Education Minister announces first step in major expansion of pre-school education provision

Date published: 6 December 2024

Earlier this year the Minister committed to offering all children aged 3-4 and their families 22.5 hours of funded pre-school education per week. Currently, 60% of children receive 12.5 hours per week and 40% receive 22.5 hours.

Making the announcement during a visit to Brooklands Primary School Nursery Unit, Paul Givan said: “In May, I announced the largest expansion of pre-school provision in over 25 years, and today we are taking an important step forward in delivering on our plan to provide every child with a full-time pre-school place.

“We want to ensure an additional 2,200 children will have a full-time funded pre-school place from September 2025. This will involve transitioning 100 pre-school settings from part-time provision to full-time.”

The Minister continued: “Having carefully considered the requests made by pre-school settings and the comments provided by stakeholders in response to the public consultation on the proposed changes, I have approved the first 77 pre-school settings to transition.

“These settings will provide additional full-time places from September 2025, providing target aged children with the best start to their education and their families with additional support too.

“It is my intention to announce a further tranche in the coming weeks. I want to ensure that all council areas and all pre-school management types will be represented within the settings proposed for transition from September 2025.”

The full list of the 77 pre-school settings is available on the Department’s website at www.education-ni.gov.uk/articles/ministers-decisions-pre-school-settings-requesting-transition-september-2025

This standardisation of pre-school settings formed part of a £25million package of measures to support children, parents and providers with early learning and childcare in 2024/25.