- New school-based nurseries are pushing existing PVI providers operating settings off-site and out of business.
- School-based nurseries duplicating already available provision.
- Concerns that the new policy will reduce rather than increase early education places.
The Government's school-based nurseries policy is pushing private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers currently operating on school sites out of business and leaving others fighting for their survival, as the new settings duplicate existing available provision.
Earlier this month the Department for Education (DfE) revealed the 300 schools that have secured a share of £37 million in Government funding to operate school-based nurseries (SBNs) from September, under the first round of the funding.
Under the policy, schools can work with PVI providers to deliver the new provision. However, of the 300 that have been approved for SBN funding, just 27 (9 per cent) have confirmed they will work with the PVI sector.
While the aim of the SBNs is to increase provision in areas of demand, Nursery World understands that one council used old childcare sufficiency data to inform a school's decision to apply for funding to open a school-based nursery that it will run itself. The school is within half a mile of four PVI settings that have spare capacity.
PVI sector being forced out
In some cases, the SBNs are also leading to the closure of existing PVI settings operating on site.
Some of the schools that have secured funding to open a SBN have existing nurseries on site run by PVI providers whose leases and agreements have been terminated to allow the school to apply for the funding and, in many cases, take over the running of the provision itself. This has meant settings, many of which have been delivering high-quality care and education at the school for decades, have been left to find alternative premises or permanently close.
One setting, Greenshoots Pre-school in Plymouth, which has been operating on a school site since 2010, is due to close in July after the school terminated its lease so it could start its own pre-school with the SBN funding. Greenshoots Pre-school, which supports a lot of children with SEND and is rated Outstanding by Ofsted, has been unable to find alternative premises.
Manager Natalie Landricombe said, ‘I would never have predicted that our thriving pre-school would end like this. All of our hard work feels like it was for nothing, but then I remember that it was all for something – we were making a difference to all of the children and families who shared their journey with us.
‘I have worked in the sector for over 20 years and I have never felt so let down by the system, that this has been allowed to happen and the Government is funding it. We have already lost some staff to seek other employment due to this situation. All staff have worked so hard but are now going to be made redundant. The closure of our pre-school will be a great loss to the local community. I hope this does not happen to more settings.’
Chair of trustees Claire Kilpatrick added, ‘It's heartbreaking that our outstanding pre-school is closing its doors. For the last 14 years it has been a warm, nurturing environment where children thrived, learned and built their first friendships. The dedication of our staff, the joy and the sense of community it fostered made it more than just a pre-school, it was a second home for many families. Its closure leaves a significant void, not just for the children and parents but for the entire community that relied on its kindness, creativity and care.’
Another pre-school, in East Anglia, is also having to close at the end of the summer because the school where it is based is opening a SBN. The private provider is able to deploy staff across the other settings it operates locally.
The Early Years Alliance (EYA) says it is aware of 15 pre-schools operating on school sites that are being forced out as a result of the policy. It has filed a Freedom of Information request to the DfE to uncover the impact of the Government's school-based nursery policy on PVI providers, which it says are ‘central’ to any plans to drive up capacity.
The EYA warned that the creation of school-based nurseries risks reducing the number of early years places rather than increase them as the Government intends.
There are also fears that the provision left in place by schools won't be as flexible and accommodating for working parents.
Nursery World understands that a number of schools taking over the provision from PVI providers plan to operate reduced hours in comparison to what was previously available.
Hatchell Wood Pre-school
In Doncaster, the school that has forced charitable pre-school Hatchell Wood from operating a nursery on the site is believed to be offering morning-only sessions, with the expectation other providers will be able to provide wrap-around care.
The pre-school, which was told it has to cease operating in the summer after running a setting at the school for 32 years, currently offers all-day provision.
