North Lanarkshire Council nursery boost falls foul of virus crisis

Before lockdown, the local authority had been on track to deliver the Scottish Government’s policy of providing 1140 hours of nursery or childcare to every eligible child in the area.

However the lockdown disrupted progress with the necessary construction and updating of buildings grinding to a halt while staff recruitment slowed or stopped entirely.

And the council admitted that the measures were not in a position to go ahead in the short-term.

A council spokesman said: “We have made very positive progress towards the implementation of 1140hours and we were on track to provide additional high-quality early learning and childcare for our young children from August 2020.

“The Scottish Government removed the statutory duty on local authorities to carry out 1140 hours’ expansion plans due to coronavirus health crisis and to allow a focus on providing essential childcare for key workers.

“The health emergency and consequent measures put in place have had an impact on the delivery of the 1140 hours’ programme such as a delay in the construction work at some new-build facilities, some recruitment programmes and on the number of children being cared for within early learning and childcare settings due to the reduction in staff to children ratios.

“The safety of our children and staff is a priority for us and due to this, we cannot reasonably assess when the full delivery (1140 hours) may be achievable in the short-term until the subsequent impact of pandemic is clear.

“We are working through placement applications and expect to notify parents and carers next week.”

The Scottish Government lifted its deadline for the expansion, which had been set for August 2020, in March as the focus shifted to fighting coronavirus.

A joint statement from children’s minister Maree Todd and COSLA spokesman Councillor Stephen McCabe reads:“Before the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic became clear a couple of weeks ago, Audit Scotland confirmed we were on track to deliver 1140 hours of early learning and childcare from August 2020.

“Indeed, councils had already built or refurbished hundreds of buildings and recruited thousands of additional staff, and in excess of 50,000 children were already receiving more than the current entitlement of 600 hours.

“However, in these exceptional circumstances it is not realistic or reasonable to expect that local authorities can deliver their original expansion in time for August.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to continue with the planned recruitment and infrastructure projects required to support expansion.  As we focus on saving lives and looking after people most vulnerable to the virus the immediate priority is to ensure that we have the emergency childcare in place to support families during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“To support local government with this critical response work, the Scottish Government has now moved to suspend the statutory duty on local authorities to provide 1140 hours of early learning and childcare from this August.

“Tens of thousands of children have already benefited from expanded hours, and we expect this will continue when normal provision resumes.  Once there is a clearer picture of the impact and duration of the pandemic response measures, we will work together to agree the right time to reinstate the statutory requirement and ensure that all eligible children can access 1140 hours of high quality early learning and childcare.”

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