The decline in membership among playgroups and a growing recognition of the importance of under-threes and the role of parents had encouraged the association's new orientation, said chief executive Ian McLaughlan.
He said, 'The government has demonstrated an increased awareness of the huge potential for developing a learning framework for young children under three, while at the same time promoting the parent as the primary educator of pre-threes.'
At a time of considerable financial restraint, he said, the association needed to find different ways of funding new projects. He said efforts would be made to convince local authorities that through funding offered by the Changing Children's Services Fund and childcare partnerships, 'local community groups can make a difference in promoting active communities'.
He said the SPPA had four main priorities:
* Consolidating existing pre-threes projects throughout Scotland, including a new development in Lanarkshire.
* Developing a marketing strategy for increasing the SPPA's membership base among pre-threes groups.
* Working with other organisations 'to raise the political awareness of the huge learning potential for the under-threes and the need for a more co-ordinated approach involving sector leaders', including the SPPA.
* The Sure Start initiative should be 'the model that will help us to focus on the under-threes in the next two or three years'. It had provided the SPPA with 'some wonderful learning opportunities for not only many young children but also their parents, many of whom have felt quite inadequate as parents and carers'.
Referring to playgroups closing and membership falling, Mr McLaughlan said the SPPA had to change its strategic orientation. 'With a steady, but not alarming, decrease in the number of playgroups each year since the introduction of the Childcare Strategy, this may require a re-positioning of ourselves in the childcare arena in the future.'
The SPPA conference, entitled 'Play for Today: Learning for Life in the Early Years', was also addressed by Val Cox, head of the early years education division in the Scottish Executive, who spoke about the role of voluntary sector providers of pre-school services.