The Accounts Commission report on education services in the financial year 1999/2000 found that in 11 local authorities, 90 per cent or more of four-year-olds who accessed the pre-school education grant were cared for in a council-run provision (see table). Many of these councils were among the last to enter into partnerships with providers in the private and voluntary sector, and release the Scottish Executive pre-school education grant for places without their own provision. This included Falkirk, Midlothian, Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian.
West Dunbartonshire changed tack in summer 1999, after parents wanted the council to offer funded places in the voluntary and private sector. Midlothian and West Lothian changed their policies around the same time. Scottish Borders announced in February 2000 that it would keep funding places for three-year-olds in private nurseries and playgroups once they had turned four.
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