The curious incident of the country where childcare funding doesn't follow the child

As of 1st of August, the Scottish Government has introduced a childcare/early education model which is meant to reduce the cost of childcare and make childcare more accessible. The free hours of early years education have been increased to 600 and 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for these free hours. As childcare is a mixed economy in Scotland, the statutory free entitlement can be accessed at local authority nurseries or private nurseries that partner with local authorities in delivering the free entitlement.

This all sounds good so far. As ever, the devil is in the detail.

First of all, while we are talking about an entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds, guaranteed by the Scottish Government (SNP led), it needs implemented locally by local authorities, which in Glasgow is Labour led.

Secondly, the funding for free hours goes to nurseries. It does not follow the child.

So Glasgow City Council has been told by the Scottish Government that as of 1st August 2014, it needs to increase free provision for early education, but it's left to do this as it pleases. I don't know if there's extra money that was made available, but regardless, again, each local authority gets money and then has to allocate as it wishes.

So far, local authority provision either worked on the basis of offering free 3 hour childcare sessions 5 days a week to 3 and 4 year olds. Most of these establishments are closed over lunch. Some are day centres and offer limited wrap around care - but experience shows that they hardly ever offer 8-6pm places (I've seen offers of 9-4pm a lot, and if parents don't take this up because they work 9-5pm, they were dismissed with "well, we did offer and you didn't want it". The idea is that magically as of last week, more wrap around care should be available and flexibility of how the free allocation is taken up by parents is increased (so that instead of 5 days of 3hrs parents can take 2 days of 8 hours each or something like that). As for private nurseries, they get an allocation of free places (if they pass care commission standards) which they then pay out to qualifying families.

If a family uses a childminder for the remainder of the day, they pay the full childminder day fee even if the child spends half the day at nursery (because understandably the childminder can't take on another mindee and has to survive somehow as well).

I haven't got evidence yet if local authority nurseries which so far operated with 3 hour sessions are offering more flexibility. What I have seen and heard about by rather a lot of people now is that those who had to choose a private nursery (because local authority nursery doesn't have a place or only offers insufficient hours), their allocation of fee statutory sessions has been withdrawn. Private nurseries, who had an allocation of free spaces, suddenly don't have them anymore and are as flabbergasted as the parents who are back to paying full day rates (which can be as much as £45, or £900 a month per child). When the parent complains to the council, they get rather arrogant responses along the lines of "if you choose a private nursery that doesn't offer free sessions, there's not much we can do".

Let's be clear: parents don't "choose" private nurseries that have "no funded spaces". There is no choice. The parents I'm talking about here have had her child on the waiting list of the council nursery for over 2 years and the only offer that was ever made did not allow to work 9-5pm. They then took a space at a nursery that did have funding for the statutory free sessions. But that was last term, and strangely, although additional free hours have been introduced, that funding has disappeared. The wording of GCC letters even suggests that parents should just move their children to another nursery, which is blatantly not in the developmental interest of the child.

Which leads me to think: maybe Glasgow City Council is financing the additional hours they have to be seen to offer by only offering them at local authority nurseries, while withdrawing funding from private nurseries. In effect, rather than ensuring a more flexible approach and increasing free childcare, it has been taken away from working families. Now, it's not just low income families that can't access childcare in nurseries (because state nurseries don't offer full days and private nurseries are too expensive), but also middle income families are pushed out of work because they can no longer afford childcare fees. And if I say "families", this usually means "women".

This new childcare promise was meant to help get low income families back into work by making quality childcare cheaper and more accessible. It appears it hasn't just failed to do so, but also had the unintended consequence of pushing middle income parents out of work.

Remember, we are talking here about statutory provision. Every child should be able to receive 600 hours of free nursery education.  A lot of children are currently missing out. Of course I can hear those cries for independence, just that education is already devolved and we have to deal with this mess in Scotland anyway. Is there an element of Labour protest in having to implement Scottish Goivernment policies? I hear it's not so bad in other local authorities? But really let's focus on a solution: It could be all so easily turned around if only the funding followed the child. So why not give that a go?

Disposable Catering

:::PS: in the process of changing my blog template the comments feature has disappeared. I've enabled them now but have to repost so it takes effect. I had a thought provoking comment on my facebook account which I'll add to the debate and if you couldn't comment before, hopefully you can now:::

Every week I spent far too much time in the catering provided in Glasgow City Council facilities. The catering is outsourced to a private company, Encore catering. You'll find them in museums, sport centres and generally all Culture and Leisure Services establishments. Of course, Culture and Leisure Services is no longer part of Glasgow City Council in an attempt to half privatise non-essential services.

