Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has said that he is “unsurprised” that the Scottish Government is suspending the deadline for delivery of its expansion of childcare hours.
Following an announcement by the Children and Early Years Minister Maree Todd that the Government is seeking to remove the August 2020 deadline for councils to provide 1140 hours of free childcare, the Conservative MSP said this was a target they were already likely to miss.
Mr Halcro Johnston, who is the Scottish Conservative Shadow Education Minister, said: “It is certainly understandable that the commitment has been abandoned given the health crisis and the need to prioritise our response to that.
“But we need to be clear that there were already very real questions being asked over the Scottish Government’s ability to deliver this flagship policy.
“Following a concerning report by Audit Scotland on the roll out of expanded early years hours, these issues were discussed at some length in a debate forced on the Scottish Government by the Scottish Conservatives; a debate in which the government response was confused and in which Parliament raised concerns about the delivery of the policy.
“I’m therefore unsurprised by the Scottish Government’s moves to delay a deadline they were going to miss anyway, and I recognise that focus must be on efforts to deal with the impact of Covid-19.
“But once we have done that, Ministers will have real questions to answer on how and when they will deliver expanded hours, how they will address the problems of recruitment of staff, and how they will make sure local authorities are adequately resourced.”
