The Scottish Executive has placed state and private nursery children on a level playing field by providing 15m to extend the free early education entitlement from 33 to 38 weeks per year.
The extension targets private and voluntary provision, as most state-run settings already run for 38 weeks through the school year.
Fiona Hyslop, minister for education and lifelong learning, pledged 25m for education in the Scottish Parliament last week. This includes 9m to create 300 new teaching posts this August, prioritising pre-school settings and reducing class sizes from P1 to P3. Local authorities will be in charge of distributing the Scottish Executive funding to providers.
The entitlement for all three- and four-year-olds will increase to 475 hours a year from this autumn, said Ms Hyslop. This will create a solid platform for further expansion by putting provision that covers the school year on a proper statutory and financial footing. It will create a level playing field for children who attend private and voluntary sector centres as partner providers for state nursery provision, she said.
Early years organisations welcomed the funding. Paula Evans, policy and parliamentary information officer at Children in Scotland, said, Ultimately we want to see that this will lead to a free full-time childcare provision, following a Nordic model.
However, she added, More provision will need more staff, but at the moment people are having problems recruiting and retaining staff, and yet pay and conditions werent mentioned.
Ian McLaughlan, chief executive of the Scottish Pre-school Play Association, welcomed the fact that early years teaching would be extended to partner pro- viders so that they, particularly voluntary organisations, will get some support from teaching services.