Neighbourhood nurseries

The Neighbourhood Nursery programme was introduced in 2001 to narrow the gap in childcare provision between the most disadvantaged areas of the country and their more affluent communities’ counterparts.

It aimed to create 45,000 new high quality, accessible and affordable, full day care places for children under 5 in the poorest areas of England. Many of these areas had little or no childcare. The target was achieved by end August 2004 and the programme has now officially ended.

Neighbourhood nursery projects were developed across 142 local authorities. The areas eligible for neighbourhood nurseries funding were the 20% most deprived wards in England, as defined by the IMD 2000. Pockets of extreme deprivation outside these wards were also eligible with suitable supporting information.

The new childcare places created by the programme are being delivered through a diverse range of local and national providers in maintained, private and/or voluntary sectors. Some are joint projects across a number of sectors.

The full-time childcare offered in neighbourhood nurseries is integrated with nursery education and support services to families, including training for parents, for which other finance has been made available. Many of the neighbourhood nurseries that have been developed are linked with Sure Start local programmes.

These and other settings - like early excellence centres, maintained nursery schools, primary schools, family centres, voluntary and private sector provision – are now forming the basis of Sure Start Children's Centre developments.