Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, we want to see a level playing field and to create a fairer system of distributing early years funding across all providers by improving the fairness and transparency in how that funding is allocated to providers who deliver the free entitlement. Funding should be based, primarily, on participation rates and not the number of places available. That will enable additional funding to be targeted at the most disadvantaged children. A presumption against the closure of maintained nursery schools is already clearly set out in statutory guidance. Maintained nursery schools are required by law to have a head teacher, and we have stated clearly in guidance that this cost should be reflected in the new funding arrangements, meaning that they are still likely to be funded at a much higher level than any other early years setting. I noted carefully the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, made about the centres of excellence. We do not have a legal definition for those centres, but in listening I understood the point that she made and, indeed, I share her view about the importance of child development. Clearly, the quality of staff and settings are key drivers for improving children’s outcomes and narrowing attainment gaps. That is why we want to encourage local authorities to incentivise and reward maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers—I stress this—for quality provision. We feel it is right that settings with a higher quality of staff should attract more funding, but not that some settings should be given high levels of ongoing financial protection when they could be supported to make reasonable efficiency savings, thereby enabling redirected funding to reach many more children. I hope this gives further assurances that the introduction of this clause is not a threat to the future of maintained nursery schools, or of any other high-quality provision, but that it is, rather, designed to support quality improvement across all early-years settings. I trust that, in the light of those assurances, the noble Baroness would feel capable of withdrawing the amendment.