Meeting of the Parliament 08 March 2016
I, too, thank Cara Hilton, because any opportunity to debate childcare in the early years is welcome. In this institution, we talk about higher education and schools, but I have no doubt—after almost a couple of decades in this Parliament—that the most important part of the education process is pre-school, so I thank her for bringing the debate to the chamber.
The figures in the motion that jumped out at me were that only 13 per cent of local authority areas in Scotland report having enough childcare for working parents and only 9 per cent can provide childcare for disabled children.
A point that I took from the Care Inspectorate report—I read a few reports in advance of the debate—was that 29 per cent of children in urban areas are attending early learning, compared with 13 per cent in remote rural areas. As an MSP for the Highlands and Islands, I think that many people are missing out simply because of transport and other issues.
As I am talking about missing out, I note that my colleague Liz Smith has spoken for many years about the fact that some people get six terms of free pre-school childcare while others get four terms. The figure of 600 hours a year for two years is misleading because, if a child is born between 1 March and the end of August, they will get six terms; if they are born between 1 September and the end of December, they will get five terms; and if they are born between 1 January and the last day of February, they will get four terms. That is odd, and I know that Liz Smith has pointed it out regularly. I had not appreciated that paragraph 68 of the statutory guidance says that arrangements
“to commence closer to the child’s third birthday are encouraged to support longer term aims to increase the amount of early learning”,
but I understand that that is at local authorities’ discretion. I further understand that they would not receive any additional funding for that. If we are looking for a fair system in which everybody gets two years of pre-school provision, we have to look at the additional funding.
In the report by the Family and Childcare Trust that Cara Hilton has mentioned regularly, the 13 per cent of local authorities in Scotland that provide enough childcare for working parents compare with 43 per cent in England. Iain Gray talked about catching up. We are not just 1 or 2 per cent behind England; England’s figure is three times higher than ours. I hope that the minister will address that issue today. I think that we are addressing that over the longer term.
When it comes to costing, George Adam mentioned more than 1,000 hours of provision, and Nicola Sturgeon has said that she would double childcare funding from £439 million to £880 million. Having spent five years in the Public Audit Committee, I ask how she knows that the cost will be £880 million. Will the cost be more? Will it be less? Where does that figure come from? If everyone was able to take up the childcare, it might cost a lot more. Just because the figure is doubled, that does not mean that it is an adequate figure to use.
In the short time that I have left in the debate, I will mention a hustings that I was at, probably less than a year ago. I heard that councils across Scotland pay varying rates for childcare to independent nurseries. Some nurseries were receiving £5 an hour for each child, and others were receiving less than £3.
That leads me to my next point. Another thing about this Parliament is that we have never ever properly valued the contribution that childcare, early years and nursery staff make. Those staff are more qualified and they are registered with the Scottish Social Services Council. The Care Inspectorate is rigorous in its inspections, and the quality of provision is excellent. We need to fund the councils and the councils need to fund the nurseries and, above all, we need to value the staff who look after children in Scotland day after day.
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