Speaking at the Labour Party Conference today (25/09/24), the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced schools will be invited to bid for a share of £15 million in capital funding to run up to 300 school-based nurseries, under the first round of the initiative, from October.
The sector has reacted with caution, urging the Government to ensure the policy is planned properly to avoid 'unintended consequences’, and warning that it can only be successful with enough educators to deliver the childcare places.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), said, ‘The announcement of 300 nurseries in schools from September next year needs to be planned properly to avoid any unintended consequences. The early years sector is already struggling with a workforce crisis and underfunding of places for three and four-year-old children.’
Similarly, Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance (EYA), said, ‘While increasing physical capacity must undoubtedly play a role in meeting rising demand, such action can only ever be effective if we have enough educators to deliver these places. It is therefore critical that steps are also taken to address the sector’s longstanding staffing challenges – namely, a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy – alongside funding that reflects the costs of delivering high-quality early education in the long term. ‘
The same concerns were raised by the National Association for Headteachers (NAHT), which warned that meaningful action to tackle the workforce crisis faced by the sector is ‘key’ to the policy.
Don't threaten existing early years providers
Both the NDNA and EYA stressed how currently PVI providers deliver the majority of the country’s childcare and early years places, so they should be ‘central to any reform’ and the Government must ensure their sustainability is not threatened by any new nursery that is created or ‘displace staff’.
Save the Children highlighted how the new classroom-based nurseries should be in areas of ‘acute need’ and that providers must be ‘funded sufficiently.
NDNA’s chief executive, Purnima Tanuku, added that many PVI providers are keen to expand, but unable to get any capital funding, a situation, which she said should be addressed immediately to create a ‘level playing field for all providers to meet demand’.
Supporting disadvantaged children
Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust argued that a plan is urgently needed to ‘equalise’ entitlements for children from poorer backgrounds.
‘For a Government saying it will break down barriers to opportunity, this is the wrong approach. Without action, we are likely to see disadvantaged children falling further behind their peers’, he said.
