BBC Scotland has managed to find a single case which can be used to cast doubt on the most generous childcare provision anywhere in the UK.
The couple above are both forestry consultants.
One, a senior forestry consultant, is currently pregnant with her second child and due in December.
According to the Daily Record: ‘Not returning to work next year is not an option for them as she is the main income earner in her family.‘ https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/petition-handed-stirling-council-killin-30569882
So, we’re talking about tax-payer funded childcare, for two middle-class parents, for an infant, because neither is prepared to stay at home until they are 2?
And, the Council?
Stirling Council: Labour strikes ‘grubby’ deal with Tories to lock SNP out: https://www.thenational.scot/news/20144208.stirling-council-labour-strikes-grubby-deal-tories-lock-snp/
No mention of that in the BBC report.
Anything else of interest not reported?
Brexit will, therefore, present us with an opportunity. Less EU legislation alongside a genuine desire to establish diverse forests would streamline the bureaucratic process and enable our sector to establish a forest that can be an ecological, economic and social success. A reduction in barriers for establishment will attract new investors and present greater opportunities for further woodland creation.
https://www.tilhill.com/resource-hub/our-news/developing-demand-for-diversification-david-pelly/
That’s from a prize-winning essay by the dad, back in 2018 and presented to him by the Conservative minister at the time.
Might Brexit have impacted on the supply of workers in nurseries? Might it have affected the Scottish rural economy making a private nursery in the area less viable?
Finally, are there greater priorities for Scottish Government in its efforts to reduce child poverty and increase opportunities for more disadvantaged women to be able to return to work and/or education?
How about reporting that sort of thing BBC Scotland?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
If taxation were fair then everyone would get state funded childcare independent of their earnings.
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Everyone does in Scotland? Provision is down to often Labour councils and the private sector
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I agree entirely, but under the current UK government that possibility is continually receding. And, who knows what an incoming Labour government would do? At the time of Attlee and even Wilson I think what you say would be aspired to. However, your idea would be sidelined as ‘uncosted’ because they ‘have not seen the books’.
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If there is funding from Holyrood for child care, then this Labour/Tory (really just a single party) council should lose it.
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Although having sympathy for the folks affected by this change in Killin https://archive.ph/qjxO5, it is pretty damned obvious it was not of national importance.
BBC Scotland must have promoted this in prime spot as a filler to avoid having to report on something else, viz distraction/obstruction.
Anybody know what they were hiding ?
An amusing aspect of the article was absence of political reference or photo, which told me instantly it was not a SNP council.
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Good point!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66260332
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Likely earlier, when they posted the equally bizarre distraction John referred to above…
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In hindsight, both dumb articles may well have been staged to ensure nothing major disturbed the publicity waters before the Tsunakanami arrived….
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Brexit consequences ? Karma’s a bitch !
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Tongue in cheek.
They could sent the children to a more distant nursery if they don’t want the trouble of bringing them up, don’t they want the children?
It’s more difficult to employ a maid from the eu, why not employ a Phillippino nurse?
Brexit’s a bitch. Trans Pacific deal will work for them.
CPTPP rules.
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This follows the top story of one woman with anxiety/depression who didn’t get to be a police officer and prefers to moan about it rather than be grateful.
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I know its O/T but I just saw a clip of Bowie spouting how we have decades of oil and gas to save Britian/England the sheer hypocrisy of these Tory barstewards knows no bounds I am old enough to remember these Unionist showers telling us the oil would run out after 10 years really angry and how any Scot could vote for them makes I don’t know.
Rant over have emailed Bowie to tell him of his hypocrisy but will make no difference to that smirking so and so.
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STV have the following –
“Analysis showed the number of teachers working in state-funded early learning and childcare was 1,386 in 2012 but this dropped to just 734 in 2022, representing a fall of 47%.”
“A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland has the most generous childcare offer for families of anywhere in the UK and a crucial part of that is our highly skilled early learning and childcare (ELC) workforce, which has expanded by over 8,000 since 2017. The number of graduate level ELC staff has also increased by 1,111 between 2017 and 2022, to a total of 3,427.”
https://news.stv.tv/politics/number-of-scottish-nurseries-teachers-halved-over-past-decade
[I didn’t see all this elsewhere!]
So from the above, I assume the sector has 734 “qualified teachers”, and a further 2,693 staff “qualified in ELC’ – the latter being qualified to look after and ‘teach’ those very young kids.
You either conclude that the reduction in ‘qualified teachers’ is a deliberate attempt by the Scottish Government (aided by local councils?) to do ELC on the cheap, or the idea is to provide a better allocation of resources. From what I can see, the latter is more likely, and includes the promotion of apprenticeships with qualifications gained on the job. See e.g. –
https://childcarecareersscotland.scot/how-to-get-started/training-info/
As for doing it on the cheap, I wonder what the pay is for staff “qualified in ELC’, and whether the 652 missing “qualified teachers” are better employed in primary schools? If not, where are they?
Note: STV also has this in the moan from Willie Rennie –
“In January 2017, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon committed that an extra 435 graduates would be in place in nurseries by 2018, at the time insisting the move was “absolutely crucial to tackling the attainment gap”.”
So Sturgeon overpromised a bit on “qualified” teachers , and I assume the plan was later revised to promote “qualified in ELC’ posts in order to provide 1,140 hours of funded ELC – especially for those aged ‘0 to 2’.
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STV net has,
The rats are back in Glasgow Scotstoun.
Big as cats in Possil..
Report on oil licence sale is not a major problem.
The rich cynic is using green fuel to power the big jet, the sustainable fuel that’s yet to be manufactured in any quantity.
You can’t stop people going on holiday he says.
His picture in the ‘Thatcher’s’ car gets debunked.
What a media we have, story full of inaccuracies.
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