Concern over Labour plan for 100,000 new nursery places

Schools may not have enough space, specialist facilities or staff to deliver the 100,000 new nursery places in England that the government has promised, it is feared.

There are major concerns over the new Labour Party government's plans for nine-month-olds in schools. Schools may not have enough space, specialist facilities or staff to deliver the 100,000 new nursery places in England that the government has promised, it is feared.

Dr Aaron Bradbury, lecturer in early childhood at Nottingham Trent University, said: “You can’t just say: ‘I’ve got a free classroom – let’s turn it into a nursery.’ The space and the facilities you need are completely different.”

He added: “A classroom has got 30 children sitting at tables, but two-year-olds are very different. They need space to develop and learn through play.” Sue Cowley, an expert on behaviour in schools, who has co-run her local preschool for more than a decade, said: “I’m not sure schools will want to take nine-month-olds.

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Under the Labour Party government plan, 3,334 classrooms in existing primary schools will be converted to accommodate 100,000 extra childcare places. Spare capacity is growing in primaries due to falling birth rates. The Department for Education estimates that about 85,000 places are needed for current plans.

Labour said that refurbishing classrooms, which they hope will start within weeks of entering government and be complete well before the end of a first term, would cost an average £40,000 each. The total, £140m, would be funded by the party’s plans to levy VAT on private school fees.

"The ratios of staff to children are really high, so it is tough to make the funding work, and it can be harder to find staff who only want to look after babies.” Cowley said: “For this age, you need lots of space for all the different areas of learning. For instance, inside, we have a sand tray, a climbing frame, a book corner where they sit to read, an art area and so on.”

Early Years Alliance chief exec Neil Leitch has also spoken out and said: “I don’t recall a secretary of state ever saying: ‘My No 1 priority is early years,’ as Bridget Phillipson has.” And he added: “The rhetoric is right and the intention is solid but the narrative of opposition doesn’t necessarily become the reality of office.”