The new Labour Government has signalled a clear focus on the importance of early years education.
Both the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have stressed that they want there to be no barriers to opportunity for every child, regardless of their background.
Phillipson held a live online Q&A with the sector.
Labour’s key early years pledge before the election was to open 3,334 ‘school-based nurseries’in unused classrooms across England, providing 100,000 places. They said this would help tackle ‘childcare deserts’, typically in deprived areas where private and voluntary nurseries struggle to survive.
With this ‘reset’ on policy for early years, we wanted to carry out a snap poll to find out your initial thoughts about the pledge, with the caveat that it is early days and we don’t yet have much detail on these plans.
We do know schools will be given £40,000 to convert an empty classroom into ‘school-based nurseries’, which Labour has said could be run by schools or in partnership with local private and voluntary providers.
How would it work?
Uncertainty among the sector about the policy appears borne out by our findings, which reveal that most respondents do not think the idea of classroom-based nurseries is ‘a good idea’, or are ‘not sure’ about the policy.
We asked respondents to leave comments explaining their views, and whether they saw the scheme as an opportunity to expand their provision.
Many asked how the scheme would work, as well as concerns, particularly among private and voluntary owners and managers and childminders, about how very young children would be cared for within a school.
However, a key reason for the negative responses and uncertainty around the plan could be simply down to the lack of available information as to, for example, how the funding arrangements and logistics of the scheme would work for PVI providers setting up in partnership with schools to provide early education.
Some comments also clearly show that some providers have great concerns about how bringing more early years children into the school system will impact their own survival, with some viewing it as a threat to their business.
The concept of nurseries working with schools to offer early years provision on school sites, particularly for children aged two and over, is not a new one. Some negative comments revealed providers’ own previous bad experiences of working with schools.
It is fair to say that many PVI providers, whether nurseries, pre-schools or childminders, have felt that they have been ignored by previous governments that have focused on schools at the expense of the early years.
This, rather than the policy itself, has no doubt contributed to negative responses.
Labour clearly has a chance now to turn this around and give our overlooked sector the funding, support and love it needs.
Key findings
A total of 276 people took part in the survey, which ran online from 18-23 July; we received 226 complete responses:
- childminders (40 per cent)
- nursery owner/ managers (37 per cent)
- pre-school owners/managers (12 per cent)
- school leaders in maintained schools (11 per cent).
Of the early years providers that took part, most (93 per cent) operate between one and four settings, while 5 per cent run between five and 19 settings.
We also asked providers how they would describe the area they were based in, whether ‘deprived’, ‘affluent’, or ‘neither’.
Among all respondents, when we asked whether the plan was a good idea, 68 per cent said ‘no’, compared with 18 per cent who said they were ‘not sure’ and 14 per cent who said ‘yes’.
When we asked whether they would consider operating a classroom-based setting, 14 per cent said ‘yes’, 71 per cent said ‘no’, while 15 per cent replied ‘not sure’.
One respondent, a pre-school owner/manager, suggested that the policy could be beneficial for pre-schools who are ‘really struggling to make ends meet.’
A school leader in a deprived area within the South-West, who took part in the survey, said, ‘No empty classrooms, and not set up for early years, babies etc. We are a school, and our goal is to improve the outcomes for our children, not to have a harder job by having nurseries. The private sector is where this should happen, not schools.’
However, the majority (79 per cent) of respondents said they have never run a nursery on a school site before.
When asked if they viewed the policy as an opportunity to expand their provision, 77 per cent of respondents said ‘no’, while 9 per cent said ‘yes’ and 14 per cent said ‘not sure’. A total of 212 people answered the question.
We also asked which age group would be most suited to the plan.
Respondents overwhelmingly believe that converted classrooms are more suitable for three- and four-year-olds, rather than those aged two and under.
A total of 95 per cent said the settings would be more suited to three- and four-year-olds. Just 5 per cent said the settings would be suitable for children under the age of two.
Respondents were able to choose more than one age group – under twos, two- to three-year-olds and three- to four-year-olds (see chart).
Many expressed concerns about classrooms not being suitable for very young children when asked what challenges or opportunities the policy could present.
A pre-school owner/manager in the South-East who has previously run a school-based provision questioned what will happen to the converted classrooms if pupil numbers increase in the future.
She said, ‘What happens when numbers increase and the school wants it back, this happened to us after years of using a room and part of the playground, the school took it back, we lost everything that we had put into the playground.’
Similarly, a nursery owner/manager said, ‘Past experience tells me that schools use PVIs to set up provision in school then take them over once running successfully.’
Other challenges cited by respondents included the classroom nurseries being direct competition to their own settings and not being able to find enough staff to operate.
Some respondents questioned whether the estimated £40,000 funding to do up each classroom will be adequate, while others questioned whether the provision would be just term-time only.
A nursery manager/owner flagged how operating a setting with just 30 places would not be a ‘viable’ business.
A Department for Education spokesperson said, ‘This Government sees the early years as more than just childcare: it is central to our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.
‘Over the coming weeks and months we will set out plans for reform, and have already begun completely resetting relationships and ways of working with the early years sector, so they feel supported and valued.
‘We will engage closely with schools, local authorities and private, voluntary and independent providers as we begin to deliver the new nursery places we know are so desperately needed.’
Emma Davis, who was a nursery manager for ten years before leaving to become an education lecturer, added, ‘I think it’s also important to remember that school-based provision won’t suit all families. There’s something morally questionable about children being in schools from such a young age, even if the provision will be run by PVIs. It just seems a step towards endorsing schools over PVIs.
