SEYA Scottish Early Years Association

20/08/2026

Remaining positive, great work NDNA 🙌

Majority of Scottish councils not paying genuinely sustainable rates.

A National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) Scotland investigation into the rates paid by councils in Scotland has revealed that the majority are failing to adequately cover the increase in costs for partner providers in their funding rate for the 2026-27 period. This leaves both parents and providers to cover the difference and pay for the increase in costs themselves.

Nurseries in two local authority areas are still yet to find out what their new funding rates will be, almost five months after they were due to apply. Nurseries in East Dunbartonshire won’t find out until October, leaving them in a position of great uncertainty and unable to properly plan for the next year.

Two councils (7% of responses received) did not even meet the minimum requirement set out by the Scottish Government, meaning not even the increase in the real living wage is covered, let alone other costs such as food and energy.

See the full press release for more information and statistics: https://ndna.org.uk/majority-of-scottish-councils-not-paying-genuinely-sustainable-rates/

30/05/2026

27/05/2026

There was a positive and constructive debate, particularly around the current cross-boundary issues.

All parties remain aligned in prioritising Early Learning and Childcare (ELC), while recognising that the system must also be financially sustainable. Key themes included:

Ensuring a fair hourly rate for PVI settings and childminders

Recognising fair pay across both Local Authority and PVI sectors

Providing increased support for the workforce

Maintaining affordable childcare for families

Supporting parental choice and flexibility in childcare provision

We are ooking forward to future meaningful engagement

Watch from around 3pm onwards

Ministerial Statement: First Homes Fund followed by Scottish Government Debate: Expanding Childcare Màiri McAllan S7M-00128 That the Parliament believes that every child deserves the best start in life and that a child’s earliest years are crucial in their development; recognises the importance o...

19/03/2026

🚨 IMPORTANT: Cross-Boundary 1140 Funding – This affects parents & childcare providers 🚨

Parents:
• Your access to childcare may become more limited
• You may have less choice in providers
• The stability of your child’s care could be at risk

Providers:
• This directly impacts your ability to run your setting

⚠️ Why this matters :
Childcare is already complicated and unaffordable.

If this decision is not challenged, other councils could follow, affecting childcare across Scotland.

We have taken an important step by issuing a legal letter to the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council, West Lothian Council, and COSLA.

This decision was not taken lightly. It is crucial for the future of our sector, the development of our children, achieving affordable childcare for families, and the sustainability of providers.

📩 For a copy of the letter, please email: [email protected]

🙏 We also ask for your support with our crowdfunding campaign - any donation or share helps show how important this is and the need for change across Scotland.

Help children & families save their childcare places where children are settled and thriving as cross-boundary 1140 hrs funding is withdrawn

19/03/2026

Advertising on My Job Scotland
For those that noted an interest, it is now live

Please see the update below from MJS.

You will now be able to post on the myjobscotland website for free. Whilst the full launch of all the pages has not gone live yet, we invite you to start posting any available positions you have to populate the the pages and ensure that there are no issues. Any jobs you do post will be live on the site, we will just not have the extra signposts to them.

Guidance on how to post your adverts can be found on our FAQ section here: Early years posting guide
The full launch is planned for the 23rd.

To log in please go to https://myjobscotland.gov.uk/ and select the log in option in the top right.
Your username will be the email we have contacted you on and your temporary password has been set as Password.1
You can change this in your account settings after logging in for the first time.

Regards,
myjobscotland Team

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