Robert Marshall-Andrews

|

Nursery Education Labour Group Votes for Increased Funding

The issue of the Nursery Education Grant has been re-ignited after last Thursday’s Education scrutiny meeting, which was attended by around 30 representatives of the nursery sector.

Last year, the Tories increased the funding in the maintained sector, whilst freezing the amount of funding to nurseries in the private and voluntary sector in order to save £108 000.  This caused an outcry amongst the providers, and some nurseries were forced to close due to lack of funding.  Eventually, following a concerted campaign from providers and the Medway Pre-school Learning Alliance, which was supported by the Labour group and all three of Medway’s Labour MPs, half of the funding was re-instated.

To prevent this happening again, Cllr Adam Price put forward the proposal that the private and voluntary sector should receive a 6% increase, which was agreed at the meeting.

Cllr Price commented, “It was a disgrace last year when the private and voluntary sector did not receive the same increase as the maintained sector.  The Tories were threatening both the education of our children as well as the livelihood of our service providers, who are at the heart of the community.”
“I put this proposal forward so that we would not see a repeat of this scandalous behaviour.  Both sectors carry out the same invaluable work, and therefore need the same amount of funding.  The Labour group sees education, especially of the under-fives, as a huge priority, and we call on the Tories to ensure that this year the all nursery providers get the increase they deserve.”

Bob Marshall-Andrews, MP for Medway, said, “It is grossly unfair to introduce a policy that discriminates on funding against independent and community pre-schools, particularly when one considers the sterling work they have been doing for parents and children in the Medway Towns.

“Our Labour government is working tirelessly to reward hard working families and to ensure they have accessible and affordable childcare care. Independent pre-schools have played an essential part in helping us to meet the needs of local families and ensuring nursery places for all 3 year olds.

 “I will be supporting the Labour group in pushing for a level playing field in pre-school funding for all providers of early years education in the Medway Towns, in order to ensure the best provision of early years learning for all children”.