MP Theresa Villiers has welcomed the Government finally giving supplementary funding to Barnet’s maintained nursery schools, after her long campaign for them to receive the money.
Following a consultation, Ministers this week confirmed an extra £10 million nationally for the sector and a reallocation of funding between schools in different areas. All maintained nursery schools will now receive a minimum of £3.80 per hour.
This good news means Brookhill, Hampden Way and St Margaret’s nursery schools, which together make up the Barnet Early Years Alliance (BEYA), will be given supplementary funding for the first time.
Along with Moss Hall in North Finchley, they were not given even these limited resources, despite similar schools in other areas were.
Theresa has worked for several years to support BEYA and to address this unfairness, alongside Mike Freer, MP for Finchley & Golders Green. These local nursery schools often have extra costs to meet because they look after many children with special needs. The sector lost out when the Department for Education's funding formula changed in 2017 and, ever since, their budgets have been under increasing stress.
“I am really pleased our local maintained nursery schools will now receive supplementary funding for the first time. I thank Ministers for listening and acting,” said Theresa.
“It has been a long campaign but this is real progress. It was not fair that these schools which do so much important work in our communities were excluded from funding for so long.
"I raised this issue in Parliament and met with successive Education Secretaries and Ministers to urge them to save Barnet's maintained nursery schools. I had lengthy discussions with Rishi Sunak on this when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and I thank him for intervening directly to try to resolve the issue."
“That said, the early years sector, like everyone else, is being hit by the inflation caused by the Ukraine war; and so I will continue to campaign for investment in childcare and early years education. But it is good news that BEYA will at last receive much-needed funding support.”
