Rule change over space prompts warning on overcrowding in children's nurseries

Plans to change space requirements for nurseries in England to enable them to offer more childcare places are being considered by the government, prompting warnings about overcrowding.

- Sally Weale

The Department for Education has launched a consultation on whether early years settings should be allowed to include "free-flow" outdoor areas within the required floor space for children aged two years and above.

Early years experts are concerned that the pressure to create more childcare places to meet the government's funded childcare expansion plans is threatening to undermine quality.

In an earlier survey, nurseries said one of the barriers to expanding their childcare provision was physical space, and in particular the indoor floor space requirements set out in the early years foundation stage statutory frameworks.