A GLASGOW family have hit out after they were told they were due hundreds of hours of free childcare – only to have it snatched away because of where they live. 

Furious Teri Brown, 36, was led to believe her four-year-old daughter Quinn would be entitled to 1140 free hours per year under the pilot of a flagship Scottish Government plan to double free childcare hours. 

But the mum-of-two was then told it was a mistake after bungling council staff wrongly uploaded a document to their website with incorrect information about her entitlement. 

Teri, who lives in Easterhouse, chose to send her daughter to Little Hands Nursery in Condorrat, Cumbernauld because she works in the North Lanarkshire town. But her Glasgow address means little Quinn and her family will not receive the same financial benefit as other children in the nursery. 

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Now the family, who already receive the statutory 600 free hours at the moment, will continue to fork out around £300 a month on nursery fees – while others enjoy the benefits of the scheme, which will be rolled out across the entire country next year. 

Glasgow Times:

Quinn

Teri, who is also mum to Kain, 6, said: “Myself and my partner are working parents – the whole policy was brought about to help people like us.

“But every other single parent in that nursery is going to get the benefit of that except us. 

“They have singled her out.”

The family were initially told they would receive the funding, but following a meeting of the West Partnership, made up of several local authorities, the decision was reversed despite Quinn attending the nursery since she was almost one-year-old. 

The family are considered a cross-boundary case, and with North Lanarkshire Council starting the pilot this coming term for residents only – they don’t qualify. 

Glasgow Times:

Teri, above, said: “I think it is a complete and utter joke. It has been a complete cop out from the Scottish Government. 

“In an ideal world, it is an amazing policy and it should be life-changing for families.

“The stupidity of it is they have handed the power over to these local authorities and said fight about it among yourself and how you are going to roll this out.”

Her case is being looked at by MP David Linden who wrote to education heads at both local authorities on her behalf. He said: “The Scottish Government’s expansion of free childcare has been enormously beneficial for families across my constituency but cross-boundary issues will inevitably arise from time-to-time. It’s important that local authorities have solutions in place for this and that’s exactly what I’m pushing for in Quinn’s case.  I hope we will be able to get this resolved in time for the new academic year starting.”

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said that an agreement in place between local authorities means they can only fund the statutory 600 hours. A pilot will be rolled out in Glasgow but the family don’t qualify for that.  The reason they don't qualify is they chose to put their daughter in a nursery in North Lanarkshire rather than Glasgow. 

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The spokeswoman said: “Each authority has their own plans for delivering the new entitlement which does not become universally available until August 2020.”

A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council added: “A working draft of a document in relation to the implementation of 1140 hours of early learning and childcare was wrongly uploaded to the council’s website. This should not have happened and we apologise to the small number of families and providers for who this might have created an unrealistic expectation of the funded hours of care available.

“In line with the other councils in the West Partnership, the council’s position is that 600 hours of funded care will be available to children crossing local authority boundaries in 2019/20. However, we continue to engage with the small number of people affected to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “North Lanarkshire Council has provided assurance that they are looking carefully at the situation.”

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