Empty classrooms in to nurseries?

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the Labour Party conference that the extra nursery places promised during the election will start opening next year.

From next month, primary schools will be able to bid for a share of £15 million capital funding to convert empty classrooms into 300 nurseries, an average of £50,000 per school.

Schools with existing nurseries will be allowed to bid to expand their provision and these expanded nurseries will count towards the 300 target, with funding allocated to successful schools in spring 2025 to support the first phase.

Schools will need to demonstrate how their proposals will respond to need in their local area, supporting the 2025 expansion of government-funded hours of childcare and early education for working parents to 30 hours a week. Schools will either be able to run the nurseries themselves or contract them out to private or voluntary sector providers.

The first phase will enable better understanding of how to support underserved and poorer areas and schools will also be able to express interest for future phases of the programme to help assess demand in different parts of the country.

Schools interested in bidding for the first round have been urged to start discussing with their local authorities, governing organisations and wider stakeholders to consider pupil place planning, local childcare sufficiency and next steps for setting up and running new or expanded nurseries. Guidance to support schools will be issued when the funding round launches.