Last week the Department for Education revealed the specific figures for early years funding increases that had first been announced in the budget and that come into effect from April 2022 onwards. 

The top line figures were that council rates for 3- and 4-year-olds will increase by 17p per hour in most areas, while rates for two-year-olds will increase by 21p per hour. The full breakdown of the increases and the new hourly rates can be accessed here.

Meanwhile, the early years pupil premium funding rate will increase next year from 53p to 60p per hour and the disability access funding will go up from £615 to £800 per child. 

Cost of living concerns

While any increase is welcome for the early years sector, as the headteacher of a nursery school, the level of the increase means many providers will still be concerned about their future survival. 

After all, staff salaries, utility bills and food costs have all increased in recent months, so any funding increases are often subsumed into salaries and building costs before they have a chance to be spent on anything that can boost the provision on offer. 

Furthermore, the high staff ratio in early years settings means this recent funding increase will unfortunately not be enough due to the many years of limited funding coming into the sector. 

As a nursery school, the overheads are high due to employing qualified teachers and educators, as well as having a headteacher and other staff such as admin and a caretaker. 

Given this, a greater investment in the funding formula to enable the sector to survive is urgently required and long overdue. 

No better off

Unfortunately, this lack of investment continues to create additional pressure on an already fragile sector. For example, some local authorities reduce the supplementary funding if the base rate goes up, which in turn cancels out any rate increases.

This means that some nursery schools are in effect no better off through the funding increases. 

From April 2022 there is an inflationary increase to the supplementary funding (3.5 per cent) but this still needs to be checked so that the formula doesn’t result in losing out on the hourly rate increase in any way. 

In recent years, many nursery schools have undertaken staffing reviews to survive as funding into the sector has been limited compared to funding into the primary school sector. 

For example, the recent recovery funding accessed by primary schools is not available to nursery schools, which seems like an oversight as that funding would support many nursery children located in disadvantaged and challenging areas.

It’s not a great picture but, as always, I remain an optimist and hope one day nursery schools and their actual running costs will be recognised and reflected in an appropriate funding formula structure. 

Dr Lesley Curtis OBE is the headteacher of Everton Nursery School and Family Centre