Concerns raised for private nurseries
Private nurseries face being squeezed out of the early years childcare sector despite Holyrood’s roll-out of the 1140 hours of free child care, it’s been claimed.
Sharon Fairley who runs Little Flyers - two private nurseries in West Lothian- says that the ethos of Funding Following the Child has been subverted as many local authorities, including West Lothian, have refused to engage with the private sector.
“Whilst West Lothian has been one of the positive authorities to work in partnership, there is fear of this changing and signs of them prioritising themselves. “Sharon said.
“We celebrate and support the ambitious policy, offering choice and flexibility to families, yet it has to be delivered in a fair and transparent way.”
Sharon now heads a new group, the Scottish Private Nurseries Association to give a voice to the private sector, as it struggles to maintain services she believes are effectively being undercut by local authorities developing nursery provision.
She said: “All businesses continue to struggle as costs increase, for our children and families we strive for quality and equity, fair pay for our workforce, yet this is harboured by local authority holding the purse strings.”
In a letter to Scottish Ministers recently the organisation said: “Quite simply, despite the name, funding is not following the child. It is staying with the local authority.”
Sharon said: “The Scottish Government funds the 1140 hours of early learning. It is underpinned by the ‘Funding follows the child’ policy, which states that the programme is meant to be ‘provider neutral’. The SPNA has been working to highlight the discrepancy between the total funding which is provided to local authorities, and the amount which is passed on to the private, voluntary, and independent sectors.
“We ask that the Scottish Government review the analysis of the budget spent.”
Local authorities have the edge over private firms, said
Sharon, because they can offer 40 per cent higher pay and contract staff to offer wraparound care.
Additional staff can be brought in to cover training and while private sector nurseries have to fund everything from the 1140 budget, local authorities can rely on other budgets with council funding to cover such costs as building maintenance and management.
Sharon believes the problems have been exacerbated by the Scottish Government’s reliance on outdated costs, using figures for the funding of nursery places dating back to 2016.
Sharon called for greater engagement between all local authorities and the private sector, asking what was the point of the council building nursery space when there are already private places which could be used.
Sharon said: “Fundamentally funding should follow the child into a childcare account to be distributed evenly by an independent body.
“We’d like to work in partnership with all decision makers and the opportunity to discuss the needs for early years and the reform of training/ qualifications with SQA.”
A spokesperson for West Lothian Council said: “West Lothian Council fully implemented the 1140 hours for all eligible children from April 2021 ahead of the Scottish Government deadline of August 2021. Before that West Lothian offered up to 1000 hours funded hours across all funded placements from August 2020.
“The number of private partner providers increased in August 2020 from seven to 21 plus a marked increase in flexibility and choice for parents/carers to use a childminder or playgroup.
“A tender has just closed for additional partner providers to join the framework to offer funded placements if they meet the National Standard (for a high quality ELC provision).
“The Scottish Government have placed the responsibility with each local authority to ensure that all funded placements meet all the requirement of the National Standard.”