Aberdeenshire Council’s retiring education chief has said the local authority will need help from the private sector if it is to avert a potential childcare crisis.
Maria Walker’s warning comes as concerns were raised about the roll-out of a Scottish Government scheme to provide 1,140 hours of free early learning and childcare by 2020.
Ms Walker, who stepped down as the council’s director of education and children’s services this week, said nurseries face a “big challenge” to meet the target in two years’ time.
It is understood staff have raised fears about new nursery opening hours, staff contracts and demand from parents.
One senior nursery source said she had been told opening times would move from 9am to 3pm and from 8am to 6pm and there would be no more closures during school holidays.
Those proposals have sparked worries that longer hours could be detrimental to children, with the role of nursery to prepare them for entering primary one rather than childcare.
But Ms Walker said the potential difficulties with implementing the policy in Aberdeenshire are no different to other parts of the country.
She said: “It is a big, big challenge, but it is not any different in the north-east compared to anywhere else in Scotland.
“We are working a lot with the Northern Alliance on this as well and we taking it stage-by-stage.
“There is a need to expand the hours and we also need to give parents flexibility.
“Parents will be given the chance to have their say and tell the council what they want, which is quite different from how this process has worked in some other rural areas.
“And it won’t just be the council doing this. It will be the private providers and voluntary sector working together.”
Alexander Burnett, Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, said: “It is disappointing but not surprising to hear that staff have concerns about the roll-out of this policy.
“A recent Audit Scotland report exposed the SNP’s failure to plan properly for this switch and said Nicola Sturgeon would struggle to meet the 2020 deadline.
“Councils across the country have said that the government is simply not providing enough funding to deliver on this pledge.
“If the local nurseries piloting the scheme in Aberdeenshire are struggling with it then that should act as a wake-up call for the SNP government to take steps to address the glaring issues that have been identified.”
Despite the concerns, an Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said early pilots had been “very successful.”