Funding for the government’s school-based nursery programme has more than doubled, the Department for Education announced today, with 300 bids having been approved.
Schools taking part in the first phase of the scheme will now get a share of a £37 million funding pot, the DfE confirmed this morning.
Some 300 school-based nurseries have been approved in the first round of funding, with a maximum of £150,000 being awarded per bid. Each school will receive the amount they bid for.
The DfE had previously announced that £15 million was available for the first 300 schools, which would have meant an average of £50,000 per nursery. But with the funding increase, the average amount is now £123,333.
Although the additional investment has been welcomed by the NAHT school leaders’ union, school and multi-academy trust leaders have told Tes that the maximum funding may still not be enough to open high-quality early years provision.
New school-based nurseries
The new school-based nurseries will offer an average of 20 places per site and up to 6,000 new places in total, with up to 4,000 of these set to be available by the end of September, the government said.
Most of the new nurseries opening in this phase are in the North or the Midlands, with around one in 10 of them in the North East.
The DfE said the scheme will “increase access to childcare in cold spots” and “support the communities that need it most”.
The government previously published a by local authority, with Sunderland, the Isles of Scilly and Cumberland requiring the biggest percentage capacity increase by September.
The DfE said it received more than 600 bids to open school-based nurseries, which were ranked by an overall score, with the top 300 being approved. The criteria included value for money, local demand and internal DfE data on school performance.
Funding breakdown
Further analysis of the school-based nursery applications today revealed that the average bidder asked for £119,000 of funding.
Four in 10 bid for the maximum amount of £150,000, with 10 per cent applying for funding of less than £50,000.
The DfE has been approached for comment on how it initially planned to fund the scheme with £15 million, which would have given schools only £50,000 on average to share.
Around 57 per cent of schools that applied were academies and 41 per cent were local authority schools.
However, academies were disproportionately successful in winning the funding, making up 67 per cent of the 300 successful applicants, with LA-run schools comprising the remainder.
The average proportion of pupils receiving free school meals at successful schools is 23 per cent, which is below the national average of 24.6 per cent. However, the government measured deprivation for applicants through the IDACI measure (Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index), which it is yet to publish for the first phase of schools.
Six in 10 applicants wanted to expand existing nursery provision, which reflects the number of successful applicants too.
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Early years workforce challenges
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said delivering a better early years system is her “top priority”.
“We’re raising the bar for early years, delivering on our manifesto commitments and building a system that gives every child the best start in life,” she said.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, welcomed the government’s funding announcement as “extremely positive”.
“Schools play a vital role in the early years ecosystem, and this should help strengthen that further,” he said.
However, Sarah Ronan, director of the Early Education and Childcare Coalition, called for the government to provide a “comprehensive early years strategy that also addresses workforce shortages”.
“If these nurseries get off the ground - and we hope they do - where will the staff come from?” she asked.
Last year Tes revealed findings from the Labour-commissioned early years review, which is yet to be formally published.
In his recommendations, the leader of the review, Sir David Bell, warned that the early years workforce was “underpaid and undervalued” and suggested the government simplify qualifications and improve the quality of training.
The schools approved to open nurseries now have until 9 May to formally confirm their intention to proceed with delivery.
The full list of applications will be published by the government at 9.30am today.
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