Flagship plans for full-time state childcare in Scotland are shelved

Flagship plans to introduce an effective system of full-time state childcare in Scotland later this year have been shelved, the Scottish Government has announced.

Scotland's flagship childcare policy has been shelved under tonight's announcement

The move has been made to allow hard-pressed councils to focus on their response to the Coronavirus outbreak.

The proposals would have seen the current provision of 600 hours of free childcare doubled to 1140 hours, the equivalent of the primary school week. It was hoped that it would have eventually allowed a generation of mothers get back into the workplace.

An order has been laid in the Scottish Parliament which removes the legal duty for councils to provide 1140 hours by August.

It is not clear when the measure will now be introduced, with decision to be taken when the situation surrounding the pandemic becomes clearer.

The move was announced in a joint-statement between Scottish Government childcare minister Maree Todd and Councillor Stephen McCabe of local government body COSLA last night.

“In these exceptional circumstances it is not realistic or reasonable to expect that local authorities can deliver their original expansion plans to secure high quality experience for all children in time for August this year,” it stated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to continue with the planned recruitment and infrastructure projects required to support expansion.

“As we focus on saving lives and looking after people most vulnerable to the virus the immediate priority is to ensure that we have the emergency childcare in place to support families during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The flagship plans were facing problems with thousands of staff yet to be recruited and hundreds of infrastructure projects not yet completed, a report by the public spending watchdog found earlier this year.

But Audit Scotland did say that “steady progress” was being made on delivery of the scheme.

“Tens of thousands of children have already benefited from expanded hours, and we expect this will continue when normal provision resumes,” the statement added.

“Once there is a clearer picture of the impact and duration of the pandemic response measures, we will work together to agree the right time to reinstate the statutory requirement and ensure that all eligible children can access 1140 hours of high quality early learning and childcare.”