Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of ending the supplementary funding to maintained nursery schools in 2019-20 on the ability of those schools to support children with SEND needs.

Maintained nursery schools (MNS) make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children, including those with special needs and disability (SEND). Many of them also provide specialist SEND support to other providers.

In recognition of the costs that MNS 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. This will enable local authorities to protect MNS pre-EYNFF funding levels until at least 2019-20.

In deciding what should happen after 2019-20, we want to ensure that decisions about the future of MNS are based on evidence. Therefore, we have commissioned new research on the value offered by MNS, which will be published over the winter.