Neighbourhood Nurseries scheme at a glance

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

* 900 50-place nurseries are to be set up by 2004 in the bottom fifth of deprived wards in England and other pockets of extreme deprivation. These could be in new or refurbished premises. Some nurseries will have a mixture of places, with parents outside the area being charged higher fees. There will also be some three-year funding to subsidise places for poor families in existing provision. * The funds available are 100m of lottery money from the New Opportunities Fund for capital funding, plus Pounds 203m start-up grants from the DfEE over three years. This can be supplemented with loans from banks working with the Government.