The government's plan for creating 300 new nursery schools in a year - what does it mean for parents?

• From September 2025, many parents of children aged 9 months through to 5 years will be eligible for 30 hours of free childcare each week.
• The government plans to establish thousands of new nursery schools to cope with the demand.
• It will begin with 300, which it hopes to open by next September.
• To begin with, the plan will involve primary schools with empty classrooms that can be converted for younger children.

Labour plans to create 300 brand new nursery schools in a process that begins next month - but the clock is already ticking.

Last week, education secretary Bridget Phillipson revealed the first stage of the government’s plan to deliver 3,000 new state-funded nurseries. Many working parents of young children will be eligible for 30 hours of free childcare from next September, in what was originally a Conservative Party policy. But there have been concerns raised about whether there are enough nursery school places and staff to soak up the extra demand.

Starting with several hundred scheduled to be up and running in one year’s time, the new government’s scheme aims to patch up gaps in England’s early childcare provision, which often sees families in poorer areas missing out. It is one of a whole host of Labour’s education policies currently in the works, many of which are targeted at reducing the impact of deprivation on young people’s educational opportunities - with others including a free school breakfast programme, mental health workers in schools, and a review of the national curriculum with these children in mind.

But how exactly does the government plan to establish so many new nursery schools by next September - and what will it mean for parents? Here’s what we know so far:

What is the government’s plan for creating new nursery schools?

To house the new nursery schools, the government is turning to schools across England with empty classrooms, Phillipson told The Guardian, caused by lower demand for school places. These empty rooms will be converted into the nurseries.

The first round of funding will help create an estimated 300 of these new or expanded nurseries. It opens in October 2025, the Department for Education said in a statement, and schools are invited to make a bid for their share of £15 million of funding which has been set aside.

These interested schools will need to show that there is a need for more state-funded childcare for parents of young children in their area. They will also need to work with their local authority or governing body to plan how they would set up and start running the new centres.

Funding will be handed out to the 300-odd successful schools in Spring 2025, with the aim of getting them up and running by September. This is when the 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of young children kicks in.

Of course, 300 new nurseries is only 10% of the original goal. Schools will also be able to express interest for future phases of the programme, which will help the government understand how much demand there is in different parts of the country - so it can work out how best to extend the programme.

There has been some concern raised, however, about relying on primary schools for so many of the extra nursery spaces needed. Pundits told The Guardian that nursery schools also tended to need more space and specialised toilets and playgrounds away from other children, which could prove costly for schools. There were also concerns about finding enough staff, with many early childcare centres already struggling.

What difference will it make to families?

The extra free childcare is part of a plan by the former, Conservative government. Under its first two phases - which came into force in April and September this year respectively - parents of children aged aged nine months and up became eligible for 15 hours of free childcare a week, while they worked.

This is set to expand to 30 hours per week in September 2025. The new, Labour-run government has confirmed that it will stick with the plan, the BBC reports.

Essentially, what this will mean for parents is possibly greatly reduced childcare costs if they enter or re-enter the workforce. The government says the 3,000 new nurseries in primary schools will also help to make high-quality early childhood education and more widely accessible for all families across England - with reports of some children starting primary school still in nappies, according to The Guardian.

“Currently, availability of early years provision is not evenly distributed across the country, with the most disadvantaged areas often experiencing the lowest access to provision,” the department said in a statement. “To ensure the programme is delivered in a way that will benefit all parents and children, the department will use the first phase to take learnings for future years and better understand how we can best support underserved and poorer areas.”

The government has created an online resource, available here, to help connect parents and carers with free early childhood care and education available in their area. You can also find out more about accessing the free hours here.