Enhanced free early learning and childcare hours provision is 'beginning to fail' in Highlands
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A keynote Scottish Government programme providing 1140 hours of free early learning and childcare (ELC) is 'beginning to fail' in the region amid a stand-off over funding between private nurseries and Highland Council.
Nursery owners and managers say they are facing a 'grave threat' because the SNP-Independent council administration froze fees which childcare providers say amounts to a 34 per cent cut in funding.
The Lib Dem and Tory groups challenged the move but a majority agreed that the rates for ELC would stay at £5.43 an hour for the 51 funded partner providers plus 28 commissioned childminders.
The Scottish Government provides ring-fenced cash amounting to £7.5 million annually for the service but the council is accused of paying more to council-run nurseries than to those in the private sector.
Ahead of the meeting, members were emailed the concerns of 10 ELC providers from Tain, Dingwall, Beauly, Tore, Culloden, Inverness and Tain who slammed the local authority for choosing to unilaterally 'dictate our funding rate'.
Carol MacRae said her nursery Ankerville with facilities in Alness and Tain said providers are seeing a 'mass exodus' of staff to council nurseries arguing funding allocations are fundamentally unfair.
“The problem is the local authority are dictating the funding rate while at the same time they are our competitors and I think that the Scottish Government really needs to take the power away from local authorities,” she said.
“We can’t pay them the same rate as the local authority staff so we lose a huge chunk of our staff that we have trained who then move on to local authority nurseries.”
Conservative group co-leader Helen Crawford said: “Our ELC partners provide quality early learning childcare to over 1600 children in our region.
"Highland Council does not have the capacity to provide that care so it’s vital that our ELC partners continue to be robust.
“The reason that this sector matters is that it provides the sort of wrap around care that allows hard-working families to get out and work.
"If we pull the rug out from under their feet, we are literally saying to hardworking families, who are economically active, that we don’t really care all that much about you.
“And this sector is telling us, loud and clear, that they will no longer be viable, they will no longer be able to pay the Living Wage to their employees and will have to consider closing their doors.
“They are absolutely central to how many families manage their working week so we’re asking the council to enter into meaningful dialogue with them and to do so at speed.”
Council bosses say no final decision has been taken and the matter remains under review but at the same time it was accepted that there would be no increase – due to the financial crisis the council is enduring.
Education committee chairman John Finlayson said: “I think, members, that context is everything. No one more than I would like to get more resources and funding to all our services and certainty to all our education settings and partner settings. But there is a reality.
“As has already been highlighted, the council is faced with a £9.6 million overspend in the current year and the possible £41 million gap between 2023/24 and, because of this, it's not possible to consider recommendations relating to recurring funding at this stage because we have to address the current financial crisis.
“There remain risks and uncertainty relating to teachers' pay – the current one being rejected. A 10 per cent increase in pay would cost the council an additional £16 million. This, as we know, would only add to the large financial gap that the chief executive described.
“So the reality is that ELC partner centres did receive an interim uplift last year – the council agreed that in 2021 – what the council cannot do at this time is commit to further uplifts in light of the financial crisis that we are discussing. And let's remember, it is a crisis.”
The Scottish Government said that council’s must set 'sustainable rates' for ELC that take into account costs, the need for reinvestment, and enable the private sector to the real living wage.
A spokesman said: “Local authorities are responsible for setting sustainable rates for the delivery of funded early learning and childcare in 2022-23.
“Joint Scottish Government and COSLA guidance is clear that rates should reflect the costs of delivery, provide scope for reinvestment and enable private and third sector services to pay at least the Real Living Wage to staff delivering funded ELC.
“We have the highest funding rates in the UK, with rates paid to providers increasing by 48 per cent from 2017-2021 for three to five- year-olds. As of the end of April 2022, 121,101 children were accessing funded ELC across Scotland.”
