Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of areas with an identified need for 0-4 year old child care do not have spare classrooms at schools.

The department is creating 6,000 new nursery places in schools across the country in the first wave of 300 school-based nurseries, backed by £37 million of funding. Up to 4,000 places will be available from this September, helping to grow our vibrant childcare market which gives parents access to provision where they need it, including through school and private, voluntary and independent partnerships. Overall, 641 schools applied for this first phase of funding and a further 592 registered their interest in future phases.

In order to ensure local alignment between need for childcare and school spaces, each school involved outlined how their proposals addressed local demand and secured local authority approval to use surplus space for nursery expansion. This comes alongside the department’s regular consideration of published data such as Childcare Sufficiency Assessments and school capacity.

The department will continue working closely with the early years sector to scale the programme effectively, subject to the spending review, ensuring new provision meets the needs of children, parents and schools, and works within the local market.