‘Pack children off to nursery at the weekend’

Flexible childcare vital, say experts

CHILDREN should be sent to nursery in the evenings and weekends to allow parents to work shifts. The recommendations have been made in a report by NHS Health Scotland.

The Scottish Government is vastly increasing free childcare over the next few years and health chiefs are examining how to ‘meet parental needs’.

Children are entitled to 16 hours a week of free childcare but this will almost double to 30 hours by 2020.

The report states good quality childcare is ‘paramount’ and parents need to ‘access it at the time they need to’.

More and more families are working ‘atypical’ hours before 8am and after 6pm, it warns, so childcare providers must be ‘available and flexible’.

But Lynne Burnham, secretary of campaign group Mothers at Home Matter, said: ‘What an indictment on today’s society that we are now putting employers’ needs before children’s best interests.

‘Why do parents with small children need to be working unsocial hours? We are seeing huge rises in mental health problems with older children. Children’s needs should come before anything else.’

The report warns that unsociable working hours are ‘increasingly the norm’ and that childcare can help women back to work, improve their ‘wellbeing’ and reduce poverty.

It also says childcare with an ‘educational’ component can

‘Access it when they need to’

improve youngsters’ social and emotional abilities and help them prepare for school.

Almost 250,000 children north of the Border attend registered daycare services.

While local authority nurser- ies open during school hours, private nurseries usually open from around 8am to 6pm.

The report states: ‘For parents to experience any benefits from early learning and childcare provision, it has to be available and flexible – meaning they can access it at the time they need to and at a convenient location.

‘Atypical working hours before 8am and after 6pm are increasingly the norm for parents across all income groups.

‘Providing formal early learning and childcare outside of normal working hours may be required to allow those parents working atypical hours to choose the type that suits their needs and that includes a goodquality educational or learning component.’

Ellen Broomé, chief executive of the Family and Childcare Trust, said: ‘Many parents struggle to find childcare that meets their needs – effectively freezing them out of the workplace.

‘We must make sure there is enough flexible childcare.’

Minister for Childcare and Early Years Mark McDonald said: ‘Quality and choice are at the heart of our plans to expand entitlement to funded early learning and childcare to 1,140 hours by 2020.’