Parents’ anger at £140m childcare funding shortfall
●Ministers to consider account system that maps youngsters’ development
Parents have hit out at councils after it emerged £140 million of funding for childcare was not spent on free nursery provision, according to a Scottish Government report.
Ministers are now to consider the introduction of a “child account” system that would see funding follow each youngster throughout their childcare journey.
Extra funding of £329m was handed to councils over the past three years to help increase free childcare cover to 600 hours a year, about three hours a day in term-time. But only £189m of this was spent on pre-school provision, according to a Scottish Government review of funding.
The claims prompted anger from local authority body Cosla, which said the review was “misleading”. Councils have been hit by swingeing cuts to their budgets in recent years with social care, libraries and school services being among the areas badly hit.
The Scottish Government is planning to almost double the current provision to 1,150 hours which would
mean free nursery cover, effectively mirroring the current school term. The “transformational” plans are aimed at getting a generation of mothers back into the workplace and have been welcomed across the political spectrum.
But parents’ groups have questioned whether this can be delivered, warning the current set-up prevents many from getting their existing entitlement.
Carolyn Lochhead, of the Fair Funding for Our Kids campaign, said: “You might have a place between 9am and ten past twelve – you can’t pay to have your child there before nine o’clock and you can’t pay to have them there after the sessions ends. For most parents that’s completely unusable. So it’s very frustrating to hear that there’s funds available that maybe haven’t been spent.”
The “child account” proposals will be at the heart of a new blueprint on childcare being published later this year.
Childcare minister Mark Mcdonald said it would be for councils to account for the apparent £140m shortfall in spending in a Holyrood debate yesterday.
“It is clear that the Scottish Government has met its commitment to fully fund this policy,” Mr Mcdonald said.
He added: “No other policy has such potential to change children’s lives, the fortunes of their families and the prospects of the economy in the short and long-term. This is absolutely a policy with a purpose and it is essential we get the expansion right.”
He told MSPS: “High-quality early learning and childcare can play a vital role in our overall approach to narrowing the attainment gap. It is my ambition to prevent children starting school with any substantial gap in attainment at all.”
But a spokesman for local authority umbrella group Cosla played down the figures.
He said: “we are very concerned that there are parts of this report that paint a very misleading picture and do not reflect the reality of what is happening on the ground.
“This is a crude assessment and it would be extremely unhelpful if this becomes the focus and detracts from the overriding success story that councils have delivered 600 hours.”
About 125,000 Scots youngsters between the ages of two and four currently benefit from the free childcare entitlement of 600 hours.
The Scottish Government is to undertake a consultation for early learning and childcare next week which will inform ministers’ approach to implementing the 1,150 hours pledge.
The proposals were at the heart of the Yes campaign’s proposals to turn Scotland into a, “Scandinavian-style” social democracy during the independence campaign.
After the referendum defeat, Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would use the powers of the devolved Scottish Parliament to press ahead with the policy.
Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the lack of flexibility in the current system means that many parents are forced to choose private nurseries.
She said: “There are serious pressures in provisions – pressures which despite the Scottish Government’ s commitmentto increasing the number of hours provided are actually putting barriers in the way of the flexible access for parents when it comes to choosing a place for their child.”
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson welcomed the Scottish Government’s commitment to childcare, but he said more honesty is needed about what is being delivered as well as realism about whether it is meeting parents’ needs. He said: “Almost doubling the hours available will almost double the cost, so is the government committed to spending in revenue terms an extra £300m?”
Tavish Scott, Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland, highlighted the difficulties of expanding childcare in rural and island areas.