Nursery World - Council bills neighbours for care across borders

Overspending by Edinburgh City Council has opened up a geographical question over how councils pay for free nursery education entitlement in Scotland. Under proposals by the children and families department, commuters who use childcare in the Edinburgh area would no longer have their free nursery education places paid for by the city council. Education councillors agreed that they would now bill surrounding councils for non-residents'

Under proposals by the children and families department, commuters who use childcare in the Edinburgh area would no longer have their free nursery education places paid for by the city council. Education councillors agreed that they would now bill surrounding councils for non-residents'

entitlement, in an attempt to counter an expected 3.6m deficit for 2006/07.

A council spokesman said, 'We're in the process of working out how many families are affected and will be billing their councils accordingly.'

According to budget reports, commuting to childcare has increased by 40 per cent since 2003. The expected savings from billing other councils are Pounds 500,000. The three local authorities chiefly affected will be East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.

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