Working parents aren't being offered flexibility

A parents’ group is demanding that council-run nurseries offer more flexible opening hours after research revealed nine out of 10 don’t provide the cover working parents need.

A damning Audit Scotland childcare report published last week show just one in 10 council nurseries are open between 8am-6pm or longer.

Fair Funding for our Kids is calling for all council-run nurseries to open between 8am-6pm - the hours campaigners say most parents need.

Although 23 councils claimed they offered at least some children “full-day” places, the research showed only 3% of all children attending council nurseries have nursery places starting at 8am or earlier.

And just 2% have places ending at 5.15pm or later.

Carolyn Lochhead, parent volunteer at the campaign group, said: “Our research shows that the system is just not set up for working parents - the very people the Scottish Government say they want to help.

“If you don’t have grandparents nearby who can help with drop-off and pick-up, then it’s almost impossible to make use of a council nursery place.”

Among the recommendations camapigners are calling for are: an end to councils capping the number of places in partnership nurseries they will fund; a national agreement on funding children who live in one area but need to attend nursery in another; and ring-fenced childcare funding.

In Glasgow, less than two-fifths of the 110 council nurseries are open between 8am-6pm. Despite the council’s claim that 43 of its nurseries do operate these opening hours, it appears few children are benefitting from them: just 6% of children start at 8am or earlier, and only 4% finish at 5.15pm or later

Lanarkshire parent Moira Gibb said: “I’ve had to change my working hours to do thirty hours over five days, so I can collect my little girl at 4pm. And even that wouldn’t work if my dad didn’t do a 40 mile round trip every day to take her to nursery.”

In East Renfrewshire, all of the 17 local authority nurseries are open between 8am-6pm or longer, yet in neighbouring Renfrewshire, less than half of its 34 nurseries offer these hours.

Parents of children aged three or four are entitled to 600 hours of free childcare per year while the Scottish Government says its early learning and childcare policy should "support parents to work, train or study, especially those who need help with finding sustainable employment."

The Scottish Government said it doubling the free hours entitlement to 1,140 hours per year, by 2020.