We have tried to get our 3 (nearly 4) year old into the new local nursery in Scotland for when we move in a few weeks.
Now we have been turned down, they are citing we are not yet resident in the village (fair point), however ‘off the record’ we are being told there will not be a place in September, as the Nursery does not have enough space/places. This is also what the villagers / new colleagues are saying, and has been the case for a few years.
Without nursery places, my wife cannot work.
Anyone have any insight into ‘legal’ or ‘statutory’ provision of nursery places.
Co-incidentally, my wife is an early years teacher, and would work at the nursery if she could, or could start up some child minding…so we need to explore this very carefully…

you are entitled to around 2.5 hours of nursery a day, but that can effectively be anywhere the council choose, not necessarily the closest nursery.

you can make a placing request to a specific nursery but this can be refused, and class size can be used as a reason for the refusal. you cannot appeal a refusal of a placing request for a child who does not have additional needs.

Don’t know about that, but we are just starting to put our two into childcare. £90 per day for the two of them – **** how much?

most of what you’ve said sound about right IME. have you tried all the other nurseries in the surrounding villages/towns?

your wife sounds an ideal candidate to become a childminder (as long as you’re not moving to my village :wink:) tell her to get a move on though, SCMA childminding applications can take 6 months.

Cheers gavinski – that’s pretty much what we thought

GW – we shall see. New village/community, it seems better to move up and settle in, rather than wading in with ideas before we really know…

All I meant was you might want to look into it quickly. it costs nothing to get in touch with the SCMA and get info/the ball rolling. She only has about 6 months ’til the new school/nursery year starts.

Getting and staying registered as a childminder is a nightmare. Ours is considering giving up because of the amount of legislation, regulation and training she is subject to and so are many of the childminders in our area.

I would suspect that even though Jo is a qualified teacher, she would still be subject to all the requirements of the Care Commission.

Thats our initial reaction as well jojo – great idea, but the hassle and cost of doing it is a lot, especially if the local nursery is short of places and staff. Being employed is a much preferred route in the OAB household…