Seven new school-based nurseries approved for Lincolnshire

The group of seven are among 300 being rolled out across the country by the Government, as part of its Plan for Change.

A spokesman for the Labour Party said: “The facilities will help parents get to work, increasing access to childcare when they need it, and support the Government’s promise to put more cash in their pockets, with 30 Government-funded hours of childcare becoming available from September – saving parents up to £7,500 on average.”

The chosen Lincolnshire schools are:

• The Donington Cowley Endowed Primary School
• Friskney All Saints CofE Primary School
• The Gainsborough Hillcrest Early Years Academy
• The Lincoln Manor Leas Infants School
• Malcolm Sargent Primary School, Stamford
• William Alvey CofE School, Sleaford
• Wygate Park Academy, Spalding

Each school will receive funding to re-purpose or extend existing spaces and deliver high-quality provision, the spokesman said. Schools were able to bid for up to £150,000.

Successful schools are now being contacted with next steps to implement their projects, the spokesman added.

The school-based nurseries will offer an average of 20 places per site and up to 6,000 new places in total, with up to 4,000 set to be available by the end of September.

To support the roll-out, funding for the programme has been more than doubled to £37 million, the Labour Party said.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Delivering on our promise of a better early years system is my top priority, which is why we’ve more than doubled our investment in this first phase so thousands more children can benefit from a high-quality early education from this September.

“We said we’d act, and now we have. But this is just the beginning – we’ve set a hugely important milestone to get tens of thousands more children every year school-ready by age five as part of our Plan for Change.

“We’re raising the bar for early years, delivering on our manifesto commitments and building a system that gives every child the best start in life.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “There should be no higher priority for Government than investment in the early years. The evidence is clear that high-quality early education can make a lasting difference to children’s lives, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“It is therefore extremely positive to see the first wave of new and expanded school-based nurseries being announced today. Schools play a vital role in the early years ecosystem, and this should help strengthen that further.”