SNP are playing with childcare

lack of adequate planning and investment means that councils, charged with delivering the SNPs promises, are facing serious challenges.

Scotland’s independent public spending watchdog released a report this month which warned councils face ‘significant risks’ around meeting the government’s plan by 2020.

The large increase in the number of childcare staff and the change in premises which will be required is a significant challenge – and unfortunately it is a challenge which councils are not being adequately funded to meet.

The Accounts Commission report revealed that there’s a £160 million funding black hole in the SNP’s plan with a huge gap in what the government estimated the plan would cost and what councils expect the final cost to be.

The result is that this is potentially catastrophic for families who are planning for and relying on the warm words of this SNP Government, yet may be faced with a situation where the promised hours simply don’t materialise.

In order to make this policy work, our councils have to receive a fair budget settlement which would permit them to meet the additional staff, money and buildings required to deliver it.

Rather than listen to the experts and parents expressing concerns over this policy, the SNP are refusing to change course.

Just last week they voted through a budget which will deliver a further cut to councils to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds – meaning that local authorities are going to face further cuts.

As long as the SNP Government in Edinburgh continues to choose a path which merely manages decline and fails to take the bold action needed to deliver investment for our local communities, vital services like early years childcare will continue to struggle to meet demand.

It is time that the SNP Government started listening to parents in East Kilbride and Avondale and experts across Scotland and got on with delivering the real investment which Scotland deserves.