Work with private nurseries to improve childcare, MSP Mary tells government

Ministers must get more private nurseries onside if an expansion of free childcare is to be successful, an MSP warns.

Mary Fee insists centres will not back the attempts to double provision to 1,140 hours if they do not deem it profitable.

She has called for a closer working to encourage bosses to back the project.

Mary said: “The current childcare system is disjointed and inflexible.

“No-one today would design a system from scratch that looked like that. “It is in urgent need of reform. “However, the mix of childcare providers that we have today is essential to deliver the extension to 1,140 hours.

“Childcare is an important issue that impacts on the lives of thousands of families up and down the country every day.

“Private nursery providers fill a massive gap that council-run providers cannot meet.

“That is why it is crucial that there are better working relations between Government and private providers.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to double the number of paid-for hours to 1,140 a year for each child in the next two years.

Renfrewshire Council pays nurseries £3.48-per-hour for each youngster.

But bosses say it costs an average £5.45-an-hour to provide care.

They claim they are losing an average of £1,020-per-year for every three and fouryear-old taking up a government funded place for 600 hours-a-year.

For two-year-olds, the average loss is £684 per year for each child.

The Scottish average for funding places is £3.64, rising to £4.88-an-hour paid by the Westminster government to nurseries south of the border.