Fears that cash-strapped schools are evicting nurseries and claiming funds for early years care

Scheme designed to increase places may have opposite effect, warn private providers

- James Tapper

A government pledge to create more nurseries has backfired, according to early years providers.

More than a dozen schools are evicting existing preschool providers that operate in classrooms amid concerns they are doing so to access state funding to set up their own provision.

It means that the pledge to create thousands of nursery places may be fulfilled by cannibalising some of the existing preschools, according to the Early Years Alliance (EYA).

The group said in some cases schools were offering less childcare and for fewer children than the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries that previously worked on their premises, so parents would be forced to find childminders to maintain their existing levels of care.

On 2 April the government approved funding for the first 300 school-based nurseries to meet its pledge to create more than 100,000 new places in England for children from nine months old.

Many private nurseries already operate on school premises, and only 9%, or 27, of the 300 schools with funding have confirmed they are working with their nursery tenants.

So far, 15 preschools have contacted EYA to say they had been told they would need to leave at the end of the summer term.

Neil Leitch, EYA chief executive, said ministers had intended the nursery funding to address "childcare deserts", where parents were forced to stay at home rather than work because there was no help available.

"They said they were really keen to work alongside existing providers because, if you're not careful, you risk creating a childcare desert somewhere else,” he said.