exclusive: how academies dominate government’s new childcare places scheme

Education Uncovered – Revealed: how academies dominate government’s new childcare places scheme – exclusive details at the Education Uncovered news site.

"The academy sector dominated successful bids to operate what are billed as new school-based nurseries, comprising more than two thirds of the projects gaining funding, despite the sector making up less than half of primary schools nationally. 

By contrast, the local authority school sector had only half the number of projects approved that would be expected, given the proportion of non-academy primaries.

Louise O’Hare and Jo Henley of the Public Childcare Now campaign, who carried out the analysis, said the revelations raised questions about the extent to which the new childcare places, which were a pledge in the Labour Party’s manifesto, would be public, rather than private, provision."

Check out Education Uncovered for full details of this research into the Government's school-based nursery scheme:

'Revealed: how academies dominate government’s new childcare places scheme' by Warwick Mansell  (Education Uncovered, 14 May 2025)

https://educationuncovered.co.uk/news/revealed-how-academies-dominate-governments-new-childcare-places-scheme

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'Nurseries in schools - Academisation of Early Years' by Louise O’Hare and Jo Henley, which discusses in the full the findings and concerns regarding the scheme (Education Uncovered, 14 May 2025)

https://educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/comment/nurseries-in-schools-academisation-of-early-years

Education Uncovered is an independent investigative news site run by Warwick Mansell, who was the inaugural winner of the Socialist Educational Association’s award for outstanding investigative journalism last year. The site and all the research is entirely funded by subscriptions.

They are kindly providing access to these articles free of charge to raise awareness and understanding of under-reported issues in early years education. However, if you can, please subscribe – for just 7p a day and you'll receive access to the entire archive and some of the most up to date reporting on academisation and school reform – and perhaps more importantly, be helping this work to continue – supporting vital investigative journalism now so missing from wider mainstream press.

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Image: “Save Early Years” NEU demonstration, Parliament Square during General Election, 29 June 2024. Photograph: Rehan Jamil

Image: An illustration of a talk Warwick Mansell gave to Whole School SEND in September 2017, via the Education Uncovered website.