§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list for each local education authority area the provision of nursery places to be provided by non-statutory bodies and private providers in the academic year 1998–99; [50426]
(2) if he will estimate the number of children currently attending nurseries provided by private providers who will not be able to continue to do so in the academic year 1998–99 because the facilities have been withdrawn by the local education authority. [50427]
§ Mr. WilsonThe number and distribution of grant funded pre-school education places which local authorities will commission in school year 1998–99 from partner centres will not be known accurately until the autumn. Estimates have however been received from each authority and the information is set out in the table.
It is likely there will be some parents of pre-school year children in the school year 1998–99 who, because their local authority has decided not to commission places from their preferred registered provider, will have to decide whether to move their child to another centre which is grant-eligible or to pay for a place at their preferred provider themselves. A reliable estimate of the number of parents so affected would however require data which are not collected centrally.
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Estimated number of pre-school education places to be commissioned by local authorities from registered partner providers in the voluntary and private sectors Local authority Number of places Aberdeen City 600 Aberdeenshire 100 Angus 30 Argyll and Bute 469 Clackmannanshire 43 Dumfries and Galloway 100 Dundee City 0 East Ayrshire 0 East Dunbartonshire 300 East Lothian 120 East Renfrewshire 170 City of Edinburgh 680 Falkirk 0 Fife 120 City of Glasgow 150 Highland 417 Inverclyde 170 Midlothian 0 Moray 120 North Ayrshire 600 North Lanarkshire 524 Orkney Islands 6 Perth and Kinross 190
Estimated number of pre-school education places to be commissioned by local authorities from registered partner providers in the voluntary and private sectors Local authority Number of places Renfrewshire 200 Scottish Borders 100 Shetland Islands 73 South Ayrshire 20 South Lanarkshire 630 Stirling 30 West Dunbartonshire 0 West Lothian 15 Western Isles 233 Scotland 6,210
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the criteria to be used to review the way that local education authorities have exercised their discretion in entering into local partnerships with private sector organisations to provide nursery places for the academic year 1998–99. [50425]
§ Mr. WilsonI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to him on 21 April 1998,Official Report, column 585.