Child Care Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:43 pm on 17 November 1999.

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Photo of Fiona McLeod Fiona McLeod Scottish National Party 4:43, 17 November 1999

Mr Galbraith is shaking his head, but in the introduction to the consultative document that was issued last year, "Meeting the Childcare Challenge: A Childcare Strategy for Scotland", Donald Dewar said:

"In our election manifesto we undertook to produce a childcare strategy for Scotland which would 'match the requirements of a modern labour market'".

In the same introduction, Tony Blair declares that he wants

"to encourage more family friendly employment".

For me, those are not words that inspire a vision of a child care strategy. Mr Galbraith's opening remarks gave no indication of a Government that was prepared to learn or to move on. He dismissed the SNP's amendment because it includes the dread word funding, but today that issue has been raised repeatedly by members of all parties and the minister has signally failed to deal with it.

The SNP has long been committed to nursery places for all three and four-year-olds whose parents want them. However, we have taken a holistic, child-centred approach with our plans for children's centres. A child care strategy must provide an integrated service that caters for all the child's needs.

We must give all children a suitable and stable environment that gives them, and their parents or carers, access to all the services that they need in one place, with no shuttling between breakfast club, pre-school care, childminder, play scheme and health visitor. Children need a centred approach to life; they do not need to be on a conveyor belt.

The minister mentioned sure start Scotland and how it will apply to children up to the age of three. It will bring services to the child. As part of the vision, it would be nice if that could be broadened out to include all our children.

Children's centres would be one-stop shops for child care and could be managed as such, ensuring that all aspects of a child's life were in balance, and that the funding could be assured and long-term. One of the SNP's main criticisms of the child care strategy as it is constructed at present is the precariousness of the funding. That is a big problem. Using lottery funding to fund child care is not a sign of commitment. Using one-year lottery funding is putting many providers in jeopardy. There was almost universal condemnation of that funding mechanism in the submissions to the consultation process, and the chamber has heard nothing from the Executive today that will reassure local groups and businesses that they can plan for a secure future.

Relying on the working families tax credit for the sustainability of out-of-school care seems to me to be in the same vein as the discredited voucher scheme of the Conservative party. It means that the carers have to have the money to spend first, and it therefore excludes many people from out-of-school care—people such as students. It does not allow services to have clear and assured funding that allows them to plan for the future, as is essential.

Another point that is often raised by those actively involved in child care is the management of the service. A truly integrated statutory service would relieve the management burden on parent and volunteer committees. Meeting a national child care strategy through those people's free time is unacceptable.

In conclusion, I again welcome the Scottish Executive's commitment to a child care strategy for Scotland. But the strategy as presented to us today leaves much to be desired in meeting the needs of all children in a flexible and fully funded manner. The minister told us that it has taken two and a half years to get here. Today's debate tells us that there is still a lot of work to be done.