Pre-school manager Alison Hatcham and business manager Leah Hartley-Ward have managed to secure alternative premises, but the building needs a lot of work and is a distance away from their current site. They told Nursery World they will have to change their business model in the new premises to take younger children to make ends meet. The pair are looking for donations of resources and any help from tradespeople to ensure the new site is ready to open from September.
Todwick Early Years
Todwick Early Years, a social enterprise in Sheffield, has been told by its local authority, Rotherham, that it will need to change its povision from providing care for pre-school age children to babies from nine months old now that the school in which it operates has secured funding to open a SBN.
The school has successfully secured funding from the DfE to convert a room where it has an unused swimming pool into a nursery for three- and four-year-olds.
Todwick Early Years said the school did not inform it of the grant application decision. It found out when local MP Jake Richards shared the news on social media.
Because Todwick Early Years operates from a modular building, it is not possible to make the adaptions necessary to accommodate younger children. The setting currently provides care for two-to four-year-olds and has been running from the school site since 2004. If it is forced to close due to direct competition from the new school nursery, the local village will be left with no places for two-year-olds.
Director Paul Bradford told Nursery World that it intend to continue to operate the setting as it is now, but this will mean a duplication of places on the same school site.
He said, ‘The council has just assumed we will take younger children without consulting with us first.
‘We feel like we are being used to solve the council's problems of not having enough provision for younger children, but yet they aren't prepared to provide us with any money to accommodate under-twos.’
He also said the DfE's approved school-based nurseries list states that the school has not had a nursery on site before.
Responding, Rotherham Council said it is unable to comment because while the funding for the school-based nursery has been approved by the DfE, the application process for the building to be converted into a nursery has yet to be given the go-ahead by the council. It expects to make a decision in May.
Similarly, the DfE's approved school-based nurseries document also says that Pevensey and Westham CofE Primary School in East Sussex has not had a nursery on site before, whereas this is not the case.
Little Castle Nursery, Penvensey
Little Castle Nursery Penvensey, which has been operating on the school site for 20 years, has now been given notice to cease running its nursery within the school grounds from July now that the school has secured SBN funding from the DfE.
It comes after the current PVI provider was encouraged by the school to buy the nursery from the previous owner in June 2022 after operating from a village hall. The provider was granted a three-year transfer of control agreement (TOCA) for the premises in February 2023 and asked for a longer extension to further develop and expand. Last December, the school gave the provider notice to quit.
Little Castle Nursery has now found alternative premises, but not enough of its existing children are moving with the provider to make the setting financially viable.
Owner Alison Herrod told National Day Nurseries Association, ‘The bottom line for us is that unless we have enough children sign up to our new setting by July, we won't open as we refuse to lose any more money because of the school's actions. After 30 years of early years, I'm done.’
Mossgate Day Nursery, Lancashire
Mossgate Day Nursery was given a ‘substantial’ Government grant almost ten years ago to set up a nursery on school grounds, providing care for two-to-four-year-olds.
Mossgate Primary School has successfully applied for a grant to create a new nursery for around 25 children on site for three and four-year-olds. Lancashire County Council supported their application even though it admitted in an email that the area already had sufficient numbers of places for two, three and four-year-olds, but not under-twos.
The local authority hopes the creation of the SBN will shape the local market so impacted existing providers would offer more places for under-twos.
Mossgate Day Nursery says offering places for under-twos is unviable, however. It is concerned that when the SBN opens, it will lose children and be forced to close.
Director Colin Edwards explained, ‘We opened the nursery just under 10 years ago with the assistance of a substantial Government grant and find it ironic that our existence is being threatened by another Government grant.’
Duplicating provision
Duplication of available places is also an issue for PVI settings located near some of the new school-based nurseries.
James Howlett, director of Nunthorpe Nurseries, told Nursery World they are worried about the future viability of their Acklam nursery, which, along with four other settings within a half-mile radius, have spare capacity, once the nearby school opens its own nursery in September.
This is despite the DfE claiming the SBNs will ‘increase access to childcare in areas where it's most needed’.
