Bob Shanks, development manager for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), told the seminar in Perth that his organisation would be operating strategic agreements with all the childcare partnerships in the Highlands and Islands from April 2003.
He said HIE had been funding a range of childcare activities since 1993, and these providers had sometimes ended up dealing with as many as 20 different bodies in order to accumulate all the funding they required.
Under new arrangements, childcare partnerships would be able to provide a single point of entry for most funding applications.
Mr Shanks said, 'Our new proposed way of working involves making a strategic agreement with each of our childcare partnerships and providing funding to enable them to contact the childcare providers directly.'
The seminar was the first of its kind organised by the Scottish Executive to encourage partnerships to take a more active role in joint planning with local enterprise companies (LECs), the main delivery mechanism for the development work of HIE and its counterpart for the south of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise. The seminar also sought to encourage LECs to recognise ways in which they can contribute to the Executive's childcare strategy.
Sue Baldwin, director of skills development with Scottish Enterprise, said its senior management was committed to becoming more involved with children's partnerships because of the importance of good quality childcare in improving employability and creating economic success. There was still 'a lack of clarity' among some LECs about 'the case for action', she said, but SE was addressing it. 'It is not so much a lack of clarity about the importance of childcare but about what we can do to support it.'
Cathy Jamieson, minister for education and young people, told the seminar that LECs could concentrate their expertise and resources in a number of ways, including supporting the quality and sustainability of new and existing childcare provision and helping to create new childcare businesses.
A guide to the support provided by LECs across Scotland called Childcare Staff and Business Development, written by Tasso Koulouri of the Scottish Out of School Care Network (SOSCN), was launched at the seminar. Copies of the guide have been sent to all childcare partnerships and the report will be made available on the website www.soscn.org.For more information contact Andrew Shoolbread at SOSCN on 0141 33 11 301.
