Under the Scottish Government’s Funding Follows the Child (FFtC) policy, parents are able to access their child’s Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) entitlement from any provider in the PVI sector that has a place available and is contracted by the local authority.
But parents and providers are challenging North Lanarkshire’s commitment to FFtC amid the roll-out of the 1,140 hours, stating that it has created an ‘unfair postcode lottery’.
The council has denied the allegations, stating that 86 per cent of applicants have been offered a place with their first-choice provider this year.
However, when father of two, David Dawds, applied for a nursery place for his son, he was allocated his fourth choice in a council nursery that started at 8am and finished at 12.10pm each day.
‘This was unsuitable for my wife’s working hours, so we reapplied and placed him in a private nursery, in the hope that we would receive the funding at this setting once he turned three,’ he said. ‘However, funding has been rejected, despite there being a place, on the grounds that we applied “late” despite it being a second application.’
Mr Dawds said the situation has caused unnecessary stress and may result in his wife not being able to return to work.
Ashley Robertson (pictured) faces a similar situation. During lockdown, her husband’s workplace changed location and she needed to apply to a local nursery. As a result, she was considered a late applicant and her child was refused funding at her first choice, a private nursery in North Lanarkshire.
‘I was offered a council nursery but the hours were not flexible,’ she explained. ‘We are now in a strange situation where North Lanarkshire Council is paying my funding to a private nursery in another council, East Dunbartonshire, while we pay privately for a local nursery for one day a week. Children in NL should not miss out on the funding they are entitled to.’
Late applications
2020 Together We Can (2020twc), a group representing PVI providers in Scotland, said North Lanarkshire Council put a cap on funding for private providers which ended on 13 March.
Speaking on behalf of 2020twc, Jim Agnew, who co-owns two nurseries, said, ‘Any parent applying for funding after this date were refused funding at their chosen PVI nursery; put into a postcode lottery and forced to either attend council nurseries or find £6,000 to attend a private setting. There were allegedly 40 late applications and we estimate that three quarters have already been forced to move providers.’
It is believed that the number of late applications may be higher.
The campaigners say that some of the children have been placed in ‘contingency nurseries’, temporary settings that have been approved by the Care Inspectorate, to bridge the gap between them moving to new-builds which are part of the council’s expansion programme.
Mr Agnew said there are 470 places available in PVI settings in North Lanarkshire, and owners fear redundancies and closures.
A head of centre at a private nursery, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, ‘Ten children in my setting have left since August, having been refused funding due to late applications. Distressed parents have had to uproot them from a place where they feel safe and settled to a council nursery, which is often a pop-up one.’
She added, ‘We face being squeezed out of the market. There’s no thought for a child’s well-being and no thought for working parents. There has always been late applications due to people moving house, changing jobs and, this year, with Covid-19, family circumstances have changed even more.’
Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, developmental psychologist and founder of Connected Baby, said that ‘never before’ has she been contacted by so many ‘desperate parents’ who were facing the trauma of having to move their children to another setting.
She said, ‘Moving children from early years settings where they are happy should be a last-ditch choice. It should only be only done when unavoidable because it causes them grief and loss. So if we have policies that don’t guard against this, those policies will not serve children.’
The council said that of the 40 late applications, 12 applications have now received their first choice with a funded provider. The remaining 28 have accepted a placement in a council facility.
Allocations
According to North Lanarkshire Council (NLC), out of the 7,400 children that have secured 1140 hour placements within the area, it is aware of a ‘handful’ of parents who have communicated that they are unhappy with the allocations process.
A spokesperson told Nursery World that the allocations process is a ‘complex’ procedure and although the team will try to accommodate families where they can, they can only work with the placements that are available. The spokesperson added, ‘We strongly believe our funded providers have been extremely well supported in the last year particular through the pandemic and although communication has not always been as smooth as it could have been with some, we will always make every effort to resolve situations.’
The council advises applicants to remain on a waiting list as places can become available, which has happened recently.
How did this happen?
Following a tender process last year, 190 early years providers and childminders are now on NLC’s framework to help deliver 1140 hours of early years and childcare provision to all three- and four-year- olds and eligible two-year-olds in NL for a stated value over a period of three years.
NLC said, ‘The terms of the framework were all agreed by the successful providers and we have fully funded them throughout the pandemic and we're also one of the only large local authorities to commence the 1140 hours' provision this month.’
However, 2020twc deny that they were informed about the value of the partnership.
Mr Agnew said, ‘PVI nurseries and childminders inadvertently signed up in March 2019 to become funding partners with NLC, only to now be informed that the £12m value of the contract for ELC was based on the council’s estimate that only 23 per cent of families choose PVI over council nurseries. As this year the council’s Early Years team have advised that more than 23 percent of families actually chose PVI as their first choice nursery, this was an effective cap on PVI funding.
‘The caveat is that the LA can set their own local conditions and funding caps. This negates the Scottish Government’s FFtC policy and means there can be 32 LAs with 32 different interpretations of the 1140hrs blueprint, an unfair postcode lottery which someone needs to sort out.’
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said, ‘We understand that North Lanarkshire council intend to offer 1140 hours to all families by the end of September, and are working with parents and providers to deliver this.
‘All local authorities have a statutory duty to provide funded early learning and childcare (ELC) for all 3 and 4 year olds, and eligible 2 year olds, and have a duty to consult on local demand. As part of the 1140 hours expansion, and the introduction of Funding Follows the Child, we have agreed with local authorities that families should be offered flexibility and choice, and that the provision of funded hours should be provider neutral.’
More information
Coronavirus (Covid-19): guidance on reopening early learning and childcare services
