The following table provides details of the 32 local authority maintained nursery school closures that have been implemented since 2005 along with the reason for closure.
Reason for maintenance 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total Cease to maintain 2 — 1 — — 3 Close for brand new nursery 1 — — 5 6 Close for brand new primary 1 2 — 1 — 4 Close for brand new Children’s Centre — — — 5 5 Close for ‘Add nursery unit’ 4 3 1 2 4 14 Total 8 5 2 8 9 32
This shows that in three (cease to maintain) of the cases the nursery provision was not replaced with planned alternative provision. In all the other cases the closures were effectively technical and each was replaced with alternative nursery provision of some type.
The reasons the department has been given for the three closures were:
(a) Staffordshire 2005: Two nursery schools ceased to be maintained due to numbers on roll having declined rapidly as birth rates fell and the range of other local provision, much of it incorporating childcare, developed.
(b) Manchester 2007: The Nursery school had a capacity for 65 full-time equivalent places, but only 19 pupils on roll, so was no longer viable; there was sufficient alternative provision available elsewhere.