The education provided by local authority nurseries in Scotland is more often of a higher standard than that provided by private centres which many working parents have to rely on, a new report has found.
The first major assessment of the sector by schools' inspectors revealed that council-run pre-school centres did better across a range of educational measures than privately-run centres working in partnership with local authorities.
In the past decade there has been an explosion in nursery education across Scotland and there are 90,000 three and four-year-olds at 2750 childcare centres. Of these 1537 are run by local authorities with an additional 559 run privately in partnership with the local authority.
The dilemma for working parents is that local authority nurseries rarely provide care throughout the working day, leaving private nurseries as the only option.
The report by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE), which collated results from 1600 inspection reports between 2003 and 2006, found that the majority of centres in all sectors were rated during inspections as either "good" or "very good".
However, 65% of local authority nursery schools were rated "very good" for staff-child interaction compared to 39% of private nurseries.
On meeting children's needs, 51% of local authority nursery schools and 31% of local authority nursery classes were rated "very good" compared to 26% in the private sector. Council-run nurseries also performed better in helping children with special needs. In contrast, 67% of centres in the private sector were "very good" for leadership compared to 28% in the council sector.
Cosla, which represents local authorities, welcomed the report which a spokesman said highlighted councils' focus on providing a "well-trained and highly educated workforce".
However, Mairi Clark, spokeswoman for the National Day Nurseries Association, said the private sector was providing a superb service which was "on the coat-tails" of the state sector, despite operating with a fraction of the budget.
She also believes it is unfair to compare council nurseries with those in the private sector because they provide different things. "We need to provide in excess of 50 hours a week of care and education whereas most local authority nurseries are based around a 25-hour week," she said.
The report concluded that pre-school centres in all sectors performed better when they had input from a qualified teaching professional.
The finding comes against a backdrop of concern that the quality of pre-school education is being damaged because local authorities are replacing teachers with nursery nurses.
Adam Ingram, the Children's Minister, said: "We're determined to ensure that all children have access to a nursery teacher."
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