Observations

The future of maintained nursery schools

1. The petition of the parents, carers, staff and governors of Triangle, maintained nursery school in Lambeth.
2. Declares that we are concerned about the future of maintained nursery schools in England after March 2020 as no guarantee has been given by the Government that adequate funding will continue when supplementary funding ends.
3. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons to urge the Government to take action to ensure nursery schools are financially sustainable for the future.
4. And the petitioners remain, etc—[Presented by Lucy Powell, Official Report, 5 February 2019; Vol. 654, c. 295.]
5. [P002370]
6. Other petitions on the same terms from the hon. Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) are: [P002424], [P002425], [P002370], [P002371], [P002372], [P002373], [P002374], [P002375], [P002376], [P002377], [P002378], [P002379], [P002380], [P002381], [P002382], [P002383], [P002384], [P002385], [P002386], [P002387], [P002388], [P002389], [P002390], [P002391], [P002392], [P002393], [P002394], [P002395], [P002402], [P002403], [P002404], [P002405], [P002406], [P002407], [P002409].
7. Petitions in the same terms were presented by the hon. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) [P002421], [P002422], [P002423]; the hon. Member for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas) [P002312]; the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) [P002313]; the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) [P002314], [P002321]; the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) [P002315]; the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) [P002316], [P002317], [P002318], [P002327], [P002344]; the hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) [P002319], [P002320], [P002322]; the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey) [P002324]; the hon. Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda) [P002325]; the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) [P002326]; the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Dame Louise Ellman) [P002328]; the hon. Member for Burnley (Julie Cooper) [P002329], [P002340], [P002342], [P002343], [P002345], [P002346]; the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) [P002330], [P002332], [P002333], [P002334], [P002335]; the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Graham P. Jones) [P002331]; [P002349]; the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) [P002336], [P002337]; [P002397]; the right hon. Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon) [P002338]; the hon. Member for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) [P002339]; the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) [P002341], [P002347]; the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill) [P002348]; the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes) [P002350]; the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Craig Tracey) [P002351]; the hon. Member for Luton South (Mr Shuker) [P002352], [P002408], [P002417]; the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) [P002353], [P002354], [P002355]; the hon. Member for Lincoln (Karen Lee) [P002356]; the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson) [P002357], [P002358], [P002359], [P002360]; the hon. Member for Gateshead (Ian Mearns) [P002361]; the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Vicky Foxcroft) [P002362]; the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) [P002363], [P002364]; the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) [P002365], [P002366]; the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) [P002367]; the right hon. Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett) [P002368], [P002369]; the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds) [P002396]; the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly) [P002398]; the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Melanie Onn) [P002399]; the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford) [P002400]; the hon. Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) [P002410]; the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) [P002411]; the Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury, the hon. Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer) [P002412]; the hon. Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) [P002413], [P002414], [P002415]; the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) [P002416];
8. Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi):
9. Maintained nursery schools make a valuable and high quality contribution to supporting some of our most disadvantaged children. Many of them have specialist skills and knowledge in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities, and many of them share this expertise with other early years providers.
10. In acknowledgement of the costs that maintained nursery schools experience over and above other early years providers, the Government are providing local authorities with around £60 million a year in supplementary funding, to enable them to maintain the funding of maintained nursery schools.
11. On 28 February, the Government announced that this arrangement would be extended from March 2020 to August 2020, to enable local authorities to maintain the funding of maintained nursery schools for the whole of the 2019-20 academic year. This means that local authorities can allocate places in maintained nursery schools for September 2019 without uncertainty over the summer term in 2020. The cost of this extension will be around £24 million.
12. What happens after the 2019-20 academic year will be determined by the next spending review, and informed by new research published on 28 February on the services, costs and quality of maintained nursery schools.