‘My provision delivered high-quality education and care. This was because of our community-focused ethos, drive to continually raise standards and to be responsive rather than reactive to children’s needs. Such an ethos and culture can be hard to maintain by a PVI provision operating from a school. School policies and initiatives will no doubt influence the provision, particularly concerning when schools aren’t always the most appropriate environments for our very youngest children.’
From the point of view of councils, the Local Government Association (LGA) told Nursery World that providers should be required to consult with the council when they are considering establishing a setting and if this doesn’t ‘align with the needs of the local community and market sufficiency plan, then councils need to be able to refuse the opportunity’.
A spokesperson said, ‘Councils need to be recognised as the strategic lead in the development and maintenance of the early years education and childcare market, as well as be recognised for the skills and expertise that they can bring to the early years system.
‘Councils should also be given the tools, levers and resources to support the market, improve and maintain quality of [the] early years. This includes having formal processes, supported by changes in guidance and legislation, to ensure they can develop the early years education and childcare market.’
We asked respondents to our survey to give their reasons in response to the idea, challenges and opportunities of school-based nurseries. Here are some of the comments we received.
Do you think the Government’s plan to create school-based nurseries withinempty classrooms is a good idea?
YES: ‘BUT they should properly fund existing early years teaching schools, as these are often based in deprived areas and provide an excellent service that is teacher-led and supports families and their communities. Funding has been stripped back so much these are now on their knees, yet they provide such a vital service, already exist and would not require investment to set up. They just need funding properly! If the Government intends to put nurseries in schools they MUST be teacher-led and properly funded, as often these are increasingly schools running them as a business by people who do not have QTS.’
School leader in a maintained school, deprived area, East of England
YES: ‘Good for raising the profile of EYFS as a profession.’
School leader in a maintained school, deprived area, London
NOT SURE: ‘A pre-school environment should be very different in physical structure and pedagogy to that of a school environment. If the indoor and outdoor spaces can be adapted to provide age-appropriate, free-flow learning spaces, with attuned and early years trained practitioners, then the Government’s plans could work. However, if the spaces remain like a school layout, with a 1:13 ratio through the use of Level 6 and Level 3 practitioners, then the experience of play and good SEMH [social, emotional and mental health] for our youngest children would be sadly compromised.’
Childminder, South West
NOT SURE: ‘It depends on the staffing. Early years settings stand or fall on the quality of the staff.’ Nursery owner/manager, affluent area, London
NOT SURE: ‘No clear plans on what hours they are going to operate or what age group this is really talking about. Nursery / Early Years provision covers 0-5, with this age group and range requiring a specific environment. Parents need more than school hours and children don’t deserve to be passed from one environment / setting to another throughout the working day. A classroom-based environment for one- or two- year-olds will not develop the child faster or better.’
Childminder, affluent area, East Midlands
Please describe your experience running a nursery on a school site
‘We deliver projects in partnership with schools to promote school readiness. From my experience and from speaking to Reception staff, early years provision is at the bottom of the school’s priority. I have also experienced reception teachers frustrated and struggling to implement quality EYFS as there is pressure from senior school staff to start formal learning and lack of understanding of the early years.’
Childminder, Yorkshire & Humber
‘PVIs won’t move into school premises as their autonomy would be stripped from them, as essentially they would have to fall under the remit of the school governors and head. You cannot expect a business owner to fall under the rule of a school and run their own business effectively. Our rules differ from those of a school. When sharing space previously as out of school provision, in multiple sites, head teachers have been “frosty” to our presence and have tried to repurpose spaces to justify our reduction in size or eventual closure.’
Nursery owner/manager, deprived, East Midlands
What challenges/opportunities do you think operating a nursery from an empty classroom would provide?
‘Some pre-school age children would and do thrive in a classroom-based setting in preparation for starting school, but some children need more 1 on 1 and home environments which I don’t feel can be recreated in a classroom-based setting. I worry children will just become a number and not an individual with their own needs and requirements being met.’
Childminder, East Midlands
‘Many! It would all depend on how this would affect policy, guidance and how the setting would be able to operate within a school setting.’
Nursery owner/manager, affluent area, South-East
‘Challenges include schools viewing this as a simple revenue stream without recognising the distinction between Foundation, Year 1, and Year 2. There are no business rates involved. There is an opportunity to work in close partnership with schools to serve the community by providing comprehensive care for the entire family.’
Nursery owner/manager, London
‘It would be great to offer a variety of services to families with toddlers and two- to three- year-olds on a school site. It will take quite a lot of investment to equip the space with access to the outdoors so it is genuinely appropriate and that parents would want to use.’
‘Developmentally inappropriate space. Tensions between outcomes-oriented school leaders and developmentally appropriate practice led by early years professionals.’
‘Qualified early years practitioners are hard to find, the children need free flow into a good outdoor space, funding isn’t enough. Could be an affordable space to rent for a private nursery.’
School leader, deprived area, London
‘No empty classrooms, and not set up for early years, babies etc. We are a school and our goal is to improve the outcomes for our children, not to have a harder job by having nurseries. The private sector is where this should happen, not schools.’
School leader in a deprived area, South-West
Do you see this as an opportunity to expand?
NO: ‘I have run our setting for 29 years, a school-based opportunity would be too risky for all the hard work to build and then see the rug pulled out from you.’
Nursery owner/manager, affluent area, London
‘I see it as a risk we’ll be put out of business. I also see it as a failure on the government’spart as they are not supporting existing nurseries therefore potentially reducing provision.’
Nursery owner/manager, East of England
NOT SURE: ‘Depends on the head’s attitude, and what will the funding/VAT/business rates position be?’
Nursery manager/owner, South West
YES: ‘If funding to expand is also available.’
Nursery manager/owner, affluent, South East
