Chasing pre-school targets

The government has struggled with pre-school places

The government is to fund an extra 33,000 pre-school places for three-year-olds this year - as it seeks to stop playgroup closures and meet its own targets.

The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, says the government is now back on track to achieve its promises for pre-school education.

This reverses a trend in which, until last autumn, places in England were declining rather than increasing.

With a £100m support package - and following two rounds of emergency funding and an independent review - the government says half of all three-year-olds will have a free place available by next spring.

"The sector now has access to more government funding than ever before," said Mr Blunkett, announcing a further £250,000 to help playgroups and pre-school classes "adapt and grow".

This is in addition to £500,000 available to give "breathing space" to playgroups facing the threat of closure.

The recovery has brought a cautious welcome from the Pre-School Learning Alliance - particularly now that the education secretary is becoming directly involved.

The government has promised that there will be free places available in pre-school classes for all four-year-olds and two thirds of three-year-olds by 2002.

Playgroup closures

But until last October the targets appeared to be slipping away. Places had fallen by 4.5% and the total number of extra places required had reached 190,000.

Prompting the closure of many playgroups had been the increase in primary schools setting up nursery classes.

This had drawn children away from playgroups to the extent that many had become unviable or uneconomic.

This meant that even though new places were being created, the total number of places was falling as many small playgroups closed.

But the Pre-School Learning Alliance now says that a corner appears to have been turned - with the government's subsidies and interventions preventing closures and allowing more places to be created.

The Department for Education expects a total of 83,000 extra places by March 2001, including those generated by the government and the voluntary and private sectors.

That will still leave a large number of places to be created before the targets can be achieved.