Emergency motion over plans to cut holiday opening at East Lothian nurseries rejected

An emergency motion raising concerns about plans to cut holiday opening at several council nurseries in East Lothian was rejected ahead of a meeting this week.

East Lothian Council has said it intends to change the number of weeks some of their nurseries are open throughout the year to return them to school term times only from August next year.

The move comes four years after the local authority introduced the alternative year round model giving parents the option of spreading their 1140 hours of free nursery time over 48 weeks instead of the traditional 38 weeks and keeping some nurseries open over the summer holidays.

The local authority says seven nurseries who offer the additional weeks will return to the 38 week year but insist they will ensure that parents can still access nursery care during the holidays.

And they stressed it will not mean anyone loses out on the hours of care they are entitled to, just that they will have to spread the hours within fewer weeks of the year.

An emergency motion raising concerns from families over the plans was put forward for inclusion at a full council meeting this week by Councillors Jeremy Findlay and Liz Allen, however East Lothian Provost John McMillan told elected members he had ruled it was not ‘urgent’ and declined to add it to the agenda.

The Provost said “While I recognise the intent behind that (the motion)and thank them for their efforts on behalf of their ward members on the issues being raised around nurseries, I had been involved in that and had meetings with officers and because the issue is a longer term one, and because of the responses I have had, and because the motion was received outwith the deadline, I therefore ruled it was not an urgent motion.”

A full report on the decision by officers to remove the extended nursery model will go before a meeting of the council in December.

A council spokesperson said: “We’ve carried out a review of current and future demand and have been working to increase capacity in our own nurseries as well as options from local funded partner providers.

“Attendance in our full-year nurseries is being underutilised which results in children and families missing out on their full entitlement, our settings not operating as efficiently as they could, and impacts on our total capacity and resource across East Lothian.

“We will continue to offer at least one full-year setting in each area and parents can also choose to use their funded hours at funded private nurseries or childminders to suit them.

“While some families have reacted positively to the changes, we understand the concerns that others have raised with us and are keen to work with them to find solutions that best meet their needs.

“Our early years team is available to support families understand their childcare choices and a meeting is being arranged with representatives of each of the seven settings.”