Northampton nursery will get £95k from council to make up for cut in funding over next three years

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has given a "one-off" £95,000 payment to a local nursery school to make up for cutting the nursery's funding.

WNC faced criticism earlier this month for proposing changes to the subsidies provided to nurseries in the region, which would see the Camrose Early Years Centre - in Streatfield Road - lose funding. At the time, WNC cabinet member for children, families and education, Councillor Fiona Baker, said the move was being made to balance out subsidies across other maintained nursery schools.

Head teacher of Camrose nursery school, Lyndsey Barnett, said: “We understand fully the need for the grant to be distributed in a way that is fair to all maintained nursery schools, and are grateful to our colleagues for their generosity in agreeing to spread the budget reduction that Camrose will experience over three years.

“We are also grateful to the council for allocating a one-off grant to assist us in the first year of the transition. However, we want to protect the additional services we currently offer and will be seeking to work as a nursery, and with the council, to identify possible additional sources of funding to continue to provide these.”

The council have confirmed that all five MNS within West Northamptonshire will benefit from a £718,000 funding supplement provided by the government through the Dedicated Schools Grant.

This follows a consultation that was carried out with all five MNS and WNC, where the budget was set taking into account pupil hours and deprivation in catchment areas.

Cabinet member for children, families and education at WNC, Councillor Fiona Baker, said: “I would like to thank all the heads and chairs of governors who took part in the consultation and for their very helpful feedback.

"It has been a challenging and complex process and I am pleased that we have now reached agreement on a final budget settlement."

Councillor Baker said that Camrose Nursery school is receiving £259,000 from the Dedicated Schools grant and some of this will be used to provide "valued" services to the local community outside normal curriculum hours.

She continued: “WNC aims to achieve a more equitable and representative sharing of the subsidy funding across all MNSs over the next three years, requiring the Camrose Nursery School’s supplement to be reduced over time to help deliver this.

“There will be further discussions with all MNSs during the 2022/23 financial year about the formula to be used from 2023/24 and beyond and the council will continue to seek external funding in order that as many children as possible in all deprived areas can benefit from ‘wrap-around-services’.”

According to WNC, the head teachers and chairs of governors from Gloucester, Wallace Road and Whitehills nursery schools have acknowledged the plans to move to more equitable funding and have said they are "happy" with the three-year timescale for the implementation of the MNS formula in full as they recognise the "difficulties" that would be caused to Camrose if it had been immediate.