Highland Pre-school Services (HPS), the association for early years groups in Highland and Moray, found that the committees of member playgroups providing pre-school education spent 30,400 hours a year free of charge on administration and management, providing an annual saving of more than 182,000. The committees, usually made up of parents, also contributed 108,000 a year through fundraising.
Chief executive Ann Brady said, 'I am not in the least surprised by the contribution of nearly 300,000 per year. My only concern is that it may be too conservative an estimate. The commitment, hard work and drive of our committees have been recognised by HPS for a long time.'
The HPS survey of 101 groups that have partnership arrangements with the local authority to provide pre-school education achieved a 71 per cent response rate. Ms Brady said this showed the strength of parents' feelings on the issue.
'I think they are frustrated by political statements about pre-school education being free. They are saying "It's not free, because we are contributing",' she said. 'We were asked by our groups to carry out this survey - they wanted their contribution quantified. They are not saying they do not want to do this, but they would like recognition and acknowledgement. I will bring the findings to the attention of our local authority.'
The survey found the average amount fundraised per group per year was Pounds 539.
The voluntary committees spent a total of 800 hours a week on administration, planning, staff management and financial management - not including parental involvement within the playgroup sessions. Calculated at a rate of 6 an hour, this amounted to a contribution of 4,800 a week, or, given that the groups operated an average of 38 weeks a year, 182,400 per year.
