Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that school-based nurseries opened as a result of the school-based nursery grant are supplementing PVI setting provision.

High quality early years is central to our mission to break down the barriers to opportunity and give every child the best possible start in life and is essential to our Plan for Change. The government is boosting availability and access through the school-based nurseries programme, including school led provision and private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers operating from school sites.

To be eligible for the 2024/25 grant, schools were asked to outline how their proposals met local demand and to confirm that their local authority early years lead and pupil place planning lead were content with their proposal to use surplus space to add new or expanded nursery provision.

We are engaging with the sector, including with PVI providers, on the next phase of the school-based nursery programme which is due to launch in the autumn.