Derry behind rest of North for nursery school spending

Government spending on nursery school education in Derry is less than almost all other parts of Northern Ireland, it has emerged.

The Derry News has revealed the Foyle constituency has received a disproportionate amount of money for pre-school nursery places in recent years when compared with constituencies with similar or even lower populations.

A total of £908,000 was spent by the Northern Ireland Assembly on nursery places in the Foyle constituency in the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years.

The local constituency has, according to the latest population survey, a population of 102,265 people.

The Mid Ulster constituency has a similar population of 102,361 people.

However, in the last three years, a total of £5,029,000 of government money has been spent on nursery places in Mid-Ulster.

Of the 18 Westminster constituencies in Northern Ireland, the Foyle constituency has the 10th highest population.

However, all but one of the constituencies with lower populations than Foyle have received more money for nursery places in the last three years.

The only constituency to have received less money during this period was Belfast West in which a total of £859,000 was spent on nursery places in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

East Antrim has the lowest population of the 18 constituencies, 90,057.

However, £3,115,000 has been spent on nursery education in that constituency in the last three years – almost three times the amount spent in Derry over the same period.

News of the small amount of government money being spent in Derry in comparison with other areas of Northern Ireland will concern parents whose children have either missed out on a local nursery place or who were not able to take up their first choice of nursery school for their children because of a lack of places.

It is understood that there are around 1,500 nursery school places available in the Foyle constituency.

The majority of these are full-time places in nurseries attached to local primary schools or separate nurseries.

However, a number of part-time places are also available for children.

Parents are asked to list their choice of nurseries in order.

Places are then allocated based on a series of guidelines, with preference being given to the children of parents are in receipt of social security benefits.

The current system often leads to nurseries in Derry being oversubscribed.

In recent years, there has been anger among parents whose children did not get into their first-choice nursery school.

This resulted in the child then being offered a place in another nursery.