Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of nursery school funding for nurseries in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, and (c) the North East.

Maintained nursery schools make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children, and as is the case for all early years providers, it is for local authorities to decide the rate of funding that they receive. Our supplementary funding of approximately £60 million a year enables local authorities to protect maintained nursery school funding until 2019-20. Budgets after 2019-20 will be set at the next Spending Review.

We continue to work closely with the sector to find the best long-term solution for maintained nursery schools.