Edinburgh childcare: Families being failed by flawed funding system, claim private nurseries

Children and families in Edinburgh and the Lothians are being failed by a flawed funding system in Scotland’s nurseries, a hard-hitting new campaign claims. 

Private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries say the Scottish Government’s promise to offer all parents of 3-5 year-olds in Scotland 1140 hours of funded pre-school childcare each year has created a two-tier system which has also let down childcare workers.

Private, voluntary and independent nurseries say the current funding system is flawed | supplied

In some cases, staff in private nurseries are paid £4 an hour less than someone doing exactly the same job in a council-run nursery in the same area, according to The 2020 Together Group set up by a group of PVI nursery owners.

The campaign group has produced a manifesto and a short video, It’s All About The Children: Fair Funding For All Scotland’s Nurseries, to explain the unfairness of the current system.

Ben McLeish, the group’s chair and owner of Almond Park Nursery in Musselburgh, East Lothian, said: “PVI nurseries are providing around 40 per cent of the places to fulfil the promise to 3-5 year-olds and their families. We are needed.

“Despite this, we receive about half the money that a public sector organisation receives to provide the same service - using staff with the same qualifications, the same experience.”

Teigan Rillie, lead practitioner at Almond Park, which cares for about 100 children every day, said: “I've lost really good colleagues to the local authority, and I understand why they leave for more money.

“But it’s sad that we don't get the same recognition [in PVI nurseries] - because we provide the same love, the same nurture, the same care to the children.”

The pay gap arises because of the way the Scottish Government funds public sector and PVI nurseries.

Ben McLeish said: “Private, voluntary and independent nursery staff are funded to the real living wage, currently £12 an hour, against a starting salary in a local authority job of the same stature at £16. We want to work with the government to close that £4 per hour gap.

“In terms of staff recruitment, that difference in the hourly rate has caused massive problems. Some nursery groups have lost hundreds of workers in recent years to the public sector - because people need to earn more money. But there is an impact on the children, who are losing their key workers, losing people they have built relationships and trust with.”

The group says all its manifesto is asking is that the Scottish Government funds all nurseries fairly, pays all staff equally and treats all children equitably.

It calls on the government to “work with 2020 Together to find a solution which will close the funding gap between council-run and private, voluntary and independent nurseries” and “agree a fairer system of long-term staff pay, which covers the additional offer to fund childcare for 1-2 year-olds”.

And it suggests setting up an independent funding body to ensure future fairness and equality and for additional funding for children with additional support needs.

Mr McLeish added: “One option would be to give each child a childcare account with an amount of money to spend, in a council setting or a PVI setting. All we’re asking for is fairness and equality.”

A nursery manager from the west of Scotland sums up the group’s position at the end of the video, saying: “Every child deserves to be funded to the same amount as the child beside them. There should be no disparity and no child valued higher, no child valued less.”