Nursery World - Exclusive: LEA early years underspend hits £62m

Underspend by local authorities of Government funding for three- and four-year-old childcare places has risen to £62 million, National Day Nurseries Association analysis reveals.

Councils in England have millions of pounds in unspent early years funding, most of which has never been re-allocated to childcare providers

All but five local education authorities (LEAs) in England have now responded to the Freedom of Information request, which NDNA sent to 149 councils last November.

In February, Nursery World reported initial findings that showed that councils had underspent early years funding of £55.5m for 2019/20, but this has now risen to £62m, with all but five local authorities in England having responded to the FOI.

A higher proportion of LEAs (74 per cent totalling 107 councils) reported underspends.

Surrey County Council has the highest reported underspend of £3.7 million.

The final figures show 19 LEAs in England underspent by more than £1 million in 2019/20, and of these, seven had underspent by a similar amount in the previous year (see table below).

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