Aberdeen City Council has agreed to a four-year extension for Flexible Childcare Services Scotland (FCSS) to continue operating two early learning and childcare settings in Aberdeen City.
The decision was made on Tuesday 17th February at the council’s Education and Children’s Services Committee following positive feedback from the council’s early years team and from parents and carers at their Cummings Park and Tillydrone Nurseries.
Committee Convenor, Councillor Martin Greig, said:
“Feedback confirms that the early learning and childcare provided by FCSS is valued by the families who benefit from the service. It is good to be able to extend the arrangements for a further three years. I am glad that they can continue to support and nurture pre-school children in Tillydrone and Northfield into the future.”
FCSS is a national social enterprise with 15 childcare settings across Scotland; their charitable purpose is to ensure that children and families have access to the services they need to thrive.
To achieve this, the charity’s early learning and childcare settings offer a flexible model where parents can create bespoke childcare sessions to meet their actual needs, they can also add extra hours or change their bookings to match employment, educational or family commitments.
The model has been created to actively support parents back into the job market where they can increase their earning potential so that they can distance themselves, and their whole families, from poverty.
According to a parent who uses the charity’s Cummings Park Nursery,
“I wouldn’t have been able to go back to work as quickly without the flexibility of these services. They have given me the opportunity to take care of my family financially and also have the odd couple of hours to myself which improves my mental health.”
Another parent from Tillydrone said,
“Flexible booking options have made a huge difference to us. We have been struggling financially and having the flexible support means that my son is getting looked after so that I am able to work. Since I work from 4-7pm each weekday, the flexible childcare means we can just have our son there when we need it rather than having to pay for full days or half days like at other nurseries which would not be financially viable for us.”
Vice-convenor at the council’s Education and Children’s Services Committee, Councillor Jessica Mennie, said:
“FCSS have done great work in the last four years helping us to ensure high quality and flexible early learning and childcare in localities where there was less access to such settings.”
According to FCSS 69% of the parents that use their services in Aberdeen are in full or part time employment thanks to their unique model and 100% said that their household income had increased due to a combined saving in costs and increased income generation, 23% said their household income had increased by more than £5,000 a year.
According to Susan McGhee, Chief Executive at FCSS,
“We are delighted that Aberdeen City Council recognise the value of our services, and especially the impact that high quality, flexible book by the hour childcare can have on improving parental employment, gender equality and the reduction of child poverty rates.
“As we move on to the next stage of our partnership we are keen to further develop some of the wrap around support that our early learning childcare settings are providing. For instance, in Cummings Park we have an on-site Health Visitor so that support can be identified and delivered more efficiently. We are also working with FareShare to redistribute food, clothing and household items in a dignified way so that families don’t face the stigma associated with visiting a food bank but still have access to all of the resources they need. It’s an exciting time for us and we’re pleased we have support of Aberdeen City Council and the families who rely on our services.”
