Meeting with stakeholders in West Lothian
The Scottish Greens attended NDNA’s member nursery, First Adventures, as part of their election campaign. NDNA Scotland took part in a meeting with the co-leaders to raise awareness of the challenging situation in West Lothian where the council has decided to no longer fund ELC places for children who live across the boundary, and lobby them for change.
Hannah Murison, NDNA Scotland’s National Operations Manager joined Ross Greer and Gillian MacKay co-leaders of Scottish Greens, Louise Licznerski from Scottish Outdoor Learning Association (SOLA) and Andrew Carr, network chair for West Lothian and director of First Adventures Nursery at his nursery setting.
Affected parents were invited to share their stories. Most of these parents told the Greens’ co-leaders that they had put their children down on waiting lists for the nursery of their choice before they were even born. They felt they could no longer choose a nursery that was right for their child and family circumstances but had to make this important decision based on any nursery that has an available space.
Louise Licznerski from SOLA told the group that her nursery on the boundary of West Lothian have had to adapt their business model as a consequence of losing 67 children as a result of West Lothian’s decisions.
Hannah Murison spoke about NDNA’s manifesto The Best Start for Scotland’s Children which was created following meetings with members and relevant stakeholders across Scotland. One key proposal within the manifesto was for each child to have their own childcare account which parents could use to pay their choice of provider directly. This is a solution intended to ensure parental choice is realised and funding actually reaches providers to ensure they are sustainable.
Hannah spoke to Ross Greer about the “immediate” expansion to two-year-olds which Scottish Greens have proposed in their manifesto and expressed concerns about the workforce needed to deliver this. Any expansion to the current system would need to address existing challenges. Ross understood that his party would need to work with PVI providers to make sure the policy worked for them which included a fair and sustainable hourly rate.
NDNA also had a more in depth conversation about the state of the sector and solutions for the next Scottish Government, which included outlining our proposals for ASN champions and staff wellbeing champions.
Pictured from left: Ross Greer co-leader of Scottish Greens, Louise Licznerski from Scottish Outdoor Learning Association (SOLA), Gillian MacKay co-leader of Scottish Greens, Hannah Murison NDNA Scotland’s National Operations Manager and Andrew Carr, Director of First Adventures Nursery.
- Scotland
- childcare
- Government
- NDNA
- ndna member events
- nurseries
- Scotland
- Scottish Government
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