Parents welcome Falkirk Council promise over nursery education

Parents will be contacted this week with details of what it means for their child but even settings that can’t yet offer 1140 hours will offer 736.25 hours – an increase from the current 600 hours.

The flagship policy gives parents more flexibility around how they organise childcare and almost doubles the numbers of hours of funded education three and four-year-olds receive.

Children’s Services say they plan to recruit a further 30 
temporary staff to provide support from August until December.

The news was greeted with relief by parents who had understood from information on the council’s website that the flagship policy had been put on hold for the coming year.

It stated: “During the course of session 2020-2021, 600 hours will be the maximum placement allocated/funded in all settings.”

This prompted mum-of-two Jodie Barron to set up a petition which gathered more than 1200 signatures, while dozens of parents wrote to politicians and councillors to demand answers.

However, last week, director of Children’s Services Robert Naylor announced that the 1140 was going ahead in August.

This week details were announced at another emergency executive meeting.

Jodie said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic – we’re over the moon. To be told that it will be restarting in August is more than we could have hoped for.”

Council leader Cecil Meiklejohn said there had been a lot of misinformation about the 1140 plans.

She said: “We have always been committed to it and we did have plans in place to be able to do that by 2020, however, Covid struck and a couple of the larger projects have been significantly hit time-wise.

“We are now looking to progress smaller projects so that we can fairly quickly deliver the 1140 to those who add it but also increase the offer in a phased approach.

“We’re still committed to doing that and want to be able to progress it as quickly as possible.”

She added: “”It has been a very fluid environment and guidance has been changing very quickly. Sometimes changes have come before we’ve had the opportunity to share information with parents and that has created confusion.

“I think there has been a misinterpretation around the Scottish Government’s legislative commitment for local authorities to deliver 1140 by August 2020 – that has been misunderstood as the programme being halted.

“The programme hasn’t been halted – it’s been delayed. We had do that as a process so we weren’t contravening a legal agreement, so I think that’s all been put into the mix and misunderstood.

“We’re committed to 1140 – it’s the right thing to do.”

Councillor Joan Coombes welcomed the clarity that the announcement had brought but said she felt the communication with parents had not been good enough.

She said: “I know that it’s been a very difficult and challenging time for our education staff but this has a big impact on people’s lives and has caused a lot of stress to parents.”