The Scottish Conservatives are backing more than 200 nurseries who have written to Nicola Sturgeon warning that her government’s 1140 hours free childcare policy is in jeopardy unless urgent action is taken to tackle unfair pay disparities.
The letter, signed by concerned childcare providers, calls for the First Minister to immediately address the issue - which could lead to a mass exodus of staff from private to council nurseries - or else many of the former may be forced to close.
The SNP’s policy provides parents with 1140 hours of free childcare which can be used in either council nurseries or with a private childcare provider.
But an unequal funding formula fixed by the Scottish Government means public-sector nurseries can afford to pay their staff between 30 and 50% more than private nurseries.
This has seen some private nurseries lose over half their staff, who have switched to a local-authority equivalent for the promise of higher pay.
They are warning the First Minister that they could face closure – leaving her flagship 1140 policy in tatters – unless this anomaly is resolved so that funding follows the child, irrespective of which nursery their parents choose to send them to.
Shadow minister Meghan Gallacher, who last week met with representatives from private nurseries, supports their plea for the Scottish Government to fix the “serious flaws” in the policy.
Ros White, Nursery Group Owner at Sparklers Nurseries Ltd said: “We want to be able to deliver these hours for children and parents - all we are asking from Nicola Sturgeon is for it be fair and equal, so we can pay our hardworking staff the same as those in local council nurseries.
“We are dedicated to the children in our care – but this policy has created a two-tier system for the families in Scotland and without fixing this issue we’re at risk of more nurseries closing and the delivery of the 1140 hours coming crashing to the ground – and none of us want that. We want to be able to deliver 1140 hours of high quality, flexible and inclusive childcare and education.
“We are asking the Scottish Government to address the disparity of funding between the local authority nurseries and the private/ voluntary providers”
Parent Laura Ryrie said: “I am shocked to hear that there is a different rate for my nursery and local authority nurseries. Every child should be awarded the same funding, whichever nursery they choose. Surely the staff are doing the same job, no matter which sector they work in.
“It is grossly unfair that there is such a gap in salaries. The government really need to get this fixed as it’s going to cause a lot of stress for parents down the line if their nursery is forced to close.”
Scottish Conservative Shadow Minister for Children and Young People, Meghan Gallacher MSP, said: “Serious flaws in the SNP's childcare rollout are putting the entire 1140 hours policy at risk.
"This letter should be a wake-up call to the SNP Government. Nurseries are warning they may go out of business unless ministers engage and work with them.
“Parents will be rightly furious if private nurseries are forced to reduce the hours they open, or shut completely, because the government failed to act.
“Nicola Sturgeon must respond immediately to the warnings of private nursery owners and end the unfair pay-rate disparity.”
Notes
- Funded early learning and childcare is available to all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds. From August 2021, the entitlement will increase to 1,140 hours a year (30 hours a week if taken term time). The expansion of funded early learning and childcare was originally intended for August 2020. (Scottish Government, n.d., link).
- The SNP would likely have missed their original 1,140 hours deadline of August 2020. An Audit Scotland report highlighted that with just five months remaining, the SNP still had to recruit half of the required staff and a significant amount of the building infrastructure was still to be completed (Audit Scotland, Early Learning and Childcare, 3 March 2020, link).
- The SNP used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to postpone their policy of 1,140 hours of childcare. The SNP delayed the August 2020 deadline for this policy at the start of the pandemic, then failed to consult on reintroducing this deadline until December 2020 when they announced a new deadline of August 2021 – a full year later than they originally stated (Scottish Government, 08 July 2020, link; Scottish Government, Childcare expansion from August 2021, 14 December 2020, link).
- The Scottish Conservatives brought up the issue of fair treatment of partner providers in 1,140 hours of childcare to the First Minister in January 2019. Brian Whittle MSP asked in First Minister Question’s: ‘To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to ensure that partner providers are part of a sustainable solution for the roll-out of 1,140 hours of funded childcare.’ Brian Whittle also followed up with: ‘I bring to the attention of the First Minister and the Scottish Government the fact that the investment that they have provided for the policy is not in many cases creating collaborative working between councils and partner providers… With that in mind, will the First Minister further commit her Government to ensuring that, as part of the 1,140 hours childcare roll-out, partner providers across all councils are treated fairly? If we lose them, this important policy will fail.’ (Scottish Parliament, Meeting of the Parliament, 24 January 2019, link).
- The Nicola Sturgeon’s reply to Brain Whittle’s First Minister Question shows that she recognized the issue back in 2019. Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘The funding-follows-the-child model empowers parents to access their child’s 1,140 hours entitlement from any high-quality setting in the public, private or third sector that meets our new provider-neutral national standard. We have established a partnership forum to ensure that providers’ voices are heard and responded to. In our delivery support plan, which was published in December, we set out a range of actions to help providers to transition to 2020. The funding deal that we reached with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to deliver the expansion secures sustainable and significantly increased funding rates for all providers. That is exactly what providers called for in a recent member survey from the National Day Nurseries Association.’ (Scottish Parliament, Meeting of the Parliament, 24 January 2019, link).
- The First Minister knew that this would be an issue back in 2017. In 2017, around 80 per cent of practitioners and half of supervisors in the private and third sector providers that deliver the Scottish Government’s 600 hours of free early learning and childcare are not paid the Living Wage. (Buchan Observer, 20 March 2017, link).
- Private nurseries warned that the SNP’s ELC expansion was destroying their businesses. In 2018, a number of childcare providers wrote to the SNP, saying that ‘the partner providers are literally on their knees and I believe this ambitious policy is about to implode.’ And ‘if this plan goes ahead, there will be services who will definitely not survive 2018 never mind 2020. We are now fighting for survival’ (The Scotsman, 10 October 2018, link).
- In 2019, Nicola Sturgeon admitted she is aware of ‘concerns’ from private providers. She said: ‘I am aware that there are concerns on the part of private providers about the roll-out of the policy and its potential implications for them…It is in everybody’s interests for us to take private providers with us on this journey, because the policy will not be delivered without their valuable contribution. We recognise the anxieties and concerns and we will continue to work with providers to address and respond to them in a systematic and patient way’ (Scottish Parliament, Official Report, 24 January 2019, link).