Glasgow Pledge To Lead UK With Nurseries Nearby

Parents will have access to year-round nursery provision “within buggy walking distance from their homes” in what has been described as the UK’s most comprehensive and flexible childcare service.

In a radical overhaul of its childhood services across the next five years, Glasgow City Council is aiming to increase the entitlement to free education for all three and four-year-olds from 12.5 hours to 15 hours, and by 2009 half of all eligible parents should have access to school and community-based childcare for five to 14-year-olds.

Parents would be able to book the hours they need and contribute towards the cost where required.

Within the next two years Glasgow City Council is also attempting to offer children, young people and their families access to sports, music, play and other activities by keeping schools open from 8am until at least 6pm. The scheme, when fully operational, will cost £10m a year, with most of the money being reallocated from other areas and from the ongoing streamlining of senior management within the education department.

The council also believes there is up to £2m in “free money”, essentially untapped tax credits, to help families pay for the care provision, with the lack of relevant services the reason why the money is currently unclaimed.

However, opposition leaders in the city have said that unless the council addresses the cull of nursery teachers within the past six years, the overhaul “is in danger of being little more than window dressing”.

As part of the council’s strategy, due to be approved on Friday, five pilot schemes in eight centres across Glasgow will be launched in November, costing £3.25m over two years.

Nursery admissions and the charging system will be reformed in the pilot areas to include a priority banding system for the allocation of extended nursery places, which will prioritise parents wishing to access education, training or employment.

A standard rate of £2 per hour will be charged, with reduced rates to help those who cannot afford it or are training to return to work, and there will also be reduced rates for those with more than one child.

According to the council, with the new pricing system allowing parents to claim more tax credits, some will receive as much as 80% of their childcare.

Information on employment opportunities will also be provided to parents at the point where they drop off their children, in an attempt to increase the regularity with which they receive the details.

The council has been refining the scheme for over a year against a backdrop of ongoing child poverty and worklessness.

Recent research has shown that by the age of three, being in poverty makes a difference equivalent to nine months’ development in school readiness, and at each stage of compulsory schooling the gap grows.

The big jump occurs in secondary, with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds being two years behind, and children who do badly at primary less likely to improve at secondary if they are poor. Also, children of non-manual workers are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to go to university than children of manual workers.

More than one-quarter of Glasgow’s working-age residents (26%) claim a key worklessness or income- related benefit compared to 17% across Scotland.

There are also almost 14,000 single parents in the city, many of whom are prevented from entering the workplace due to childcare costs and times.

Launching the scheme, city council leader Steven Purcell said the strategy was “at the heart” of the authority’s priority of providing first-rate childcare from birth through to 14 and addressing the needs of parents for whom the cost is a struggle.

Mr Purcell said: “The new pricing policy is a fair way to allow us to run and invest in an excellent childcare service that will benefit many hard-working families.

“There will be a sliding scale of prices linked to tax credit entitlement and each parent will receive personal assistance to make sure they are claiming everything they are entitled to.”

However, Glasgow’s SNP education spokeswoman Patricia Gibson said: “There’s much in the report no-one would disagree with but since 2002 a total of 63 nursery teacher posts have been axed against HMI advice.

“If we’re serious about raising standards we have to invest in early years because if we don’t we’re chasing it later on at a much higher cost.

“If we don’t address this, or the £15.2m surplus in the education budget, this strategy is in danger of being little more than window dressing.”