The Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate for the Highland Council by-election of East Sutherland and Edderton has drawn attention to the potential upsides for rural communities if delivery of the Holyrood government’s increase in childcare, from 9 months up to the end of primary school, is done correctly.

Rebecca Machin, a retired head teacher who has taught at schools all over Highland, including Dornoch Academy, and was heavily involved with trying to save Edderton Primary School from mothballing as part of her role on Edderton’s Community Council said:

“In hindsight, we can see now that the closure of Edderton’s Nursery precipitated the slow decline of the Edderton Primary School role and it’s closure.

“Without childcare in the village, parents had to find that service elsewhere, most often in Tain, if they wanted to work.

“After two years of childcare, the youngsters make friends and parents don’t want to isolate their youngster from the peer groups they already know.

“The youngster is enrolled in a neighbouring primary, our school roll falls further until, eventually but predictably, it is defined as unsustainable.”

Mrs Machin continued:

“And yet there are 11 primary school age youngsters in the village.

“Now, it’s fair to say that a nursery for 3-5 year olds in our village may not have been sustainable.

“But that is the promise of widening the age range of eligible children.

“By widening the promise of childcare to include children from 9 months to the end of primary, suddenly all 11 of those youngsters are eligible, along with their 15 pre-school siblings and peers.

“Third sector organisations in our ward are starting to see opportunities for growth, potential solutions are starting to be discussed and parents who are being asked for their thoughts are seeing not only the opportunity to work in the jobs of their choice, rather than the jobs that can fit around the few hours of childcare available, but a significant number are also suggesting that they might be willing to work in this growing childcare workforce.

“The economic multiplier effect of this investment is huge.

“Freeing parents and grandparents from day-to-day childcare duties is a way of broadening the labour force and getting people back into work.

“The figure for this varies, but most research suggests that for every £1 invested in childcare, between £3.50 and £8.00 is raised.

“This is extra taxes, extra money in families’ pockets, extra holidays, extra freedom.”

The retired head teacher also said:

“Often in Highland, delivery is challenging because of the vast differences in population density between areas, one size can never, and does, not fit all here which can lead to communities feeling left out and under-served.

“And yet high quality, accessible early years provision is not simply a childcare service.

“It’s a public health intervention, improving the lives of today’s children and the adults they will become.

“It is one of the most important community assets young children can have.

“The SNP’s childcare pledge is an opportunity: an opportunity to be imaginative and to design solutions which are appropriate to each hyper-localised context.

“It is this pledge, this opportunity, which if delivered with the correct oversight and strategic vision, can be one very important cog in the wheel that addresses depopulation and reverses the decline of the working age population in rural areas of Highland.”