Up to 4,000 childcare places are set to be rolled out at new or expanded school-based nurseries in England from September.
The Department for Education (DfE) has approved the first round of funding for 300 school-based nursery projects across England.
Each successful school – which were able to apply for up to £150,000 – will receive the amount of funding they bid for to repurpose or extend existing spaces and deliver childcare provision.
The first 300 school-based nurseries, which will be located in towns and cities across the country, from Exeter to Newcastle, will offer an average of 20 places per site and up to 6,000 new places in total – with up to 4,000 set to be available by the end of September, the DfE said.
It comes after schools were able to bid for a share of £15 million funding in October to deliver up to 300 new or expanded nurseries across England.
On Wednesday, the DfE said the funding has been more than doubled to £37 million to help with the full rollout of the Government’s childcare offer.
The expansion of funded childcare – which was introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April last year for working parents of two-year-olds.
Working parents of children older than nine months are now able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families in September.
It comes after Labour said in its manifesto that it would open an additional 3,000 nurseries through “upgrading space” in primary schools.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Delivering on our promise of a better early years system is my top priority, which is why we’ve more than doubled our investment in this first phase so thousands more children can benefit from a high-quality early education from this September.
“We said we’d act, and now we have. But this is just the beginning – we’ve set a hugely important milestone to get tens of thousands more children every year school-ready by age five as part of our Plan for Change.
“We’re raising the bar for early years, delivering on our manifesto commitments and building a system that gives every child the best start in life.”
Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, said: “Parents often struggle with finding good quality childcare, and many will welcome this investment, especially as parents with more than one child may be saved from the mad dash from nursery to school in the morning and afternoon.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “The evidence is clear that high quality early education can make a lasting difference to children’s lives, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“It is therefore extremely positive to see the first wave of new and expanded school-based nurseries being announced today.
“Schools play a vital role in the early years ecosystem, and this should help strengthen that further.”
Alex Armstrong, headteacher at Bloemfontein Primary School in County Durham, who will be using their funding to open a baby room, said: “We wanted to address the shortage of nursery places in our local area and to provide the community with high-quality early education for our youngest learners.”
She said: “There are so many benefits to school-based nursery provision, including continuity for children and their families and the opportunity to develop expert-led learning which will provide our children with strong foundations for lifelong success.”
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance (EYA), said: “While the Government is absolutely right to look at how to improve the availability and accessibility of early years provision, particularly in so-called ‘childcare deserts’, the fact is that boosting nursery places in primary schools alone simply won’t be enough to meet ever-increasing demand.
“With more than three-quarters of entitlement places currently delivered by private and voluntary nurseries, pre-schools and childminders, it’s clear that this vital part of the early years sector should be central to any plans to drive up capacity – especially given we’re just months away from the final phase of the entitlement expansion and many schools simply do not have the resources, or staff with the necessary skills and experience, to deliver high-quality education and care to under-threes.”
