Flexible early learning and childcare

Local authorities are now offering new patterns of early learning and childcare to provide more flexibility for families.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a requirement on local authorities to offer more flexibility and choice over how funded hours are offered, and to do this following local consultations with parents and carers every two years. This is so that flexibility and choice can continue to increase year on year.

The Minister for Childcare and Early Years Mark McDonald highlighted examples of flexibility during a visit to Crookston Early Years Centre in Glasgow which is open all year, including school holidays. For example, City of Edinburgh and Falkirk Councils now provide full day places and some Aberdeenshire nurseries offer wrap around care.

Mr McDonald said:

“The early years are a crucial time in a child’s development and evidence has shown access to high quality early learning and childcare helps improve educational outcomes. In addition to the educational benefits for children, free provision can help parents and carers to return to work, training or education.

“We know that access to free provision can be an issue for some families. That’s why we made it a legal requirement for local authorities to increase flexibility and choice and I’m delighted that many of them are already offering more choice to families.

“It’s fantastic that nurseries like Crookston Early Years Centre are offering year round provision; and that local authorities are providing additional wrap around care or using more child minders and partner providers to meet parents’ needs.

“I look forward to working closely with local authorities and partner providers as we continue our work to expand provision even further to 1,140 free hours by 2020.”