Nursery World - Nursery schools need long-term funding resolution to survive, MPs warn Treasury

Maintained nursery schools need long-term certainty about funding if they are to continue to provide vital services to disadvantaged communities during the pandemic and beyond, the APPG for Nursery Schools, Nursery and Reception Classes has warned in a letter to the Treasury.

Sally Leese, head teacher at Castle Vale Nursery School in Birmingham on a march on Downing Street in 2019

In the lead up to the Spending Review this month, APPG officers and MPs have written to the Chancellor to call for a long-term funding settlement for maintained nursery schools (MNS), following a recent survey which revealed that 64 per cent expect to be in deficit in the current financial year.

The Department for Education has yet to propose a viable long-term funding formula for maintained nursery schools to replace the stop-gap arrangements put in place in 2017, but ministers have indicated that proposals are dependent on the spending review.

Delays to a revision of their funding formula has left MNS facing real-term cuts and rising costs over the past four years, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, according to the sector.

Jack Dromey, secretary of the APPG and MP for Birmingham Erdington, told Nursery World, ‘Maintained Nursery Schools have outstanding track records for improving the life chances of some of the most disadvantaged children in the country.

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