Chamber
Plenary, 17 Nov 1999
17 Nov 1999 · S1 · Plenary
Item of business
Child Care Strategy
Immediately before I became an MSP, I worked for Angus Council, helping to implement the child care strategy. Like most practitioners, I welcomed the fact that at last we had a national strategy to implement, even if some of us suspected that the prime motivating factor was related to adult employment, and that the enhanced child care was simply the means to encourage more women in particular into the workplace.
Everyone involved in child care and education supports the moves to expand quality, accessible and affordable child care provision in Scotland, but the process of achieving that has not been simple. There are various pots of money in existence, allocated to different departments of local authorities, to agencies outwith, including health boards, and to the voluntary sector. It has been left to workers on the ground to integrate the planning and funding of new developments.
Local authority staff have been under particularly great pressure to implement the Government's proposals and to spend the allocated funding. They have been reacting, rather than having the time or flexibility to plan the services that are most appropriate for meeting the needs of children and families in the communities that they serve. That has been exacerbated by the fact that the initiatives have come at a time when it is increasingly difficult for local authorities to sustain their existing core provision, because of budget cutbacks in previous years.
As well as improved integration of service delivery, serious consideration should be given to the co-ordination of the now numerous plans required for children's services, which at present have different lead agencies, timetables and accountability requirements. Other initiatives, such as social inclusion partnerships, affect child care, and it should be the Executive's responsibility to integrate planning requirements to ensure that there is a complementary time scale and shared responsibility.
Parental expectations have been high following the announcement of increased nursery provision. Parents are generally not concerned about the fine detail of, for example, Government funding being available only for children in the pre-school year. Some of them choose deferred entry, which is a legitimate choice, and local authorities are funding that provision from their existing budgets.
Angus Council practises child-centred policies, under which interpretations of the guidelines have been inclusive and investment high. This year, the council is accommodating 171 pre-school children for whom there is no Government funding. At £1,175 per place, a great deal of money is involved.
Setting targets for places for three-year-olds for each year until 2002 is a good idea, but instead of funding provision for 60 per cent of eligible children, for whom funds are available, Angus Council is this year funding 82 per cent of the places. That is good practice, although it is a considerable financial burden.
Let us again look at the example of out-of-school care. Many of the clubs that were set up under the first Government initiative have been struggling to survive since that funding ended. The new opportunities fund could have offered a lifeline to those clubs, but against all the advice given during the consultation period, the Government has made the funding available for new or expanded provision for one year only. That does nothing to sustain existing clubs, particularly those in rural areas.
It is increasingly unrealistic to expect the voluntary sector and working parent-led groups to take on the responsibility for establishing out-of-school care and to run the clubs with limited financial support. Consideration must be given to mainstreaming that provision, because that would obviate the need for that sector of child care to make regular and complicated bids for time-limited lottery cash. We will achieve high-quality, affordable and accessible child care only when planning is integrated and sustainability assured with a commitment from local and central Government.
Everyone involved in child care and education supports the moves to expand quality, accessible and affordable child care provision in Scotland, but the process of achieving that has not been simple. There are various pots of money in existence, allocated to different departments of local authorities, to agencies outwith, including health boards, and to the voluntary sector. It has been left to workers on the ground to integrate the planning and funding of new developments.
Local authority staff have been under particularly great pressure to implement the Government's proposals and to spend the allocated funding. They have been reacting, rather than having the time or flexibility to plan the services that are most appropriate for meeting the needs of children and families in the communities that they serve. That has been exacerbated by the fact that the initiatives have come at a time when it is increasingly difficult for local authorities to sustain their existing core provision, because of budget cutbacks in previous years.
As well as improved integration of service delivery, serious consideration should be given to the co-ordination of the now numerous plans required for children's services, which at present have different lead agencies, timetables and accountability requirements. Other initiatives, such as social inclusion partnerships, affect child care, and it should be the Executive's responsibility to integrate planning requirements to ensure that there is a complementary time scale and shared responsibility.
Parental expectations have been high following the announcement of increased nursery provision. Parents are generally not concerned about the fine detail of, for example, Government funding being available only for children in the pre-school year. Some of them choose deferred entry, which is a legitimate choice, and local authorities are funding that provision from their existing budgets.
Angus Council practises child-centred policies, under which interpretations of the guidelines have been inclusive and investment high. This year, the council is accommodating 171 pre-school children for whom there is no Government funding. At £1,175 per place, a great deal of money is involved.
Setting targets for places for three-year-olds for each year until 2002 is a good idea, but instead of funding provision for 60 per cent of eligible children, for whom funds are available, Angus Council is this year funding 82 per cent of the places. That is good practice, although it is a considerable financial burden.
