Labour has pledged to open more than three thousand new nurseries across England with “spare” school classrooms “converted into high quality spaces for nurseries” and is promising an initial 300 new state nurseries in schools by September.
There are fears that the new school nurseries will not help parents get back to work, as ministers had hoped, as statistics show they are more likely to be closed during school holidays; have fewer, if any, places for babies and have shorter hours than all year wraparound care private nurseries offer.
But if the scheme does end up making the situation worse in “childcare deserts” it could be a significant embarrassment for Labour which had told voters it would “fix” a childcare system the Tories had “broken”. It would also add to the pressure facing Education Secretary Bridget Philipson who has been tipped as a possible casualty in an expected Cabinet reshuffle.
Sources in the sector have told The i Paper they expect this to “get worse” as more schools apply for Government money to open nurseries in classrooms in future funding rounds.
Research mapping the UK’s “childcare deserts” published last year by Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, found that the above areas all had far fewer childcare places than children.
“Extreme” examples include a nursery that has already been forced to shut in an area of East Sussex where there are 4.69 children for every childcare place. Another is under threat in an area of Gloucester where there are 4.44 children for every childcare place.
‘Upheaval’ as Hertfordshire nursery is asked to leave
Jessica Breakwell, manager of Cherry Tree Pre-school in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, has been given notice to vacate a building belonging to Garden City Academy by the end of February.
The primary school wants to run a new nursery provision for two-three year olds in the premises currently used by Cherry Tree, under the Government’s childcare expansion plan.
But Breakwell claims the result will be a cut in the number of local places available for two-year-olds.
“Our priority in that area was specifically to provide vulnerable two-year-old places and that direction came from the county,” she said. Because the nursery is in a pocket of deprivation, moving it would mean “fewer” places for vulnerable children, she added.
Jessica Breakwell and Cherry Tree staff at the nursery’s school location (Photo: Supplied)Cherry Tree, which currently has 28 children on its books, offers up to 30 full-time equivalent places to two-year-olds.
Garden City Academy’s consultation on its new nursery, says it would offer 15 full-time equivalent places for two-year-olds in its new nursery from September 2025.
But REAch2 Academy Trust, which runs the primary, insists that it would offer an “equivalent” provision to Cherry Tree and would extend its full-time equivalent places if required by the community.
The trust confirmed that it had applied for DfE funding but said the new nursery will go ahead “whether we are successful in this funding or not”.
Breakwell is planning to move the Cherry Tree Pre-school into a local scout hut to prevent closure but said: “It will be an upheaval for our children and our families because they’ll be coming into a setting they’ve never been to before.”
She accused the academy trust of “seeing children as pound signs” and attacked the Government for “doling out money to schools to provide something that was already in place”.
“Schools across the country are asking existing provision to move, often forcing closure,” she added. “They are then claiming that there is not enough provision in the area.”
Garden City Academy told The i Paper it had offered to extend the lease until early July “to be as fair as possible to Cherry Tree” but this was rejected.
A spokesperson said: “All the research highlights the critical importance of early years education when it comes to children getting the best start in life, and as an Ofsted-Good school, we took the decision to extend our school offer to include two-year-olds, so that we can form relationships with families even earlier and work together to make sure children get that great start to their education.”
“We have heard from a number of nurseries based on school sites whose businesses are now threatened by the school’s plans to open childcare provision,” said association chief executive, Purnima Tanuku.
Nurseries face closure as owners slash wages in desperate attempt to stay afloat
Read MoreThe Early Years Alliance, which represents 14,000 childcare providers, says it also knows of several instances of members being asked to leave sites to make room for school-based nurseries.
He warned: “At a time when flexible early years provision is needed more than ever, it is uncertain whether schools will be able to offer provision outside of school term time.”
School nurseries also tend to look after older children, with 88 per cent of their registered pupils aged three and four, and just 1 per cent aged under two. At private nurseries, 20 per cent of children are aged under two, while three- and four-year-olds make up 52 per cent of their children.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Through our Plan for Change, we have set out a clear mission to break the unfair link between background and opportunity by increasing access to high-quality early education that gives every child the best start in life.
“School-based nurseries can already operate during the holidays, and we have issued clear guidance to schools interested in expanding to early years provision about working in collaboration with the sector and providing out of term time care.”
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