A mum has said she is facing a £4,000 bill to send her son to nursery this year because of a change to council policy.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Adam will turn three in September, and just like his big brothers before him, he’s set to go to the local nursery.
However, when his mum, Vahri Gemmell, applied for his free place, she found he wasn’t eligible until next January after the local authority cut back a set of discretionary entitlements.
STV News“Families like myself, where both parents are working, it’s something that we rely on,” Mrs Gemmell said.
“If the council is trying to encourage people back to work and encourage people to go back to education; It’s the only benefit we’re entitled to that isn’t means tested and it’s been stripped away from us. It feels like the council are not valuing working families whatsoever.”
Renfrewshire Council currently provides 30 hours of free childcare for all three-year-olds. Previously, the local authority used its discretionary powers to send these children to nursery one month after their third birthday.
However, new policy changes mean that the funding for nursery allocation only applies from the start of the next school term.
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said the policy change is bringing the council in line with Scottish Government guidance and with other local authorities.
“Our policy around when three-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds can start their funded nursery placement was changed last year to bring us into line with national guidance, which states this should be from the term after their birthday,” the spokesperson said.
“Our previous policy went above and beyond what is required by the Scottish Government, however our current one brings Renfrewshire into line with what is offered by the majority of Scottish councils.”
Mrs Gemmell said it would cost her family up to £4,000 to send Adam to nursery immediately after his third birthday – something her family cannot afford to do.
“It’s a lot of money we are going to have to fork out to cover that gap when, actually, the place is there, vacant and allocated to your child but the funding doesn’t kick in til the next term. It doesn’t sit right,” she said.
Since the changes were rolled out earlier this year, more than 500 parents have signed Mrs Gemmell’s petition demanding the local authority reconsider the issue and reinstate immediate access to funded early years places.
“I’m not here pleading poverty or anything, but there’s a cost of living crisis and the biggest hike in council tax we’ve ever seen, and we’re still expected to fork out extra money for childcare for us to go to work,” Mrs Gemmell said.
“I know the council says they’re following national guidance but to me it’s discriminating against working families.”
Local Labour councillor Gillian Graham agreed that the policy changes are discriminatory against local working families in Renfrewshire.
“We’ve just had a 9.5% increase in council tax. How are parents supposed to find £2,000, £3,000 or £4,000 to allow their child to go to nursery?” Cllr Graham said.
She said the council had the funding to send children to nursery after their third birthday sitting there but took the decision to move it away.
“They didn’t need to [do that],” Cllr Graham said.
“£125,000 out of a £264m budget is a drop in the ocean, and really we thought it was very unfair from the very beginning.”
STV NewsShe added: “A lot of these parents are women who are not in full time or highly paid jobs, and we need them to be working. It’s also not great for the kids to have to wait until their almost four years old in some cases to go to nursery. Renfrewshire is not getting it right for every child on this issue.”
Cllr Graham’s local Labour group is they can force the Renfrewshire Council administration to reconsider these policy changes in May.
She hopes that Labour can get other opposition councillors to support the motion and support parents on this issue.
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