Let us again look at the example of out-of-school care. Many of the clubs that were set up under the first Government initiative have been struggling to survive since that funding ended. The new opportunities fund could have offered a lifeline to those clubs, but against all the advice given during the consultation period, the Government has made the funding available for new or expanded provision for one year only. That does nothing to sustain existing clubs, particularly those in rural areas.
It is increasingly unrealistic to expect the voluntary sector and working parent-led groups to take on the responsibility for establishing out-of-school care and to run the clubs with limited financial support. Consideration must be given to mainstreaming that provision, because that would obviate the need for that sector of child care to make regular and complicated bids for time-limited lottery cash. We will achieve high-quality, affordable and accessible child care only when planning is integrated and sustainability assured with a commitment from local and central Government.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Patricia Ferguson):
Lab
The next item of business is a debate on motion S1M-285 in the name of Mr Sam Galbraith, on the Scottish Executive's child care strategy for Scotland, and an...
The Minister for Children and Education (Mr Sam Galbraith):
Lab
Thank you, Presiding Officer.I hope that we will not find too much difference among the parties in this debate; that is reflected in the amendment lodged by ...
Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
I welcome this afternoon's debate on the Scottish Executive's child care strategy for Scotland. The child care strategy is one of many policies that has been...
Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
Will the member give way?
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
Not just now; let me get into my stride. Early education and child care should not be a political battleground. We have a shared interest in securing for eve...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab):
Lab
I welcome the tone of Nicola Sturgeon's speech and I thank her for visiting my constituency this morning. Does she realise that, as part of the national chil...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
The child care tax credit is certainly a step in the right direction and some of my colleagues will mention it, but there are loopholes and weaknesses in it....
Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
I am pleased to welcome what the minister said. I see that that brings a smile to his face. I hope that he will still be smiling at the end of my short contr...
Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP):
SNP
Will the member give way?
Mr Monteith:
Con
I thought that no one was going to ask. I have been waiting for an intervention—I even wrote "intervention" on my notes—so I am glad that Fiona Hyslop has ob...
Fiona Hyslop:
SNP
The subject of free education is topical at the moment, given the issue of tuition fees. Does the Conservative education spokesperson believe in free educati...
Mr Monteith:
Con
No. The Conservatives do not believe in universal provision of free education for three and four-year-olds. However, we recognise that there must be some sta...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Will the member give way?
Mr Monteith:
Con
I am practically out of time, but I will give way if the intervention is relevant to my previous point.
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Given that after-school clubs will be supported mainly by the child care tax credit element of the working families tax credit, how will the Conservatives' p...
Mr Monteith:
Con
As is quite clear, we intend to ensure that funding is made available for such clubs. We do not intend to introduce a system that brings in more means testin...
Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD):
LD
It is my pleasure, and my party's pleasure, to support warmly Sam Galbraith's motion. The great thing about coming fourth in the opening speeches is that one...
Mr Stone:
LD
I see the deputy minister nodding. There has been a worryingly high turnover of staff up to now, and we must fine-tune that issue. The minister has drawn the...
Mrs Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab):
Lab
I welcome today's announcements. Any child care strategy should be developed in the way that this strategy has been—with much input from many people. Althoug...
Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
Immediately before I became an MSP, I worked for Angus Council, helping to implement the child care strategy. Like most practitioners, I welcomed the fact th...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab):
Lab
There is nothing complacent about the Executive's motion, and I am sure that the Scottish National party amendment would have been accepted had it not implie...
Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
I thank Malcolm Chisholm for his contribution, even though he said about a quarter of the things that I wanted to say in my speech. The Scottish National par...
Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab):
Lab
I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak in the debate. Like others, I commend the Executive for pursuing the strategy of good- quality, affordable and...
Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con):
Con
As a parent who depended very much on the good will of my own family, my in-laws and friends, I welcome the child care strategy. There is no doubt that a mor...
Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab):
Lab
I welcome the opportunity to debate the child care strategy for Scotland. For too long children have been seen as little more than passive recipients of serv...
Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
I will talk briefly about the qualifications of child care workers, and also about a more integrated approach that includes social inclusion partnerships as ...
Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD):
LD
I would like to congratulate the Executive on the progress that it has made on child care. The issue is widely supported across the parties and the Executive...
Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab):
Lab
I warmly welcome the Minister for Children and Education's statement. The new allocation for child care represents something in the order of a 140 per cent i...
Mr Monteith:
Con
I point out to Helen Eadie that, in the first year after the voucher scheme was introduced, 63,467 children attended some form of pre-school education. Only ...
Helen Eadie:
Lab
At the general election, I was a candidate in Roxburgh and Berwickshire, where I worked for 18 months to two years. I know that there was great hostility the...