Education Minister has announced that 77 pre-school
settings from throughout Northern Ireland will begin the
transition of moving from part-time to full-time hours.
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, 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.
