The extension targets private and voluntary provision, as most state-runsettings already run for 38 weeks through the school year.
Fiona Hyslop, minister for education and lifelong learning, pledged25m for education in the Scottish Parliament last week. Thisincludes 9m to create 300 new teaching posts this August,prioritising pre-school settings and reducing class sizes from P1 to P3.Local authorities will be in charge of distributing the ScottishExecutive funding to providers.
The entitlement for all three- and four-year-olds will increase to 475hours a year from this autumn, said Ms Hyslop. 'This will create a solidplatform for further expansion by putting provision that covers theschool year on a proper statutory and financial footing. It will createa level playing field for children who attend private and voluntarysector centres as partner providers for state nursery provision,' shesaid.
Early years organisations welcomed the funding. Paula Evans, policy andparliamentary information officer at Children in Scotland, said,'Ultimately we want to see that this will lead to a free full-timechildcare provision, following a Nordic model.'
However, she added, 'More provision will need more staff, but at themoment people are having problems recruiting and retaining staff, andyet pay and conditions weren't mentioned.'
Ian McLaughlan, chief executive of the Scottish Pre-school PlayAssociation, welcomed the fact that 'early years teaching would beextended to partner pro- viders so that they, particularly voluntaryorganisations, will get some support from teaching services'.
