In February it was made known that plans to phase out funded childcare in private and independent nurseries to parents who live outside Edinburgh are being drawn up by council leaders.
According to the Care Inspectorate (CI) website, up to the end of 2023, there were a total of 255 childcare settings (day nurseries and after-school clubs) in Edinburgh, with registered spaces for 14,803, and an average setting size of 58.05 places. A split between Edinburgh City Council and the Private Sector is illustrated below;
Edinburgh City Council
Number of settings = 110 (43%)
Total registered spaces = 5,818 (39.3%)
Average setting size by registered spaces = 52.89
Private Sector
Number of settings = 145 (57%)
Total registered spaces = 8,985 (60.7%)
Average setting size by registered spaces = 61.96
This shows that, on average, private settings supply a larger proportion of childcare provision in Edinburgh than the council currently does.
In an agenda report meeting from January 2024, it was recently announced by Edinburgh City Council that ‘Since 2020, there has been an increase from 35% to 42% of families accessing their funded provision via Partner Provider Nurseries despite a decline in the quality of provision’.
Data obtained from the Care Inspectorate data reports that, since the start of 2020,
council-run nurseries scored an average of 4.3 across the four Quality Inspection Framework evaluations that the Care Inspectorate measures with, whereas the private sector scored
an average of 3.8.
There are a multitude of factors behind this, however, it is worth shedding light on the comparable level of inspections carried out to qualify the true quality of provision.
Again, referring to information from the Care Inspectorate’s website, since the beginning of 2020 there has been a total of 101 settings inspected at least once (39.6% of the total) yet privately owned settings are being inspected on average over three times as frequently as council-run nurseries. During this period, 24 (21% of the total) council nurseries had at least one inspection, whereas 77 (53% of the total) privately owned had at least one inspection.
What is interesting is that, of the 255 settings in Edinburgh, only one private nursery has received and maintained a grading of ‘Excellent’ since the start of 2020 – this was awarded to Walker Street Nursery which is owned by Maureen Crandles and her family (Early Days Nursery Ltd).
Since the sustainable rates of 2020/21 were published, Edinburgh has placed tenth out of Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities in terms of a percentage increase in hourly rates – with rates for three to five olds jumping up 11.94% (from £5.31 to £6.03) – and it placed eighth for eligible two years olds, with hourly rates increasing by 18.06% (from £5.31 to £6.48). These figures are as of 29/02/24.
What are the proposed changes?
Parents commuting to the capital from surrounding regions like the Lothians and Fife might face challenges under the proposed plans if they choose private or independent childcare services.
While funded childcare will still be accessible in council-run nurseries for these commuting families, Edinburgh City Council's proposal would exclude them from receiving financial support for childcare services provided by private operators, consequently limiting and restricting parents' options for childcare provision.
Private operators argue that this goes directly against the policies of the Funding Follows The Child Blueprint as it states that the expansion in funded early learning and childcare entitlement would be a ‘provider neutral’ approach and will place the choice in parents' and carers' hands. This further states that the choice of setting available to families is not restricted to their local authority boundary.
It is currently unknown when, or if, Edinburgh City Council plans to impose these changes, which leaves parents living outside of the city with funded children attending private Edinburgh-based nurseries in a precarious position. Do they move their child to a council-run nursery in anticipation of these plans, or do they hold out and hope to be potentially hit with even higher demand and longer waiting lists for quality settings that are still in a convenient location for them?
How might the changes impact Edinburgh businesses?
These plans are likely to lead parents to feel more confident in their ability to receive funding from council-run settings, thus restricting the freedom of choice for parents and potentially impacting privately run and independent nurseries in Edinburgh in convenient commuter-based locations and on commuter routes. This would potentially reduce those settings’ occupancy rates, subsequently financially impacting businesses.
This latest proposal is likely to further heighten tensions between Edinburgh City Council and private operators while adding further conundrums to parents in a marketplace where demand seems to continuously outstrip current supply with waiting lists reported at a vast majority of privately owned nurseries.
Callum Lancaster can be contacted at callum.lancaster@christie.com / 07754 559 529