DfE launches first wave of school nurseries
By Shannon Pite
The Department for Education has confirmed the to receive government funding to repurpose spare space for new or expanded nursery provision, with the majority opening from September 2025 to support the expansion of the early entitlements.  
The Department confirmed that funding for the programme had doubled to £37 million. Overall, the new settings will offer an average of 20 places per site and up to 6,000 new places in total, with up to 4,000 set to be available by the end of September, according to the government.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
"Delivering on our promise of a better early years system is my top priority, which is why we’ve more than doubled our investment in this first phase so thousands more children can benefit from a high-quality early education from this September.
"We said we’d act, and now we have. But this is just the beginning - we’ve set a hugely important milestone to get tens of thousands more children every year school-ready by age 5 as part of our Plan for Change.
"We’re raising the bar for early years, delivering on our manifesto commitments and building a system that gives every child the best start in life."
However, Alliance CEO criticised the government for overlooking the contribution of PVI settings, saying:
"While the government is absolutely right to look at how to improve the availability and accessibility of early years provision, particularly in so-called 'childcare deserts', the fact is that boosting nursery places in primary schools alone simply won't be enough to meet ever-increasing demand.
“With more than three-quarters of entitlement places currently delivered by private and voluntary nurseries, pre-schools and childminders, it's clear that this vital part of the early years sector should be central to any plans to drive up capacity - especially given we're just months away from the final phase of the entitlement expansion and many schools simply do not have the resources, or staff with the necessary skills and experience, to deliver high-quality education and care to under-threes.
"Why, then, is the government continuing to drag its feet on ensuring that PVI providers are both adequately funded and supported to tackle the longstanding staffing crisis?
“Ultimately, if the government is truly serious about breaking down barriers to opportunity, it must come to the realisation that increasing school-based provision can only ever be one piece of a much larger puzzle. Failing to recognise this will simply mean more families will lose out."