Highland child care boost could help single parents find work

SINGLE parents in the Highlands may be able to find more work when increased child care is provided next year, a councillor has predicted.
By August 2014 all local authorities must provide 125 additional hours of free pre-school education a year.

The current requirement is 475 hours.

Councillor Bet McAllister, a member of the adult and children’s services (ASC) committee which is overseeing the shake-up, said it was a welcome move, particularly for parents.

“I think it is good for single mothers,” said the Inverness Central member. “It is a great that they might be able to go out and work for that little longer, which is what the government wants us to do. At the moment it is just not feasible because they have no-one to look after their children.”

However, nursery assistants with full-time contracts of 35 hours could face a cut in their working week to only 23 hours in the shake-up.

The council is considering whether it can deploy them to other duties, like providing support to primary one classes or using them as bank staff for other nurseries, to make up any potential reduction.

The ACS committee was warned this week that the staff had “significant concerns”.

Bill Alexander, the council’s social work director, described it as a “tremendous initiative” but warned it was a complicated process and problems would have to be ironed out locally in up to 30 nurseries.

The Scottish government has provided £2.4million to extend nursery care in the Highlands.

There are about 76 nurseries running a single session a day and it is proposed to extend that by 40 minutes. That would mean care provided for three hours and 10 minutes a day.

It could see nursery assistants and auxiliaries working an extra eight and three-and-a half hours a week, respectively.

Another 60 nurseries operate two sessions per day, but there are potential problems in extending the time for staff and children.

The local authority is hosting “roadshow” meetings with nursery staff throughout the next two months to discuss the proposals with a report on the issue to come before councillors in January.