The DfE's guidance on establishing SBNs states that schools and local authorities ‘should be confident there is, or will be, a need for additional early education places in the local area’ (see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/establishing-school-based-nursery-provision/establishing-school-based-nursery-provision).
Howlett said, ‘We have a sufficiency of childcare in the area. The local authority will be the first to admit that, yet they have still received a grant to create a school-based nursery.’
He claims that the local authority, Middlesbrough Council, used old data on the number of childcare places when considering whether there would be demand for a school-based nursery.
‘The data that our local authority is working off is pre the new spaces that were created in PVI settings with the capital funding from the DfE. They used the old data to inform the school's decision about applying for funding to open a school-based nursery’, explained Howlett.
He said that when he questioned Middlesbrough Council about the school-based nursery, he was told the school had ‘followed the guidance by consulting with the local authority and following the DfE checklist’. Also, that the ‘role of the local authority is to highlight childcare sufficiency in the area, which was done, and then it is up to schools to assure themselves of numbers and sustainability’.
Nursery World contacted Middlesbrough Council for a comment, but it refused to provide a response.
Howlett said the school-based nursery only has to take a couple of children away from the setting and it won't break even. ‘If every school opens a nursery and takes five children from each of our four settings, that's 20 children lost, which could be the difference between keeping your doors open or not.’
He claims that parents are often attracted to using a school nursery as they mistakenly believe it will guarantee their child a Reception place.
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said ‘many nurseries and networks’ have told it that their ‘parents are under the impression that enrolling their child in a school nursery will guarantee them a place in the school starting from Reception class’.
In some cases, it said providers have told it that some schools are ‘deliberately propagating this myth in order to boost nursery numbers’.
The NDNA has repeatedly warned that the new school nurseries ‘must not damage or undermine established early years settings’. Executive chair Purnima Tanuku said, ‘When this school-based nursery policy was first suggested, NDNA raised strong concerns about how this must not displace or threaten existing high-quality provision. The DfE has repeatedly given us reassurances that projects would have to meet set criteria, demonstrate local need and not damage existing provision.
‘Since the funding award list has been published, we have been contacted by a number of nurseries who will be directly impacted and fear for their own sustainability. This includes nurseries currently operating from school sites that are being replaced or undermined. This will not create new places and may undermine the availability of childcare for families.
‘We are calling on the Government to urgently look at the case studies we have given them and any others in which PVI providers have raised concerns and objections.’
The DfE said that in ‘Phase 1, schools outlined how their proposals met local demand and confirmed local authority approval to use surplus space for nursery expansion. By adding places in areas currently underserved, we're providing parents and families flexibility and choice to use the provision that works for them.’
It added that this is a ‘test and learn phase’ and the department will ‘continue to engage with a range of early years providers ahead of any future phases of the scheme to better understand how partnerships between PVI providers and schools can be utilised most effectively.’
A DfE spokesperson said, ‘Expanding access to high-quality early years education where it's needed most, so every child gets the best start, is vital to delivering our Plan for Change.
‘We continue to value the vital role of private and voluntary providers, who remain central to our childcare reforms, including through targeted funding like the £100 million Childcare Expansion Capital Grant.’
They added, ‘From September, we will be extending funded hours to 30 hours a week. This expansion will help us get a record proportion of children school-ready, hitting key developmental targets.’
School-based nursery applications
According to the DfE, a total of 637 applications were received for funding to open a school-based nursery – five voluntarily withdrew.
Of these, 252 (40 per cent) proposed creating new nurseries, while 385 (60 per cent) proposed expanding their current nursery provision. A total of 42 per cent of applicants planned to offer holiday childcare.
The majority (77 per cent) of school-based nurseries will be run by the school or a multi-academy trust (13 per cent).
Just 9 per cent of school-based nurseries will be run by PVI providers. The remaining 1 per cent will be run by a governor.
592 schools submitted a registration of interest to provide school-based nursery places in the future.
