Nurseries being forced to move out of schools as Labour policy backfires ...Middle East

Private nurseries are being driven out of their premises in areas that are already “childcare deserts”, as a direct result of Government early years education policy, The i Paper has been told.

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.

But the plan is hitting private nurseries and playgroups that use state school buildings and are now being told to vacate them by academy trusts and local authorities that want to open their own childcare provision, under the Government plan.

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.

The Government says school based nurseries are allowed to open during school holidays and have been given guidance to help, if they wish to do so.

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.

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) says it already knows of at least nine private nurseries that are at risk of closure – or have already closed – due to schools applying for nursery funding.

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.

The NDNA said there were cases of nurseries threatened by the loss of premises in The Wirral, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, East Sussex, Suffolk, Leeds and Lancashire.

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.

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.”

The NDNA – a charity representing private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries which make up 38 per cent of England’s early years sector – has “real concerns that the Government funding for school-based nurseries could be used to displace existing high-quality provision nearby”.

“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.

“Government funding must only be used to create genuinely new places, not duplicate what already exists,” she said. “If they do damage existing provision, especially for younger children, it risks worsening childcare deserts instead of fixing the problem.”

Nurseries face closure as owners slash wages in desperate attempt to stay afloat

The 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.

“We have concerns that Labour’s policy to increase nurseries within schools might jeopardise existing provision that’s already in that area,” said chief executive Neil Leitch. “The Alliance knows of cases where schools have given notice to providers.”

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.”

The Department for Education’s (DfE) 2024 childcare and early years provider survey supports these fears, finding that 81 per cent of private nurseries are open during the school holidays compared with just 6 per cent of school nurseries. It also shows that private nurseries are open for an average of 10 hours per day compared to seven hours for school nurseries.

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.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson launched her new school nurseries scheme in October with £15 million funding to set up 300 nurseries across England intended to “provide thousands of additional places where they are needed most”.

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.

“Our landmark school-based nurseries programme will deliver thousands of new places across the country and comes alongside over £2 billion additional funding to support every kind of provider to deliver the places parents need, when and where they need them.

“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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