New school nurseries are giving the morning drop off its first serious chance to stop behaving like a low budget action film. A further 331 schools have secured a share of £45 million to build or expand nursery places, while families are invited to imagine a world in which one missing shoe does not control the national timetable.
The Department for Education says childcare will expand to more than 300 additional schools from September, creating over 6,000 places. The announcement presents this as a simpler school run, which is an ambitious description for any journey involving coats, bags, snacks and a child who has suddenly become emotionally dependent on a particular leaf.
School based nurseries can bring more of the family routine into one place. This is useful because the modern working parent has traditionally been expected to complete a small logistics degree before 8.30am, followed by an examination in locating a water bottle last seen during an earlier government.
The £45 million will help schools build or expand provision, particularly in areas where childcare gaps are greatest. The policy says the new places will support families with costs and make it easier for parents to return to work. It is a sensible aim, although the morning has yet to confirm whether it can return the permission slip signed by everyone who needed to sign it.
The announcement also says school based nurseries make up around 35% of childcare provision in the most deprived areas, compared with 16% in the least deprived. That makes the nursery room a rare piece of public infrastructure capable of doing several jobs at once, including early education, family support and preventing a parent from having to explain an implausible route between three separate drop off points.
From May, councils rather than schools will be invited to propose plans for new places in communities with the greatest need. This will allow the system to become locally led, which is the official phrase for asking a different group of adults to work out where the tiny chairs should go.
No nursery expansion can eliminate every morning crisis. A banana will still be rejected for having the wrong shape. A cardigan will still develop a political position. But fewer journeys could mean fewer opportunities for the household to discover that time is not, in fact, a renewable resource.
By September, the school run may be more joined up, more affordable and slightly less like a travelling theatre production whose lead actor refuses to put on trousers. The missing shoe has been offered a place, but it is waiting to hear whether the funding covers footwear. If it does, the Government can finally announce that it has solved childcare, transport and the national footwear shortage in one unusually small room.
Source: GOV.UK.
