Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school-based nurseries were created under the school-based nursery capital grant for 2024-25 that replaced an existing private nursery in the same location.

High-quality early years education is central to our mission to break down barriers to opportunity, give every child the best possible start in life, and is essential to our Plan for Change. This government is boosting availability and access through the school-based nurseries programme, supporting school led-provision and private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers and childminders operating from school sites. There is no available data on any replacement of provision.

27 of the 300 successful schools in Phase 1 are working in partnership with a private, voluntary or independent provider, and schools can continue to partner with them and childminders for future phases. For Phase 1 of the programme, local authorities had to confirm childcare need for the proposed projects. In further phases, we have strengthened their role, asking them to confirm that any new nursery will enhance the local offer and not displace quality provision already in place.

We have already made a real impact, delivering a reported 5,000 new nursery places through Phase 1, and are due to announce successful projects for Phase 2 soon.