Taking play seriously

Yet for Scotland's one million under-16s, and especially our 300,000 under-fives, it was the most important thing happening anywhere this week. That's because the Scottish Secretary didn't pop in to Adelaide's to admire the skills of the young clientele as they swept down the chute and wielded their paintbrushes but to announce the Government's long-awaited Scottish Childcare Strategy.

Despite an attempt to avoid needless jargon, the 36-page document is full of worthy-sounding phrases like ''developing quality assurance systems'' and ''local childcare partnerships'', so although a few childcare professionals sound very excited about it, there was hardly general rejoicing in the streets.

The amounts of money being talked about are modest: #3.8m to local authorities to boost childcare facilities and #500,000 for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support the Out of School Care Initiative. The real significance of this green paper, and the equivalent England and Wales version, is the recognition finally by the UK government that market-place economics doesn't deliver adequate childcare.

The previous Government's policies, and particularly the disastrous voucher scheme, were extremely divisive, setting community-based playgroups against private and state nursery schools and school nursery classes. Yesterday's announcement is intended as a fresh start. From now on local authorities will be required to coax all bodies involved in delivering childcare into Childcare Partnerships and get everyone singing from the same hymn book.

The object of the exercise is coherent, consistent, high-quality, affordable childcare provision for all under-14s. At present Britain suffers from the most fragmented, inadequate childcare in Europe. In Scotland in the pre-school sector alone, voluntary playgroups, private nurseries, public and private nursery schools, and an army of childminders and grannies, struggle to look after a third of a million wee Kirstys and Duncans, while their parents work the longest hours in Europe. The standard of some of this care is excellent but a lot of it isn't and there is no regime to ensure consistent standards across different sectors and areas. Childcare jobs carry low status and often lower pay.

Britain having belatedly woken up to the home truth that our drastic lack of pre-school provision was seriously hampering our development as a modern state, the Government is now committed to providing a free nursery place to every rising-five by next year. Compare that with Holland which, having done that years ago, is now promising a publicly-funded service for all children aged one to six.

The other area of massive inadequacy is in out-of-school care. Today only one in 40 Scottish primary schools has access to an out-of-school club. By the end of this Parliament that figure should be one in four, thanks largely to a massive injection of National Lottery funding, #23m in Scotland alone. Despite a measure of excitement and relief that a British government was at last prepared to tackle the whole question of childcare in a massive review, many childcare experts feared that the real object of the exercise was to get parents, especially lone mothers, back to work and central questions about quality, education, and choice would be secondary.

This has not happened and yesterday's green paper, ''Meeting the Childcare Challenge'', received a generally enthusiastic welcome. Dr Bronwen Cohen, director of Children in Scotland, described it as a ''quantum leap forward in government thinking on childcare''.

Irene Audain, national development officer for the Scottish Out-of-School Care Network, called it ''the first ever co-ordinated childcare strategy for Scotland, a great step forward''.

Anne McNellan of the Scottish Childminding Association, said: ''The questions they are asking in this document are all the questions we have been asking for years. It's great.''

Of course, the challenge now is to transfer all these promises and good intentions from paper to practice. Nationally, responsibility for this will go to a new body, the Scottish Childcare Board. Those invited to join so far include Bronwen Cohen, Paul Edwards of Motorola (a model in the provision of workplace nurseries), Sally McNair of BBC Scotland and Councillor Paul Williamson, of Edinburgh City Council, who is also local government liaison officer for the Out-of-School Care Network. A significant omission is a representative of the Scottish Pre-School Play Association.

Playgroups have come off badly from recent developments, especially the voucher scheme, and morale is already low. Yesterday a spokeswoman said they were ''bitterly disappointed'' not to be included in the new body, though the Scottish Office said later that it was ''not a deliberate omission''.

At a local level Childcare Partnerships, bringing together local authorities, employers, childminders, and voluntary and private childcare organisations, will be responsible for mapping out provision in each area.

This may be easier said than done. These partnerships are intended to build on the Early Years Forums which are meant to function in each council area. While some are up and running, others are dead in the water.

Stirling is the best example of a council which has not only given priority to early-years provision but come up with an effective structure to deliver it. Linda Kinney, another member of the new Scottish Childcare Board, heads her own department, Children's Services. Though technically part of Education Services, it has its own committee which spans the organisation across pre-five education, social work, play, and family support.

The proof of the pudding is in Stirling's innovative approach to supporting pre-fives and their parents across an area which includes remote, sparcely-peopled glens and multiply-deprived communities like the Raploch. Their answer is a mixed menu of care, education, and play, provided by private, voluntary, and local authority. A well-run community playgroup in Cornton has been taken on by the council to provide places for special-needs children. In remote corners like Stronachlachar, beyond the reach of a nursery school, specially trained childminders will be delivering aspects of the pre-five curriculum. A new council nursery in Croftamie offers all-day care, not the usual two or three hours a day which working parents find so unhelpful.

Stirling is likely to be a model for other areas, but the new strategy can only work if it is backed by a vastly beefed up inspection and registration regime, and good quality training. Many still harbour doubts about the proposal to train up 5000 Scots youngsters on the New Deal programme to work in childcare. Is six months' training enough?

And, though extra money is promised for the Out-of-School Initiative, will it be ring-fenced? In the past such funds have been diverted elsewhere by some local enterprise companies.

Finally, though the green paper says much about the status of childcare workers, that can only be raised if we start training and paying them like professionals.