Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce a new funding settlement for maintained nursery schools.

Maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and provide valuable services, especially in disadvantaged areas. The government announced on 24 August that up to £23 million of supplementary funding will be provided to local authorities to enable them to continue protecting the funding of maintained nursery schools during the summer term in 2021. This provides maintained nursery schools with certainty about funding for the 2020-21 academic year.

What happens after the 2020-21 academic year will be determined by the Comprehensive Spending Review in the context of our priorities across early years as a whole. Future arrangements will be for all maintained nursery schools, including those in Barnet.

This government remains committed to the long-term funding of maintained nursery schools, and any reform to the way they are funded will be accompanied by appropriate funding protections.