Targeted nursery provision for 2-year-olds
From September 2006, Glasgow, Dundee and North Ayrshire Councils are taking part in a two-year pilot, to be externally evaluated, which is funded by the Scottish Executive.
The purpose of the pilot projects is to provide an extra year of pre-school provision in a targeted way to those that will benefit most.
Research suggests that an earlier start and longer time spent at nursery can be beneficial to child development and has particular benefits for disadvantaged children. The pilot projects will test out the practicalities of developing such provision in Scotland. The pilots and the evidence gained from the evaluation will inform any wider rollout of creating nursery places for 2-year-olds.
The Scottish Executive has allocated £1 million in 2006–07 and 2007–08 to support the development of targeted places for 2-year-olds.
North Ayrshire Council
North Ayrshire plans to use the pilot period of two years to experiment with different models of nursery provision for 2-year-olds, taking account of local community needs and allowing for an expansion of established services. The Council has been allocated £250,000 for each of the two years to create 100 places.
In general terms a nursery session will last 2.5 hours and children will attend between three and five sessions a week over a school year (term-time) while some will attend 50 weeks a year. Qualified and experienced staff will provide high quality play experiences for children based around individual needs. The overall aim will be to improve children’s personal, emotional and social skills as a sound basis for future learning experiences.
Support will also be available to parents through individual support, group work programmes and play sessions for parents and children based on the Fit Ayrshire Babies (FAB) Programme.
Four primary schools, two nursery centres and two partner groups have been identified as bases for the creation of new places or expansion of existing services.
Dundee City Council
In Dundee the new services for 2-year-olds will build on the City Council’s experiences of delivering Sure Start by continuing to focus on young children in the context of their families and communities.
Planned play and learning programmes will be provided for children for up to 10 hours each week. Alongside these, a range of parent and child services will be available on an opt-in basis to support the engagement and involvement of parents.
Services will be available to approximately 100 children in three nursery schools and one nursery class. All the nurseries are located within regeneration areas of the city and one of the nurseries is a specialist resource for children with complex additional support needs. The services will be targeted at vulnerable children and referrals will be encouraged from social work and health partners. However, the intention from the outset is to provide as accessible a service as possible since research from EPPE (Effective Provision of Pre-School Education) and others indicates that children learn a great deal from one another and do better in groups reflecting the diversity of local communities.
A new post of Birth to Three Co-ordinator will be established within each of these nurseries to co-ordinate the planning and delivery of the new services. The further development of an already well established partnership with a voluntary organisation, Childcare@Home, formerly Dundee Sitter Service, will provide additional staffing on a sessional basis. The sessional staff will be co-ordinated by the Birth to Three co-ordinators. Extensive training and staff development opportunities are being planned to support the new teams.
Glasgow City Council
Glasgow City Council will provide 400 dedicated places for 2-year-olds in nine nursery schools and two family learning centres, across the two-year funded period. This provision will be further expanded in year 3. Nursery schools will offer three hours per day for five days a week throughout the year, with some capacity to augment this care provision with additional hours to reflect the needs of children with additional learning support needs.
Parental engagement will be a vital component of the provision, and programmes and activities which support parents and proactively encourage their involvement in their children’s learning will be a key feature of the pilot.
Nurture groups have been a successful innovation in early primary school and the pilot will seek to extend this through the development of nurture groups for younger children in the new provision. Family nurture groups will involve children from the same family attending primary school and nursery school/family learning centre.
Particular effort will be targeted at securing parental involvement both in the pilot centre settings and at home in the community through the development of a dedicated outreach service. Funding for this element has been awarded to Glasgow City Council Education Services by Cash for Kids. In addition, the dual approach to targeting vulnerable children is designed to maximise joined-up working and to establish links between children’s and adults’ services to secure optimum outcomes for vulnerable children and their families.