Lothian MSP, Jeremy Balfour, has expressed his support for a campaign seeking to secure nursery funding for four-year-old children whose parents opt for a deferred start to primary school.
Since 1980, parents with children who are born between August and February have been allowed to choose whether their children start school at the age of four or whether to defer starting school until the following year.
However, funding for early learning and childcare is only available for the children that are born in January and February.
The Give Them Time campaign was established in May 2019 in attempt to gain funding for the children born between August and December.
On Tuesday, Jeremy Balfour MSP voted alongside a majority of MSPs to back the campaign and called for the government to provide early learning and childcare funding for all children whose parents have chosen for them to have a deferred start.
The Scottish Conservative and Unionist MSP said:
“Parents are best equipped to decide whether their children are ready to start school at the age of four or not.
“It is unfair that the current system means that only parents that can afford to pay for an extra year of nursery care are able to choose to defer their child’s start at school.
“The SNP must ensure that funding is in place for all children born between August and February to stay at nursery for another year should their parents choose this.
“However, the fact that the SNP have only built 13 percent of the nurseries that they had pledged to between August 2017 and May 2019 highlights that nursery care is not a priority for the Scottish Government. This must change.”