Primary schools are being closed, merged and shrunk as councils across England respond to falling numbers of pupils due to the falling birth rate as well as family upheaval triggered by rising costs, Brexit and Covid...
Early years funding rates uplift ‘not enough’ to prevent closures, providers warn
A Department for Education uplift of early years funding rates worth £400m will “fall short” of what providers need to deliver the government’s planned expansion of the funded childcare offer, sector leaders have said...
More than three children are competing for every early years place, study warns
Poorer families are more likely to be unable to access childcare provision as deprived local authorities are most likely to be struggling to deliver high levels of provision, according to research from the New Economic...
Free childcare for 30 hours a week? It sounds too good to be true – and for worse-off families, it is
Free childcare! Thirty hours a week from nine months until primary school was the eye-catcher in the chancellor’s spring budget. Was this, finally, Scandinavian-quality nurseries? No, sadly. Read the full article on...
Early years funding rates uplift ‘not enough’ to prevent closures, providers warn
A Department for Education uplift of early years funding rates worth £400m will “fall short” of what providers need to deliver the government’s planned expansion of the funded childcare offer, sector leaders have said...
Childcare: £400m to expand free scheme in England
The government is to invest £400m in its plans to expand free childcare for working parents in England from April. The Department for Education (DfE) has also announced an increase in funding rates for nursery places...
