Meeting of the Parliament 03 June 2015
Over the past months, I have seen a considerable number of parents who have been upset and disheartened by the way that Glasgow City Council has dealt with the partnership nurseries in Glasgow. The council must recognise that the needs of many parents and children cannot be met by local authority-run nurseries and that it should be doing much more to ensure a wider availability of nursery provision. There seems to have been an arbitrary dropping of funding from one year to the next for no apparent reason in many of the partnership nurseries in my constituency and, I suspect, across the city.
On the different types of nurseries and nursery provision, I want to talk about the great work that Cassiltoun Stables Nursery in Castlemilk is doing as a community-led nursery. In 2007, Cassiltoun Stables Nursery transferred from council to community ownership, and the facility has since developed into one that hosts community events, offices, training suites and, of course, a nursery.
The nursery, which opens five days a week, from 7.30 am until 6 pm, including on public holidays, is available for all. It is open during the vast majority of people’s working hours, and it solves the problem that a lot of parents have with part-time nurseries that are found to be open for only a section of the day, which, as we have already heard, makes it impossible for parents to drop their child off or pick them up, as those times will likely clash with their working hours.
Any child from just six weeks old up to the age of five can attend the Cassiltoun nursery and enjoy opportunities to develop their social skills and take part in a wide range of activities under the supervision of the excellent, professional and highly qualified staff who run the organisation, ably led by their manager Susan Palmer.
The nursery is the only nursery in Glasgow to provide a forest kindergarten for children aged three and under. That initiative works in partnership with Forestry Commission Scotland, which has helped to train the staff and has participated in activities such as walks in the forest, setting up camp, building dens, balancing on logs and sitting down for a quick drink and a snack if there is time.
Flexibility is one of the key aspects of the nursery. There is flexibility for the parents who use it and an ability to react to local circumstances. I thoroughly believe that it is a great example of a community-led nursery and a model that could be usefully utilised across Glasgow and across the country as a whole.
Unfortunately, the flexibility that is inherent in that nursery is lacking in a lot of the work that Glasgow City Council in particular is doing. Many of the constituents who have contacted me have been turned down for a place in a partnership nursery because the council will not fund that place although, as we have heard, funding is being made available from the Scottish Government. Instead, it is only offering a place in a nursery that might not be suited to the parents and, crucially, the children, for a whole number of reasons.
The services must be run for the benefit of children and parents and not for the convenience of the council. That is why I welcome the provisions of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which has introduced a statutory responsibility for local authorities to consult parents on the flexibility that they require in nursery provision, as well as the commitment to look further into how we gather data around nursery provision to ensure an increasing level of flexibility and choice. From discussions with parents, it is clear that flexibility is key in nursery provision.
Instead it is only offering a place in a nursery that might not be suited to the parents and, crucially, the children, for a whole number of reasons.
Those services must be run for the benefit of children and parents and not for the convenience of the council. That is why I welcome the provisions of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which has introduced a statutory responsibility for local authorities to consult parents on the flexibility that they require in nursery provision as well as introduced the commitment to look further into how we gather data around nursery provision to ensure an increasing level of flexibility and choice. From discussions with parents, it is clear that flexibility is key in nursery provision.