
Save maintained nursery schools
Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) are under threat of closure due to chronic underfunding by the Government.
We need urgent funding for early years and maintained nursery schools now to prevent closures in this vital sector.
Nursery schools give children the best start in life. After years of chronic underfunding, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the very survival of nursery schools and the sector is under threat.
We are calling for:
Immediate provision of emergency funding to cover additional costs incurred due to Covid-19.
A long-term funding formula for maintained nurseries and the early years sector to maintain funding and cover additional costs.
Funding allocations maintained for nurseries on 2019/20 pupil numbers until the pandemic is over.
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Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders have been struggling to survive during Covid-19 for reasons listed below. They have not recovered from the impact of Covid-19 and a fall in demand for childcare places since the first lockdown last March. Now, the Government has decided to fund nurseries on actual numbers of children attending rather than continue to fund on pre-Covid-19 levels. This is a problem because funding is based on the number of children in attendance, which is significantly lower because parents are not sending their children due to safety concerns or because their employment status have changed (homeworking). Low attendance will mean that many nurseries will struggle to remain open.
Joint NEU and Unison letter to council leaders on behalf of our members who work in maintained nurseries and early years settings in England.
Joint NEU and Unison letter to the Prime Minister on behalf of our members who work in maintained nurseries and early years settings in England
Maintained nursery sector (MNS) funding has been based on a stop-gap formula since the introduction of the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF) in 2017. This used “supplementary funding” to nominally keep MNS funding at an equivalent hourly rate to that received in 2016-17, in recognition that the EYNFF would not be sufficient to meet the additional costs which MNS face as schools eg the employment of a head teacher and qualified teachers. This cash-limiting of funding at 2016-17 rates, with no inflationary increases, has effectively meant year-on-year cuts.
Chronic insufficient funding from central Government means the hourly rate received by private nurseries often doesn’t cover the cost of providing childcare. This situation isn’t sustainable. High operating costs, including business rates and increases in staffing costs, staff to child ratios and the administrative burden of delivering funded places and tax-free childcare and difficulties in recruiting staff are putting the nursery sector under considerable strain.
The pandemic has made the situation worse. Increased costs incurred to keep settings Covid-secure; not being able to access additional funding and resources extended to other education settings such as primary and secondary schools; and the loss of parental/additional income have only worsened the perilous funding situation the sector was already under. During the pandemic the Government failed to:
Early years provision in England is a complex patchwork of different types of providers, financed by a variety of funding streams. This mixed market of provision includes private, voluntary or independent (PVI) settings, maintained nurseries, primary schools, children’s centres and childminders. The cost of early years provision is borne partly by parents and partly by Government, through a combination of demand-side and supply-side subsidies.
Government subsidies for early years provision in England consist of both supply-side funding (free entitlement) and demand-side funding (childcare elements of working tax credit and universal credit; employer childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare).
The amount of money that local authorities receive is based on a formula that combines a basic hourly rate with an additional needs factor. The additional needs factor is dependent on, among other things: the number of children with free school meals eligibility; whether children have English as their first language; and whether children are in receipt of the Disability Living Allowance. The basic rate and the additional needs factor are combined and then multiplied by an area cost adjustment to consider the differing costs faced by providers around the country.
Local authorities are legally responsible for ensuring that every child that is eligible for the 15 and 30-hours free childcare entitlement can access a place. Local authorities receive the funding from central Government to provide these places, and in turn, pass the funding they receive on to the front-line providers of childcare services.
We have created a mobilize group for NEU members working in the Early Years Sector. The space is for members to talk about pedagogy, birth to 5 matters, recent events surrounding coronavirus and connect with other members within early years and share resources. You can join the group here.
Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) are under threat of closure due to chronic underfunding by the Government.
Early Years Foundation Stage is a distinct phase of education, with specific values and approaches, not just a preparation for school.