Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding from the public purse maintained nursery schools have been allocated in each of the last five years.

Local authorities are responsible for setting the local funding for providers, including maintained nursery schools. The department publishes data from local authority planned early years budget in the Early Years Funding Benchmarking Tool. The tool provides a breakdown of spend by early years provider types, including budget information for maintained nursery schools. The data is as reported by the local authorities and is available at:

2017-18:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-benchmarking-tool.

2016-17:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20171012013325/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-benchmarking-tool.

2015-16:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20161210043156/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-benchmarking-tool.

2014-15:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150603151716/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-benchmarking-tool.

2013-14:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140801043110/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-benchmarking-tool.

The Early Years Funding Benchmarking tool for 2018-19 will be published in due course.

In recognition of the costs that Maintained Nursery Schools (MNSs) experience over and above other providers, we are providing supplementary funding – additional to funding received under the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF) – of around £60 million a year to enable local authorities to protect MNSs pre-EYNFF funding levels at least until 2019-20.

In addition, some MNSs are commissioned by local authorities and others to provide specific services such as continuing professional development for other early years providers. The department does not hold information about this income for nursery schools.