Up to 7,000 additional school nursery places are set to be created across England by September 2026, as the government unveils a new £45 million investment in early years education.
The Department for Education (DfE) has allocated the funding to establish a further 300 school-based nurseries, building on the 300 already supported in the initial phase of the programme.
Schools will be invited to bid for grants of up to £150,000 to either create new nursery facilities or expand existing ones.
Priority will be given to applications from schools serving some of the most disadvantaged communities, aiming to ensure equitable access to early education
Announcing the plans, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “School-based nurseries can offer a nurturing and stable environment for children that carries through into primary, and a helping hand for working parents tackling dual drop off.
“Delivering more school-based nurseries – under our Best Start umbrella – means more choice and convenience for parents, and more opportunities to target parts of the country where families are most in need of additional support.”
In October last year, schools were able to bid for a share of £15 million to deliver an initial 300 school-based nurseries. This was then increased to £37 million in April this year to help with the full rollout of the Government’s childcare offer for September 2025.
That first phase created an additional 4,000 school-based nursery places for this school year, the Government said. Of the 300 funded for September 2025, 189 are set to be up and running this month, the Government said.
This comes in the same week as the latest part of the Government’s funded childcare rollout. As of September 1, eligible working parents in England are able to access 30 hours a week of free childcare for children older than nine months.
Jane van Zyl, chief executive at Working Families, said: “Quality, affordable childcare is one of the biggest barriers to work, so steps that make it more accessible will boost labour market participation as well as family incomes.
“For parents with school-age children, co-located nursery provision can make daily logistics more manageable, which makes a real difference to working lives.”
Purnima Tanuku, executive chairwoman for the National Day Nurseries Association, welcomed the creation of more early education places, but said school nurseries still only offer a small minority of early years places.
“Nurseries have worked hard to meet the ambitious expansion by September, but due to workforce pressures, we know that around 70% of nurseries are not operating at full capacity as they are carrying an average of four vacancies,” she added.
Earlier this week, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) warned that workforce challenges must be addressed to ensure the early years sector can recruit and retain staff to meet the demands of the full rollout of the childcare expansion.
While growth in staff numbers is currently “on track” to meet the Government’s estimated targets for the childcare expansion, the NFER report has warned that this “may not necessarily continue”.
Early years teachers in disadvantaged communities will be offered a £4,500 payment in an effort to attract staff to nurseries.
