Keynote Scottish Government programme providing 1140 hours of free childcare is 'beginning to fail' amid a stand-off in the Highlands over funding between private nurseries and the council as Cllr Andrew Jarvie asks if the council can’t work within private sector budgets 'how on earth does it expect our partners to be able to?'
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A KEYNOTE Scottish Government programme providing 1140 hours of free early learning and childcare (ELC) is “beginning to fail” in the Highlands amid a stand-off over funding between private nurseries and Highland Council.
Nursery owners 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 and the share for private nurseries is £7.5 million annually but the council is accused of paying more to its own nurseries than to those in the private sector.
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Carol MacRae, whose nursery Ankerville has 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.”
Wick and East Caithness councillor Andrew Jarvie said: “I’m slightly concerned along with Councillor Alasdair Christie with some of the wording in the recommendations here,” he said. “Particularly, when it’s in very vague terms of ‘we’re going to review the Devolved School Management and ELC budgets.’ What does that mean?
“This report was obviously written with some objective in mind – either you want to cut those budgets to close the council’s own budget gap or you actually want to fairly review them to make sure our partners get a fair rate and our partners are treated as partners and not as subservient.
“If the council thinks that it is fair to provide that level of funding to our partners, if the council recognises it can’t do it itself on those budgets, how on earth does it expect our partners to be able to?”
Council bosses like education committee chairman John Finlayson say no final decision has been taken and the matter remains under review but that there would be no increase.
He said: “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.
“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.
“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.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said council’s must make the system fair: “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.”
