Charlotte visited Sandy Lane Nursery and Forest School, the only maintained nursery school in Warrington. There she met with Head Teacher, Jane and Maureen, the Chair of Governors.

Charlotte said:

“It was great to visit Sandy Lane Nursery and Forest School, which provides incredible early years education to children but faces unique challenges.

During COVID, maintained nursery schools have fallen through the gaps in financial support from the Government available to maintained school settings and private nurseries.

This anomaly means that, despite having statutory responsibilities to meet, they are incurring significant extra costs with no funding available to support them, putting their future at risk the longer the situation continues.

This has been exacerbated by the Government failure to find a long-term funding solution for maintained nursery schools, which means a real terms cut in funding since 2017 and no certainty to plan for the future.

Sandy Lane Nursery and Forest School have my full support in ensuring they are treated and funded fairly so the outstanding education they provide is not put under threat.”