Nursery World - Nursery schools under threat, report warns

Nursery schools are increasingly at risk of closure, a new survey
reveals.

A report from Early Education to be published this week, Maintained Nursery Schools: a hidden asset, highlights the fragility of nursery schools' existence in an era of local authority cuts and Government pressure on schools to expand Reception classes and push more children into schools earlier.

Some local authorities are also weighing up their options and considering whether to merge maintained nursery schools with local primaries.

The report, based on the organisation's membership survey with responses from 127 nursery schools, seeks to identify the current health of nursery schools, the challenges they face, and the wider contribution they make.

Early Education chief executive Beatrice Merrick said, 'Our survey shows how maintained nursery schools are on a knife edge, threatened by cuts in local authority funding. Often these cuts are based on the flawed premise that nursery schools are just one more form of childcare, and that funding levels for all providers should be the same.'

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