Changes made to rollout of childcare hours

The council began offering the extra hours, a Scottish Government policy, last year and is now planning to alter the scheme “to address parental and family needs”.

More families will be able to access five sessions of six hours per week, the equivalent of school days.

The proposals will be presented to councillors at a meeting on Thursday (today).

The council has six delivery models: core provision, extended day provision, stretched provision A and B, blended provision and funded provider provision.

Core provision is five sessions of six hours per week. Results from the consultation showed parents using family centres due to their location would prefer the core hours model too.

This was particularly a concern for families in Neilston and Uplawmoor who prioritised Madras Family Centre, the consultation found.

A council report states: “Although core provision is our least efficient model, this move will increase flexibility and choice for families, giving greater access to the most popular model and reduce the oversubscription of nursery classes as the exclusive providers of term time models.

“The increase to capacity within our early learning and childcare estate will also allow us to reintroduce greater flexibility for parents through the purchase of additional hours in response to demand.”

By August 2021, the capacity in East Renfrewshire will have increased from 1390 spaces to 1746.

This is due to the plans to open new nursery classes at Cross Arthurlie, Busby and Eaglesham primary schools and the new facilities at Crookfur, Glenwood and Overlee family centres.

However, the council needs around 2300 pre-school places in any one year to meet demand for places for three and four-year-olds. They work in partnership with funded providers, such as childminders and private nurseries, to meet this figure.

A two-year partnership has been agreed with 14 private and voluntary nurseries, running until June 2022. An agreement has also been reached with 20 childminders.

The Scottish Government’s 1140 hours policy doubles the entitlement from 600 hours and is available to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds.

It had been required to be rolled out by August last year, but that date was altered by the government due to the pandemic.

However, East Renfrewshire Council continued with its plans “albeit in a more limited way”. Covid-19 has delayed progress on new-build nurseries and prevented workers from completing qualifications.

The consultation process ran from October 26 to November 22 last year, with 389 parents responding. Overall, 80% of parents were satisfied with the current offer.

Lowest levels of satisfaction were linked to the lack of capacity and the opportunity to purchase additional hours, a council report states. More additional hours are expected to be available as capacity increases.