Childcare funding includes refugees

Sighthill hit the headlines over the summer when tensions rose between local people and 1,200 asylum seekers and refugees housed on the Sighthill estate. The Executive has awarded 700,000 to the Glasgow Alliance, a partnership which brings together agencies from the public and private sectors as well as community and voluntary organisations, to improve community integration and local services. The grant will fund an additional 100 nursery places for three-to four-year-olds and 100 places for under- threes, created by expanding creche and parent-toddler provision.

This will be the first time that refugee children in Glasgow have had access to pre-school provision, as the contract between Glas-gow City Council and the Home Office's National Asylum Support Service only covers places for children of statutory school age. Children's and refugees' charities had expressed grave concern about this, pointing out that it hindered younger children's progress in preparing for mainstream schooling, settling into their new environment and learning English, and could also make it more difficult for their mothers to integrate (News, 5 July).