Parents confused by key worker childcare places

Parents and teachers in Tayside and Fife are struggling with a lack of clarity over who is eligible for childcare during lockdown.

The Scottish Government has told local authorities to reorganise schools and nurseries to offer childcare to those key workers who are not able to remain at home.

Fife, Angus, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City councils have set up hub-style systems to ensure a smaller number of schools and nurseries remain open.

Some places have gone unfilled in Angus and Dundee City Council has relaunched its scheme, asking all key workers to apply again for a place in a new system that starts on Monday.

Angus Council’s learning convener Derek Wann said a lower than expected number of children attended hubs in Angus on Thursday.

He said: “It is somewhat frustrating that we have worked hard to find a childcare solution for essential workers who have no other childcare options, only to find that a number of people who applied and were allocated spaces did not send their children as anticipated.”

A Dundee council spokesman pointed to an online update that said the council was “developing new ways of delivering services for key workers and vulnerable children from a much smaller number of school buildings across the city from Monday.”

One parent, a back office NHS worker, said: “The guidance hasn’t been clear at all. I was told that both parents had to be working on the frontline in the NHS.”

She said she was still waiting to hear if her child was eligible for a place. A Perth and Kinross Council spokesman said they had opened five Children’s Activity Centres on Thursday “in line with significant demand from Category 1 staff.”