The Association of Quality Nurseries (AQNS) is urging Scotland's new education minister, Hugh Henry, who replaced Peter Peacock this month, to assess the real costs of private nursery care in a bid to prevent some nurseries from going under.
The plight of nursery owners had been 'conveniently forgotten', said Jean MacKay, one of the group's founders. 'We have been underfunded and over-regulated. Greater demands have been placed on the shoulders of nursery proprietors to ensure all staff are suitably qualified, and then suitably remunerated.'
In relation to pre-school funding, the Scottish equivalent to the Nursery Education Grant, she said, 'It has no impact whatsoever on the quality of education, proving to be merely another layer of costly bureaucracy, and some nurseries are saying they will be forced to pull out of the scheme or face bankruptcy.'
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