Securing the long-term future of maintained nursery schools remains a high priority for NAHT.

While we welcomed the government’s recent announcement that they would be extending the supplementary funding nursery schools receive, we remain clear that there needs to be a sustainable long-term solution. Maintained nurseries cannot survive on short-term measures and warm-words alone.

Last week, we joined a coalition of key stakeholders in writing to the Minister responsible for early years to raise this issue.

We welcomed his public commitment to maintained nursery schools but reiterated the need for a long-term solution. We also took the opportunity to raise a number of related issues, including the fact that the supplementary funding has not risen in-line with inflation and has therefore been subject to a real-terms cut in recent year.

We asked that the minister make contact with local authorities (LAs) to reiterate the government’s commitment to nursery schools. We have become concerned about the number of LAs that have been contacting nursery schools asking them to make contingency plans should the supplementary funding be stopped. This clearly runs counter to the government’s recent announcement and places unnecessary stress on leaders in those schools.

In February, the NAHT Early Years Council will be meeting with the Minister and we will use the opportunity to reinforce these points.

First published 17 January 2020