Meeting of the Parliament 08 March 2016
Liam McArthur must have seen my speech already, as I will turn to that issue shortly.
Things are getting worse. The figure that I mentioned is down 2 per cent on last year’s figure, and it compares with 23 per cent in 2014. It is also a concern that just 9 per cent of local authorities have enough childcare for parents with disabled children. Only 4 per cent can cater for parents with atypical work patterns.
All of that highlights why there is an urgent need for genuine national oversight of childcare policy to ensure that the needs of parents in Scotland can be met. Despite the obligation in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 for local authorities to consult and publish plans for childcare for both under-fives and out-of-school care, 16 local authorities in Scotland told the Family and Childcare Trust that they had no information about local childcare supply and parental demand for it. If local authorities and providers have little knowledge of the needs of local parents, how can they intervene to fill the gaps in provision?
It was Scottish Labour that first introduced free early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds. My motion welcomes the Scottish Government’s extension of provision to 600 hours, but the reality is that, although that is great for children’s development, it has very little impact on the childcare costs of the majority of working parents. Few jobs fit around a space that is available for three hours a day during term-time only, and many parents continue to pay a childminder or nursery while their child uses their free space—that is often the only way to keep their childminder or private nursery space available.
Other parents are unable to access their free hours at all due to their work patterns and a lack of free spaces available in private nurseries. Moreover, many councils have a lack of enthusiasm for allowing childminders to become partner providers.
The fair funding for our kids campaign has found that as many as one in five children are not getting the place that they are entitled to. That has been backed up the National Day Nurseries Association, which has said that 43 per cent of private nurseries have had the number of free places that they can offer to parents capped. On average, there is a waiting list of 11 children for each free space that children are entitled to but cannot access.
Throughout Scotland, thousands of parents are unable to access their free entitlement because of the lack of flexibility that still exists. It is a concern that the Family and Childcare Trust report found little evidence to suggest that action is being taken to address that.
I know that the Minister for Children and Young People is well aware of those issues and is as keen to find a solution as I am, but it is frustrating for mums and dads who are already juggling work, family and childcare to listen to politicians in the Parliament saying that parents are hundreds of pounds a year better off thanks to free childcare when the spin quite often does not reflect the reality of parents’ lives.
The reality for parents throughout Scotland is that childcare costs are spiralling faster than anywhere else in the UK outside London. The cost of a nursery place has risen by up to 30 per cent in Scotland over this session of the Parliament.
Last year, the commission for childcare reform set out a bold vision for the transformation of childcare. The Family and Childcare Trust has also urged urgent reform of the system. I also highlight the fair funding for our kids proposal for a 10-year plan to transform childcare in Scotland. We know that investment in quality and affordable early learning and childcare is crucial not just because it makes work pay, but because it helps to close the attainment gap and supports our economy and employers. It seems that we all want change, and no one wants it more than mums and dads who are faced with huge childcare bills.
Once more, the debate is being shaped by point scoring over free hours. For May’s election, parents are being promised more free childcare, with a doubling of free hours for three and four-year-olds by 2020. I do not have the time now to discuss the challenges in making that happen, but experts, providers, academics, children’s organisations and, above all, parents agree that childcare has to be about affordability, quality and flexibility, as well as free hours.
Scotland needs a childcare policy designed to fit around the lives of working parents, not designed to fit on an election leaflet or pledge card. It is not just about free hours, good as those are. We need a childcare system that supports parents with children of all ages—a system that recognises that childcare challenges do not end when children start school, which supports parents not just with pre-schoolers but with babies and toddlers, which puts affordability and flexibility at its heart, and which supports working parents and our economy, too.
Whatever the result in May, I hope that we can work together across the political divide to deliver the childcare revolution that Scotland’s families need and that Scotland’s children deserve.
19:30