Management
Capital funding axe may be stayed for six settings
Six settings in Norfolk that were due to miss out on capital funding following Government cuts look set to have won a reprieve after a last-minute rethink by the council.
At a meeting on 23 September, Norfolk County Council decided to concentrate more of its available funding on nursery and pre-school projects, rather than children's centres, on the basis that the nurseries were required to meet childcare sufficiency targets.
The council froze spending on capital projects in August following a reduction by central Government in its Sure Start Quality and Access Funding by a total of £5.168m (News, 15 September).
If the plans are approved, it will mean that nine Phase 3 children's centre projects will be scrapped, while four will go ahead.
Hevingham pre-school will miss out on funding for a new building and will instead be given contributions for minor refurbishments. Catton Grove Primary School, which was due to receive £355,000 to build a new classroom to increase nursery places from 78 to 102, was one of the settings that had its project frozen, but now looks set to receive the funding.
Headteacher Tim Lawes said, 'We had a very compelling case for the reinstatement of this scheme. Now it looks as though it will go ahead, which is great news for us, and even better news for the community. There's very little high quality pre-school provision in this community.'
Alison Thomas, cabinet member for children's services, said, 'In reviewing capital spending across our early years programmes we have thankfully now found a way to save the majority of nursery and pre-school programmes. However, the cut means we are in the regrettable position where we cannot proceed with some of our plans for new Phase 3 children's centres. Children's centre services are running and will continue in all of these areas.'
A decision was being made on the revised plans by the council as Nursery World went to press.
