Row Over Aberdeen’s Unfilled Nursery Places

Only half of all full day nursery school places in Aberdeen have been allocated due to a flawed city council policy, it was claimed yesterday.

Children with special educational and social needs are given priority over youngsters from stable backgrounds in the policy introduced last year. But only 128 of the 248 full-time places available in the city have been filled.

The education and leisure committee has now instructed officers to go back to the drawing board to address concerns from the SNP and Labour groups that the situation “discriminated” against ordinary families.

Nationalist Jim Kiddie, councillor for Tullos, said he was “extremely concerned” that children from stable backgrounds were losing out on places that the authority had a statutory duty to provide.

He also voiced fears about plans to reduce the number of full day places in Torry from 40 to 20.

Yvonne Allan, Labour councillor for Torry, agreed that the current policy was disadvantaging families and said she had received several complaints from constituents.

“People who have applied have been refused because their children are not classified as vulnerable,” she added.

“It is a shame that some families who want their kids to get a nursery education are being denied. We were told this would not happen when the Oscar Road nursery closed two years ago but it has.

“I have also had complaints about the hoops people have to jump through to get a place. Now you have to be interviewed by a panel and almost say your kid is vulnerable and you are a bad parent.”

Officials told the committee that there was no intention of halving the number of places.

Both committee convener Pamela MacDonald and vice-convener John Stewart agreed the policy should be reviewed. They agreed that places that were not filled by vulnerable children should be made available to others on the waiting list. Officers are expected to report back to the committee later this year.