Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have held with (a) local authority leaders, (b) staff and (c) parents on the future funding of maintained nursery schools in (i) Salford and (ii) England; and if he will make a statement.

Since my appointment, I have held the following meetings and visits involving local authority leaders, staff and parents regarding maintained nursery schools (MNS) and local authority maintained nurseries.

• The City Mayor of Salford, nursery representatives and parents.

• The Mayor of Greater Manchester.

• Headteacher of Castle Vale Nursery School & Children’s Centre, Birmingham.

• Headteacher and staff at Lanterns Nursery school, Winchester.

• Headteacher and staff at Hindley Nursery School, Wigan.

• Headteacher and staff at Rothesay Nursery School, Luton.

• The All Party Parliamentary Group for Nursery Schools and Nursery Classes.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has visited and met with staff at Rothesay Nursery School in Luton and Martenscroft Nursery school in Manchester. My right hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards held a roundtable with a group of headteachers to discuss school funding, which was attended by the headteacher of Castle Vale Nursery School.

We recognise that MNS are an important part of the early years sector and make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. We are providing around £60 million a year to local authorities to enable them to maintain funding levels until at least 2020 and have commissioned new research that will help us establish an evidence-base to inform long-term policy for maintained nursery schools.