The funding is part of a £642m capital grant for PVI nurseries to help them develop their outdoor areas and indoor space, for example by improving kitchen facilities so they can provide childcare at lunchtimes (News, 26 November 2007).
In Hounslow up to £1.5m will be spent on developing outside areas, with the remaining funds going on refurbishing kitchen and toilet facilities and in some cases completely rebuilding settings.
The project's focus is on developing quality outdoor play. A landscape architect with a group of early years and special needs practitioners will develop a play area to demonstrate best practice.
Practitioners can see the final result at the project's launch at a conference on 22 April.
Sue Archer, project officer, said, 'The show garden at Cedars Special School in Hounslow will help nurseries inspire their own designs. It will include items like a sandpit and bike track feature, as well as a water flow system that runs through a series of wooden troughs. There will also be sensory areas, planting to create jungle zones and features such as talking pipes through grass mounds.'
Ms Archer said the landscape architect, Exterior Architecture, has drawn up a plan and the council is now putting a contract out to tender for a specialist early years landscape contractor to work with settings on raising the quality of outdoor play.
All the settings have already received £2,000 to spend on outdoor play equipment.
Rather than inviting nurseries to bid for a share of the grant, Ms Archer has carried out an audit, visiting all of the 70 PVI settings in Hounslow to see what they need.
She said, 'It's very time-consuming but it also helps raise nurseries' aspirations. For example, many nurseries wouldn't dream of asking for a new building.'
There is a possibility that some pre-schools, mainly voluntary settings, who have been housed in premises such as church halls and other shared community buildings, will be completely re-built.
Ms Archer added that the council is also planning to buy items in bulk for nurseries, such as waterproof clothing, welly racks and wellies - 'so there is no excuse not to go outside!'
- See feature, page 16