Nursery World - Scottish playgroups count on progress

Delegates to the Scottish Pre-school Play Association's annual general meeting and conference were given encouraging news amid a background of years of falling membership and closing playgroups. Nearly 200 representatives from a range of organisations including pre-five member groups, local authorities, the Scottish Executive and childcare partnerships heard that the SPPA has increased its partnership funding from 19 local authorities by 35 per cent over the past 12 months. It has also reviewed and streamlined the staff structure at headquarters, a process which involved one redundancy and the creation of a funding manager post.

Nearly 200 representatives from a range of organisations including pre-five member groups, local authorities, the Scottish Executive and childcare partnerships heard that the SPPA has increased its partnership funding from 19 local authorities by 35 per cent over the past 12 months. It has also reviewed and streamlined the staff structure at headquarters, a process which involved one redundancy and the creation of a funding manager post.

At the conference in Dundee, SPPA chief executive Ian McLaughlan paid tribute to the association's staff for their commitment to providing quality pre-school services and said it 'was poised to embark upon an exciting new journey responding positively to new Government initiatives, such as developing pre-three services while maintaining quality services to more than 1,700 member groups operating in each local authority area'.

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