The Nursery Education (England) Regulations 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and replace the Nursery Education (England) Regulations 1998 (“the 1998 Regulations”), as amended by the Nursery Education (England) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 and the Nursery Education (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1999. They prescribe matters relating to the making of grants in respect of nursery education and the inspection of relevant nursery education for the purposes of the Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996 and Schedule 26 to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.

As in the 1998 Regulations the following are prescribed:

(a) the time after which education provided for a child is nursery education (regulation 4);

(b) the authorities and persons to whom grants in respect of nursery education may be made (regulation 5);

(c) the method of calculating the amount of grant to be paid in respect of the provision of nursery education (regulations 6 to 8);

(d) the information relating to a claim for (or the adjudication of a claim for) child benefit which constitutes “social security information” for the purposes of Schedule 2 to the 1996 Act (regulation 9);

(e) the period within which a report of an inspection of relevant nursery education is to be made and the authorities and persons to whom copies of such a report must be sent (regulation 10);

(f) the intervals at which relevant nursery education is to be inspected for the purposes of paragraph 6(1)(a) of Schedule 26 to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (regulation 11).

The changes made in these Regulations from the 1998 Regulations are in respect of grant payable to providers of nursery education to three year olds. The limits on the particular local education authority areas in relation to which such grant was payable and on the amounts of grant payable specified in those Regulations have been replaced by a reference to the limits (which may be zero) specified by the Secretary of State from time to time in relation to each local education authority area (regulation 8(7)).