PARENTS who use private nurseries in Glasgow are more likely to receive their entitlement to free childcare places in future.
Glasgow City Council is to relax the cap on the number of children it funds who attend private nurseries that are in partnership with the council.
Under SNP legislation, families are entitled to a mandatory 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon refuses to endorse shale gas imports despite huge jobs boost
However, a survey in 2014 by the campaign group Fair Funding For Our Kids showed hundreds of children in Glasgow were unable to secure their entitlement.
Under council policy the number of funded places was strictly controlled, but officials say from now on nurseries already in partnership can bid for more.
There will be no change for private nurseries that are not in partnership with the council.
Carolyn Lochhead, a spokeswoman for the campaign group Fair Funding For Our Kids, welcomed the change, but urged all councils to follow Glasgow’s lead.
And she called for more wrap-around provision in state sector nurseries to ensure working parents were better catered for.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon refuses to endorse shale gas imports despite huge jobs boost
She said: “An end to capping was one of our key aims when the campaign was set up and it is fantastic news that more parents in Glasgow should be able to get a funded partnership nursery place for their children.
“We now need to see this mirrored nationally, but Glasgow also needs to focus on making all nursery provision useable for working parents.
“With two-thirds of nursery places nationwide provided for just three hours and ten minutes a day there is a long way to go before childcare is fit for purpose.”
A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council confirmed the cap had now been relaxed, but stressed it only applied to families resident in Glasgow using private nurseries already in partnership with them.
She said: “As part of our expansion of flexible access to early learning and childcare we are no longer capping the places commissioned in our partnership nurseries for Glasgow resident three and four year olds.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon refuses to endorse shale gas imports despite huge jobs boost
“We continually monitor and evaluate supply and demand in our nurseries, but also purchase additional places in private nurseries as part of a tender contract that runs until 2017.”
Meanwhile, it emerged that millions of pounds given to councils to pay for free childcare has not been spent on the programme.
An official report revealed local authorities were given an extra £329m to fund the scheme, but they spent or plan to spend just £189m.
In a debate on the policy in the Scottish Parliament it emerged talks have now taken place between Scottish Government ministers and council officials over the apparent £140 million underspend.
Council umbrella body Cosla said the analysis was “misleading”, but Mark McDonald, the Childcare Minister insisted the figures showed the Scottish Government had fully funded its childcare policy.
He said: “Where the money allocated does not all appear to have been spent as intended, it would be for local authorities to account for their own spending.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel