Cllr Ashley Pearce raised concern about nursery funding Concerns have been raised in Reading about the government’s plans to fund council-run nurseries this year. Councillor Ashley Pearce, lead member for Education, raised the issue at Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Full Council meeting on Tuesday, January 26. There are five maintained nurseries – those run by the council – in Reading and all are rated outstanding by Ofsted. Cllr Pearce said: “Their funding is based on the number of pupils in on a particular day, the census day. That was last Thursday [January 21]. “We haven’t got the full figures back, but we would expect with home working, fears over Covid and the partial closures that the numbers would be a lot lower than usual.