Anyway, this is what tickled my funny bone. A bit of context, I had a tea and a cake while Cubling and hubby went for a swim (I didn't go with Snowflake because I'm a bit paranoid now about infections and she hasn't had all her vaccinations yet. Instead I had a bit of lovely one-to-one time with her and me time while she napped. I even read a book, imagine.)

A cupa and a cake, right? Rubbish produced: one disposable cup, 5 empty milk containers, 2 empty sugar containers, one disposable plastic plate, one plastic spoon, one teabag.

I do appreciate that washing plates is time consuming and that kids occasionally break them. I also appreciate that it's safer to serve hot drinks to people with babies in paper cups.

However.

Isn't this health and safety gone too far? Snowflake was in her car seat so there was no immediate danger I'd pour my tea over her. In my mind I imagined the daily amount of waste this approach must  produce. Waste that will cost the council an arm and a leg in landfill charge (because cardboard can't be recycled here, and neither can the plastic used in the plates and milk containers). Surely the council, and associated companies, should lead the way in reducing waste? Instead, as far as cafe style catering goes, Encore Catering uses a comparatively excessive amount of disposable items. More than, say, Morrisons or Ikea, who at least serve the food and drink in real cups.

Why this excess of disposable materials in a large chain? Is it to cut corners and reduce washing up? Does it reduce space needed? Surely so much disposable stuff needs space too, and with industrial type dishwashers I don't get how this can be a time issue, after all other cafes wash their dishes too.

Is it about safety and breakage, considering that many of such cafes are frequented by families and children will break the occasional plate?

I'd like to know, so will ask them. Maybe this needs to be raised from a few users of these cafes and they may change? I for one have a bit of a dilemma in that on the one hand I'm trying to live more sustainably, and I'm at least twice a week, sometimes more often, all my home efforts are outrubbished by having to significantly contribute to landfill just by having a cuppa.

And don't get me started on kid's lunch boxes (you know the cardboard boxes marketed at kids?).

Disposable Catering

:::PS: in the process of changing my blog template the comments feature has disappeared. I've enabled them now but have to repost so it takes effect. I had a thought provoking comment on my facebook account which I'll add to the debate and if you couldn't comment before, hopefully you can now:::

Every week I spent far too much time in the catering provided in Glasgow City Council facilities. The catering is outsourced to a private company, Encore catering. You'll find them in museums, sport centres and generally all Culture and Leisure Services establishments. Of course, Culture and Leisure Services is no longer part of Glasgow City Council in an attempt to half privatise non-essential services.

Anyway, this is what tickled my funny bone. A bit of context, I had a tea and a cake while Cubling and hubby went for a swim (I didn't go with Snowflake because I'm a bit paranoid now about infections and she hasn't had all her vaccinations yet. Instead I had a bit of lovely one-to-one time with her and me time while she napped. I even read a book, imagine.)

A cupa and a cake, right? Rubbish produced: one disposable cup, 5 empty milk containers, 2 empty sugar containers, one disposable plastic plate, one plastic spoon, one teabag.

I do appreciate that washing plates is time consuming and that kids occasionally break them. I also appreciate that it's safer to serve hot drinks to people with babies in paper cups.

However.

Isn't this health and safety gone too far? Snowflake was in her car seat so there was no immediate danger I'd pour my tea over her. In my mind I imagined the daily amount of waste this approach must  produce. Waste that will cost the council an arm and a leg in landfill charge (because cardboard can't be recycled here, and neither can the plastic used in the plates and milk containers). Surely the council, and associated companies, should lead the way in reducing waste? Instead, as far as cafe style catering goes, Encore Catering uses a comparatively excessive amount of disposable items. More than, say, Morrisons or Ikea, who at least serve the food and drink in real cups.

Why this excess of disposable materials in a large chain? Is it to cut corners and reduce washing up? Does it reduce space needed? Surely so much disposable stuff needs space too, and with industrial type dishwashers I don't get how this can be a time issue, after all other cafes wash their dishes too.

Is it about safety and breakage, considering that many of such cafes are frequented by families and children will break the occasional plate?

I'd like to know, so will ask them. Maybe this needs to be raised from a few users of these cafes and they may change? I for one have a bit of a dilemma in that on the one hand I'm trying to live more sustainably, and I'm at least twice a week, sometimes more often, all my home efforts are outrubbished by having to significantly contribute to landfill just by having a cuppa.

And don't get me started on kid's lunch boxes (you know the cardboard boxes marketed at kids?).