New SINA office gives boost to independents

The achievements of practitioners in the independent sector in providing full daycare were praised at the opening of the new Glasgow headquarters of the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association (SINA). Penelope Kilpatrick, chair of SINA's board of directors and owner of Pinetrees Nursery at Ayr hospital, described practitioners' jobs as 'juggling pieces of a huge human jigsaw to ensure that we meet the demands of parents, the requirements of legislation and, most importantly, that we give children the love and care and education they deserve.' Ms Kilpatrick said the independent sector was expert at providing full daycare. She said, 'You would only have to spend a morning in the office of a large nursery to know exactly how flexible this flexible, affordable childcare has to be. The phone rings constantly with requests for late pick-ups and early drop-offs, with weird and wonderful rota systems for hospital staff, with guaranteed term-time only places and no-I-don't-want-to-pay-for-the-holiday places for university staff, with emergency out-of-school cover for elections, with 'granny not well' and 'nanny run off with the milkman' cover... The list is endless.' Ms Kilpatrick said the combination of low unemployment, minimum wage laws, funded pre-school education and the Working Families Tax Credit was having a huge impact on the number of parents who were choosing to use childcare.