Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
WORKING FOR YOU Funding boost for parents
I’m delighted that, just a couple of weeks ago, this SNP government committed to legislating to ensure early years’ funding for all four- year- olds across Scotland whose parents choose to defer.
This was brought about by the tireless campaigning of the Give Them Time initiative, which I led a member’s debate on in Parliament this year.
Since attending the campaign launch event last winter, the movement has gone from strength to strength thanks to the hard work of grassroots activists behind the campaign.
The initiative has a simple objective; ensuring that deferment of a four-year-old child should be the decision of the parent or legal guardian, not the local authority.
That is the law in Scotland under the Education ( Scotland) Act 1980. In its essence, the campaign is much more straightforward than that; a parent should decide whether their four-year-old should start school.
There is no argument made by the campaign that there should be deferment for all four-year-olds as standard; indeed, far from it.
There is a general consensus that a majority will continue to send their children when they are four, if eligible to do so.
I believe that all kids legally deferring the start of P1 should be automatically entitled to a further year of funded early learning and childcare as their parents and not councils are best placed to decide if they will benefit from this extra time before starting formal education.
The current system of automatic funding for January and February-born kids is unfair as mid-August to Decemberborn children have the same legal right to defer their P1 start, yet are entitled to almost a full year’s less nursery funding. This age discrimination and the postcode funding lottery coming to an end is the main objective of the campaign.
I was glad that North Lanarkshire Council recently became the largest local authority to agree to fund all deferred children following an SNP motion put forward by Councillor Allan Stubbs at full council in June.
This will make such a difference to many children who are not ready to make the jump to school; and will put parents’ minds at rest who are worried about the impact this may have.
I am over the moon that the Scottish government has pledged to bring forward legislation to ensure all four- year- old children deferring their entry to school are automatically entitled to an additional year of nursery funding.
The announcement marks a huge victory for the Give Them Time campaign and follows on from a Scottish Parliament vote in favour of changing the law.
I know the government will now be working on setting out its timescale for the legal change and call on them to agree interim measures for all children who need to defer within the coming year; this news will be greeted with joy by all those who have fought so hard for parents.