Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has consulted with local early years providers when identifying locations for new school-based nursery provision.

Local authorities are required by legislation to secure sufficient childcare places for children in their area. To be eligible for phase 1 of the school-based nurseries programme, schools had to obtain the endorsement of their local authority by evidencing local early years demand.

Schools were required to confirm that their local authority early years lead and pupil place planning lead were content with their proposal to create new or expanded nursery provision. Local authorities also had the opportunity to provide further comments to the department on any applications from schools in their area, as part of the assessment process.