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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 26 February 2026 [Draft]

26 Feb 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
First Minister’s Question Time
Childcare (West Lothian Council)
Mackay, Gillian Green Central Scotland Watch on SPTV

High-quality, affordable childcare should not be a luxury in Scotland, but the current system is not delivering. This week, West Lothian Council voted to cut all funding for cross-boundary placements, meaning that parents where I live, Falkirk, who use private nurseries in Linlithgow are set to be hit with a huge unexpected bill.

Parents who have applied for places for their children will be denied them from 1 April and will now have to find alternative childcare at terrifyingly short notice. Children who are halfway through their current placement will be forced to move in August. That is an unacceptable level of disruption for young children and families who were promised funded childcare.

Will the First Minister intervene and help the families who will be impacted? Will his Government provide an urgent solution to councils cutting funding for cross-boundary childcare?

In the same item of business

3. Gillian Mackay (Central Scotland) (Green) Green
High-quality, affordable childcare should not be a luxury in Scotland, but the current system is not delivering. This week, West Lothian Council voted to cut...
The First Minister (John Swinney) SNP
I have every sympathy with the issue, which gets to the nub of some of the dilemmas about the delivery of local authority services that the Government has to...
Gillian Mackay Green
The Scottish Greens want to deliver free places for every child in Scotland from six months up, but the Scottish Government is not delivering the current com...
The First Minister SNP
Since 2021, the Government has put in place about £1 billion a year to provide 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare for all three and four-year...