Fair Funding for Our Kids nursery provision campaign calls it a day

The Fair Funding for Our Kids campaign is to wind up after two years of campaigning for more flexible childcare and nursery education.

The founders of the high-profile campaign said “the lives of the original parents have moved on” after their children started school.

The campaign fired some parting shots at Scotland’s political parties with a list of demands ahead of the Scottish Parliament election, calling on them build consensus on the issue.

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First of these is to abandon the “over simplistic” focus on the quantity of free hours of childcare, a measure used by the Scottish and UK Governments.

“There is no doubt affordable childcare is on the agenda, but at every level there are myths and misconceptions about the way the system works,” it said.

In its two-year lifespan the campaign has met with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon twice, as well as education secretary Angela Constance and a number of opposition leaders, to highlight a lack of flexibility in childcare expansion policies.

In November campaigners were “frustrated and angry” after a meeting with Constance gave “no answers” about the SNP’s flagship childcare expansion plans for universal provision of 1140 hours.

Spokeswoman and co-founder Jenny Gorevan said the campaign’s “biggest lesson” had been working together despite political and social differences.

“We finish our campaign by asking all the parties to sign up to a ten-year plan to transform Scottish childcare. If every party signs up before the election it means the consensus is in place to come up with the vision, then the plan, then the money over two and a half parliaments.

“Our experience is that too much in modern Scotland is being held back by political tribalism at all levels. There is a gap for a politics that is about delivering results not slogans.”