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Please find a comment from the Early Years Alliance following the confirmation of allocations for the new early years National Insurance contributions grant (2025/26), which is intended to support maintained early years settings to meet the cost of upcoming increases to employers' National Insurance contributions.

The guidance states that this grant is available to early years provision run by:

• schools (both maintained and academies)
• governor-run academies and maintained nursery schools
• all other maintained nursery schools

and does not include private and voluntary settings. 

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

"It beggars belief that the government is willing to provide millions in additional funding to support state-run early years settings with the cost of National Insurance contribution rises, and yet is offering no equivalent support to private and voluntary providers.

"The expansion of the early entitlement offer means that for many PVI settings, government funding now makes up the vast majority of their income. How can it be then, that the Treasury – having failed to reflect these additional costs this year's early years funding rates – has now excluded these providers from the support so readily offered to their state-run counterparts?

"The harsh reality is that for all the current focus on school-based nursery provision, it is the PVI sector that delivers the vast majority of early years places, particularly for younger age groups. As such, if the government is to have any hope of making the expansion of the funded entitlement a success, it surely has no choice but to provide the financial support private and voluntary providers need to remain sustainable. The faster the government wakes up to this reality, the better for everyone."