Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to consider extending the transitional funding for maintained nurseries to include children's centres providing early years education as part of the Early Years National Funding Formula review.

The £55 million additional funding for maintained nursery schools for at least two years will provide them with stability while they explore how to become more sustainable in the longer term. We plan to consult the sector on the future of nursery schools in further detail, including what happens after this two year period, in due course.

Children’s centres are funded through the Business Rates Retention Scheme and local authorities have the freedom to decide what services are appropriate to meet local needs. Our early years funding proposals, on which we recently consulted, are designed to maximise the funding that goes to the front-line, including children’s centres where they provide early education. We will issue our response later in the autumn.