11 March 2019 3:00pm
There will be a lobby of parliament and a short march taking place on 11 March to campaign for better funding for maintained nurseries.
Recent changes to the national early years funding system in England have meant that many nursery schools are facing an uncertain future. The funding reforms have resulted in the levelling down of funding for maintained nurseries with those in the private and voluntary sector.
UNISON believes that all early years settings need extra funding to pay staff decent pay and provide quality services to children. However, we also believe that the maintained nurseries need extra as they have unavoidable additional costs, particularly those that are required to employ teachers. Most maintained nurseries are also situated in areas of disadvantage and have a far higher proportion of children with special needs.
Whilst the government has announced some additional funding for nursery schools, this is only short term and no additional funding has been made available for other council run nurseries that are facing closure.
The lobby will take place at 3pm in Committee Room 14 at the House of Commons, followed by a short march to Downing Street. The lobby has been organised by NAHT and the APPG for nursery schools and is supported by UNISON. Many nurseries are organising delegations to the lobby to meet MPs.
The lobby has been organised at very short notice, so please accept our apologies about the limited notice.
More information can be found here:
For more information, please contact b.thomas@unison.co.uk