The plan to concentrate a wide range of services, including childcare, in clusters of extended schools lies at the heart of the recent Government Green Paper, Every Child Matters, and has the potential to redraw the childcare map in England.
The first 61 sites for extended schools, which will also offer health and social care, lifelong learning, family support, sports and arts, have already been identified and the Government aims to have at least one in each local education authority by 2006.
Nursery chains, which in some areas are already facing falling occupancy levels because of over-provision, must decide whether to embrace the Government's latest initiative. Should they regard this as a commercial opportunity for expansion or a threat to their operational strategies?
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