Council-run creches across Fife have been given a stay of execution after a scrutiny committee voted to defer their closures until more detail on the impact is provided.
A decision made by the council’s education and children’s services sub-committee last November had initially approved the closure of all creches, as well as some after-school clubs, run by the local authority in a bid to save £488,000.
Under the approved proposals, breakfast clubs for children in deprived areas are also to be left to schools to provide.
However, at a meeting of the education and children’s services, health and social care scrutiny committee held this week, councillors voted in favour of a motion to defer the implementation of the new approach.
The committee had been asked to review the original decision after claims it was “taken without full consideration of the impact of the proposals.”
Warning of “postcode lottery” of services
The approved motion, which was put forward by Councillor David Ross, requested that further reports into the impact – as well a full business plan for the future provision of childcare and play practice development – be drafted.
Options for maintaining and expanding these services to “better meet needs and where possible increase income” were also requested.
In making the motion, Mr Ross took aim at what he described as the “postcode lottery” of services which would result from the closures.
He said: “This is a budget-driven approach and a detraction of services.
“There has been a lack of information on the real impact, in particular on some of our more disadvantaged communities that are in need of these services.
“There is real concern that our approach now is introducing a postcode lottery. There is an absence of business planning and it’s not a true commercialisation approach.
“We need to look at them again.”
Some of our communities most in need of support are the ones which have the service and its loss would have an impact that I don’t think has been properly assessed.”
Dunfermline North councillor Helen Law
Seconding the motion, Councillor Altany Craik claimed the decision to move to a more commercialised model had failed to consider the long term impact of the pandemic.
He said: “All of these [provisions] provide a scaffolding to those who will be hit the hardest in the post-covid landscape.
“I think the report and the decision made at the committee probably didn’t look at the accumulative impact as much as I would’ve liked.
“A decade of cuts to council budgets has meant we have had to try and make the most we can with the cloth we have but I think this is one of these areas that need to be looked at again.”
Dunfermline North councillor Helen Law had previously labelled the proposals to close the creches as “unacceptable” and speaking at the scrutiny meeting she said the needs of communities had to come first.
She said: “The creche service has been running in Fife for over 20 years and it’s a much needed service.
“The report refers to changes in early years provisions and the perceived impact of that however I think that was an opportunity to work together with the creche service rather than just close it.
“Some of our communities most in need of support are the ones which have the service and its loss would have an impact that I don’t think has been properly assessed.”
“People are not going to fall through the cracks”
However, Councillor Sharon Green-Wilson, who represents the Rosyth ward, argued against claims little detail on the impact of the closures had been given.
She said: “This is not about demand, it’s about changing needs.
“We got a lot of detail from council officers who put in a lot of work and their estimation is that most people are going to take up funded nursery provisions.
“People are not going to fall through the cracks here. It’s about targeting resources in a changing landscape of needs. ”
The motion defeated an amendment put forward by Councillor Karen Marjoram to agree and uphold the decision made at the sub-committee.
The matter will now be referred back to the council who will decide between the original proposals and the alternative measures laid out.
