Warning Northumberland needs huge increase in nursery capacity to meet demand

The Government's free childcare offer is set to expand further from next September

Northumberland urgently needs to increase the number of nursery places in the county in order to comply with new laws around free childcare.

Government analysis found that the county needed to uplift capacity by more than 20% - one of the highest figures in the country - by next September. It comes as new rules around free childcare for young children come into force in a bid to support families.

Eligible working parents can already apply for 15 hours of childcare for children aged nine months to three years old and up to 30 hours for three and four-year-olds. From September next year, children up to three years old will also get 30 hours.

This has long prompted concern in the county - earlier this year, Northumberland County Council secured almost £600,000 to create hundreds of new childcare places in the county. That followed warnings last year that it would be a "challenge" to even recruit the necessary numbers of staff for the sector.

The Government has now made £15 million available for primary schools to support new or expanded nurseries across the country. Schools will be able to apply for grants of up to £150,000.

Announcing the move, Education Secretary and Houghton with Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson said: "All children should have the opportunity of a brilliant early education, no matter who they are, where they’re from or how much their parents earn.

"Our new school-based nurseries will provide thousands of additional places where they are needed most, plugging historic gaps and making sure geography is no barrier to high quality childcare. Whilst some parents may not get their first-choice place next September, I’m determined that every parent is able to access and afford the hours that they are entitled to."

The Government expect that funding will be allocated to successful schools in spring 2025, in order to support the first cohort of places from next September.

Responding to the news, Northumberland County Council's cabinet member for children's services Coun Guy Renner Thompson said: "We welcome the announcement that our schools will have the opportunity to apply for financial support, enabling the further development of nursery provision to meet the increased demands for childcare and early years education.

"We will now be looking at the new supply and demand data from the DfE to identify and prioritise areas for future growth to enable us to work with schools and private early years providers to deliver this.

"Northumberland has an excellent track record in the delivery of early years education with consistently high take up of the early years funded entitlements and above national average numbers of children already accessing their funded entitlements at 2, 3 and 4 years.

"The quality of early years provision in Northumberland is also excellent, with 98.8% of Ofsted Early Years Registered Providers rated as Good or Outstanding in Summer 2024."

Parents use an eligibility code to allow local authorities to check whether they are entitled to free childcare under the new rules. The council say after supporting the expansion of provision to meet the increase in demand, 91% of parents have validated their codes to access the support - a figure that is higher than the national average.

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