Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 1676, for how long he will maintain supplementary funding for local authorities to preserve the funding rates of maintained nursery schools.

The Government recognises that maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and that they provide valuable services to disadvantaged children.

The Government invests approximately £60 million of supplementary funding each financial year for local authorities to preserve the funding rates of maintained nursery schools.

The Government plans to spend £3.6 billion to support early education in the financial year 2020-21. I confirmed details of this spending review in a written statement to the House on 31 October 2019, available here: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-10-31/HCWS56/.