Education Secretary unable to guarantee nursery places for children who need them by September

The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told ITV News she can't guarantee every parent will find a nursery or childminder place for their child next September

The Education Secretary has admitted there may not be enough nursery places for all children who need them by September next year.

The admission comes as the Department for Education (DfE) announced £15 million would be made available for primary schools to deliver up to 300 new or expanded nurseries in England.

Bridget Phillipson acknowledged thousands of extra nursery places would be needed to meet the government's commitment to providing free childcare.

She told ITV News: "We need to bring more staff into the system as a part of that, absolutely, and I have been upfront with parents about the challenges that lie ahead in committing to that rollout.

"I can't guarantee to parents that they will necessarily be able to get their first choice place, but we are determined to make sure that we expand early years education and childcare."

Asked if she could guarantee every child in need would have a place by September, she said: "We're doing our level best."

The expansion of funded childcare for working parents was originally introduced by the Conservative government, and began being rolled out in England in April.

Working parents of children older than nine months are now able to access 15 hours of funded childcare, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families in September 2025.

The latest DfE projections estimate is that around 70,000 additional places and 35,000 early years staff will be needed in order to make September's expansion possible.

Phillipson said the government is trying to create nursery places in parts of the country where they are not currently available.

She said: "In many communities you're talking about four children for every single childcare place.

"That is a lot to overcome, but we're getting on with it as quickly as we possibly can because I know that parents are desperate for places."

The DfE said more than 320,000 additional children are now accessing 15 hours of funded childcare a week - but around half of local areas need to increase their capacity by between 10% and 20% to meet the September demand.

Some areas, including ones that see traditionally lower household incomes such as Northumberland, Plymouth and Rotherham, need an increase of more than 20%.

Phillipson has also warned "tough choices" lie ahead for education ahead of the Chancellor's Autumn Budget on October 30.

It comes as several senior ministers have raised concerns about cuts across different government departments, with some sending formal letters to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Phillipson said: "We're all facing tough choices across government, across the cabinet, because we inherited a really difficult fiscal situation that the Conservatives left behind - a big black hole in the public finances.

"As the budget process is underway at the moment, we're all having conversations, as you would expect, with the chancellor, in the form of conversations, letters, and much more besides that."

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

When asked if she could guarantee whether education would be protected from cuts, she said she "can't speculate" on what the Budget would hold.

Referring to the former government, Phillipson said: "The Conservatives knew what the cost of some of this was, didn't properly fund it, and walked away from it."

Meanwhile, Phillipson confirmed a plan to impose VAT on private school fees will go ahead on January 1, 2025, calling it a "cast iron commitment".

"It is happening in January 2025," she said.

"We've been clear for years that it was our intention to end private schools' tax breaks, and that's precisely what we intend to do - because it's a question of priorities about making sure that within our state schools they have what they need to support children."

Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode