Free childcare provision target 'generally' met, but concern over choice

Councils have "generally succeeded" in providing increased levels of free childcare, but rates of take-up vary considerably among local authorities, a report has found.

The Care Inspectorate said the variations may reflect the amount of flexibility and choice being offered to parents, with a "mismatch" between what is being offered and what a child's parents feel is practical in some cases.

In 2014, Scotland's 32 councils were tasked with expanding free early learning and childcare from 475 to 600 hours per year for all three and four-year-olds and around 27% of two-year-olds.

The inspectorate reported that between June 2014 and the end of October 2015, more than 2,500 new childcare places were created.

It found local authorities had generally succeeded in making the 600 hours of free provision available for all eligible children, which it said was a "significant achievement".

But it also discovered that choice of provision available to parents varies depending on local authority, and location within each local authority, and, in some cases it would benefit from further flexibility.

"Parents may choose to keep their existing childcare arrangements if the only way of accessing the 600-hour entitlement is disruptive for their child," the report said.

"Similarly, if the 600 hours are only available at some distance from home or the existing care arrangements, then parents might decide not to take up the place."

It added: "Local authorities need to ensure that each eligible child, whose parent/s want this, can realistically receive their entitlement. This can be achieved by local authorities allowing more flexibility regarding the length of sessions and bringing more private nurseries, playgroups and childminders into early learning and childcare partnership.

"For two-year-olds, local authorities should consider private nurseries, playgroups and childminders as potentially optimum placements for some individual children."

The Scottish Government has set out plans to further expand free childcare to 1,140 hours per year by 2020 for all three and four-year-olds, and further increase the number of eligible two-year-olds.

Karen Reid, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: "We hope that by sharing good practice, this initial review can act as a catalyst for innovation and improvement for local authorities, and service providers, in order to achieve maximum benefit for families.

"It is also intended to enhance understanding by all stakeholders, including individual parents and practitioners, of the complexity of our current early learning and childcare system and the factors involved in changing and improving it.

"We will continue to look at the impact of the changes on our inspections this year and report on what that has meant for children. We know that high quality early learning and childcare supports children to do well at school and helps reduce health and social inequalities across Scotland."