How the 3 Year old's Nursery Grant is distributed

  1. The Government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has allocated £ 3.134million this year to provide Leicestershire (excl the City) with 2,638 free places for 3 year olds. In the last summer term demand for the free places increased and Leicestershire exceeded this by 569. The County Council has the choice of rationing places or paying the difference (estimated at £215,000).
  2. The DfES has an ambitious programme to fund many more Nursery places but is increasing the amount available in stages - as demand stabilises and becomes more predictable, and as trained staff and facilities are created. Meanwhile, where money available cannot fund all 3 year olds whose parents would like it, the DfES advises the County to target funding at areas of greatest social need.
  3. Deprivation can be easily identified from Government Statistics. The latest statistics (Indices) were published on 22nd August 2000. They consist of an Index of Multiple Deprivation for every Council ward in the country. There are also lists for Educational, Health, and other specific forms of deprivation. So it should be extremely easy for local councils to identify the areas of most deprivation. All Councils received the information about the new Index 14 months ago via LGA Circular 604/00.
  4. The Leicestershire's Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Strategy Implementation Plan 2001/2 says that the fund will be 'targeted at areas of greatest disadvantage using the DETR's Multiple Deprivation Index'.
  5. A further way in which other counties have spread out the money is by age. For example, by including all children in the term they are going to reach 4 years old. This means that the funds are spread across all playgroup providers and it's not just the playgroups in the more affluent areas that take the hit.
  6. If a County Council overspends its Nursery Grant it has to meet the extra costs from its own budgets (ie Council Tax). If they underspend they have to give any unspent money back to the DfES. So there is a strong incentive to use all the money, maybe even underwriting a little overspend if necessary.
  7. Having identified the least deprived wards, Leics County Council have compiled a list of the postcodes of all the streets in those wards. This list is not very accurate. Parents are told if their PostCode is on they have a free place. Only the post codes of known streets in the least deprived wards are removed - as I say, in theory, but not in practice because of a number of errors.
  8. Because County Hall are aware of the existence of errors they advise parents to contact them if there is a doubt. This is encouraged but the errors are so extensive that it's hard to imagine that all parents will find this easy or get their funds reinstated. For example parents in Wesley Close, Loughborough have been told they have to pay even though their postcode is wrongly excluded from the list.

That is the theory. Now read on to learn more about the errors and how to appeal effectively if you have been asked to pay.

[Max Hunt] [Nursery Campaign: Errors] [Nursery Campaign: Complaints] [Nursery Campaign: The politics ] [Nursery Campaign: Links] [Nursery Campaign: Questions] [Thorpe Acre 2000] [International Partnerships] [Old Ashby Road area] [Thorpe Acre & Jubilee Park] [Mount Grace] [Garendon Park] [Dishley] [Hathern] [Key Issues] [Online Surgery] [Home]
© Max Hunt, 58 William Street, Loughborough. GB-LE11 3BZ
max@garendon.freeuk.com Last updated 19 November 2001