A Linlithgow-based nursery appealed to West Lothian Council to work with the private sector to lobby the Scottish Government to improve nursery place funding.
Andrew Carr of First Adventures Nursery is the National Day Nursery Association’s chair for the West Lothian network of nurseries. He made his appeal ahead of the council’s Education Executive approval changes which would make savings of £700,000.
Mr Carr described the decision taken by West Lothian Council at its February budget as “damaging” to families, with children already at private nurseries having to be withdrawn by August. Other families have been denied places.
The council decided to no longer fund parents living outside the council area for private nursery care, offering instead only places at council run facilities.
The decision affects 103 families who live outside West Lothian but use privately run nurseries within the county boundary.
The decision has also had “significant” consequences for both the private nurseries which lose business and for families who face making difficult decisions about changing jobs or losing money because of increased difficulties in finding nursery spaces, often at different venues for siblings.
He told a meeting of the council Education Executive that a petition against funding changes for private nurseries has grown to 934.
Mr Carr said his fear was that come September there would be no places in private nurseries for the 103 families affected but the council would have made no savings because there would still be 103 vacant places in council nurseries. This is because the council nurseries cannot provide the flexibility of care which parents have sought in the private sector.
Only five of the affected families have made inquiries about alternative arrangements, the Executive heard.
Mr Carr added: “Your cost savings will be generated not by addressing what is not being used but by cutting services which are.”
Before the budget decision Mr Carr had argued that private nurseries were more cost effective for the council in delivering early years care, a fact he reiterated before councillors this week.
Mr Carr told this week’s Executive that private nurseries wanted to work with the council to improve early years funding across the board.
“If there are challenges to be faced, if there are budget overruns which cause decisions such as the cessation of cross boundary funding if there is a potential for underfunding we are not uninterested in fighting a zero-sum game with this council.
“Rather than simply noting or approving the terms of the report, we should approach the new administration in Holyrood and look for ways to ensure that a similar decision doesn’t need to be taken again.”
Answering questions from Councillor Moria McKee-Shemilt, Mr Carr said that parents should be able to use the funding for their entitlement for 1140 hours of childcare wherever they want: “in a way that fits around their work, life and needs.”
He said private settings were important because they could fill a need that was not always possible to meet in the broader provision of council settings in areas such as wraparound care.
A Scottish Government review into the future of Early Years Care (ELC) funding is under way and there are calls to make the funding directly payable to parents to enable them to make a choice which suits them.
Linlithgow Councillor Sally Pattle asked Mr Carr if he had considered the impact of term time rather than 50-week provision for hours. Mr Carr said that term time provision in private settings was “exceptionally rare” because it did not provide the flexibility which parents need.
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
