust found that nursery schools will be worst off from the new proposals, with around a fifth of these providers losing funding.
Powell told delegates at the APPG's meeting in Westminster this week that nursery schools are crucial to tackling social mobility.
"Nursery schools are critical engines of social mobility, narrowing the gap the most for disadvantaged children," she said.
"Yet nursery schools could become extinct due to proposed funding changes. Ministers are levelling down the funding system for the early years to pay for their 30-hour childcare offer, which threatens the future viability of these exceptional institutions doing so much to defeat disadvantage and improve social mobility."
Powell, who has taken over from Conservative MP, Graham Stuart, who chaired the group since its inception in February this year, said rather than focusing on increasing the number of grammar schools, the government should expand the role of nursery schools.
Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead and a member of the education select committee, echoed Powell's concerns.
He said: "There is a real danger we've got exemplars of good practice [in nursery schools], and yet we've got changes to funding that could mean that very good practice is put under threat."
He added that there is a "real danger" nursery schools will see massive cuts to their budgets, and said this was "not acceptable".
The government's consultation states that nursery schools will receive supplementary funding for "at least" the first two years to support them in transitioning to the new universal rate.
But Beatrice Merrick, chief executive of Early Education, said a "long-term solution" is needed.
"The survival of nursery schools rests on funding," she said.
"We welcome a two-year interim solution, but well before the end of that two years we need a long-term solution recognising that nursery schools don't have some set of easy efficiencies ready to be magically put in place.
"They are stretched pretty much as possible as they can be. Instead of focusing on survival and funding, nursery schools should be able to focus on the life chances of our most vulnerable children."
Two leading early years figures this week told CYP Now that the Department for Education is aware of concerns and a consultation on changes to the way nursery schools are funded is set to be launched.
The DfE has declined to comment.