Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing funding for maintained nursery schools to support the implementation of the recent pay rise for public sector workers.

The government recognises that maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and provide valuable services, especially in disadvantaged areas.

All nurseries, including maintained nursery schools, are benefiting from the continuation of early years entitlement funding during the COVID-19 outbreak. On 20 July, we set out our plans for funding local authorities and providers in the autumn term which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/use-of-free-early-education-entitlements-funding-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

On 24 August, we announced that local authorities will continue to receive supplementary funding for their maintained nursery schools for the whole of the 2020-21 academic year. What happens after the 2020-21 academic year will be determined by the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The announcement can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/early-years-support-package-to-help-close-covid-language-gap.