Related Links

Crèche

Visiting Holyrood

Gàidhlig

Parliament's crèche sees increase in young visitors

081/2006 | 24 October 2006 

Usage of the Scottish Parliament’s crèche has risen significantly, it was revealed today, following a range of initiatives introduced over a six month period to encourage the use of the free public facility for visitors to Holyrood.

Figures reported to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) show that during the period April to September 2006, a total of 654 children used the crèche facility. This compares with 376 children for the same period in 2005, representing a 74 per cent increase.

The improvement has encouraged the SPCB to continue with such initiatives. The SPCB will further take stock of the crèche’s performance in Spring next year.

While the number of children visiting has increased, the SPCB noted that progress has also been made towards achieving an initial performance target of 50 child care hours per week being utilised. This shows that there has also been an increase in the amount of time spent by children in the crèche.

Figures show that 76 per cent of all users over the period were visitors enjoying free access to the facility. The remainder were Holyrood passholders who, under the new arrangements, can make use the crèche on a drop-in basis, but paying a commercial rate of £3 per hour.

Considering the future of the crèche today, the SPCB acknowledged the views of MSPs who called for an extended review period and for no alterations to the space at this time.

The SPCB agreed that:

• work to promote the free public facility should continue,

• access on a paid-for basis for passholders should continue,

• the crèche should be made available for parliament-led events held at the weekend,

• that resources should continue to be focused at present on providing a Monday – Friday crèche service, given the relatively lower levels of usage during a trial of Saturday opening.

Nora Radcliffe MSP, SPCB member and chair of the Parliament’s crèche advisory group said:

"I’m delighted to see the increase in usage of the crèche following a range of initiatives suggested by the crèche advisory group. People do not necessarily expect to have such a facility available – after all we are the only Parliament in Europe to offer a free public crèche – so it has been necessary to market it more for visitors.

"Going forward, we will continue to look at ways to ensure all visitors with childcare responsibilities are aware that this is an option for them when visiting Parliament.”

Figures reported to the SPCB show that the number of children rose from eight and ten per week during June, at the start of the pilot period when the Parliament met in the Hub, to regularly more than 30, peaking at 40 children per week in September.

Future use of crèche space

In May 2006, the SPCB agreed that work should be done to consider options for making more effective use of the space currently allocated to the crèche.

It was noted then that converting part of the crèche into an additional education unit would not upset the existing level of crèche services – which supports up to ten children at one time - but it could greatly enhance the education programme’s capacity.

After considering the performance figures and the views of Members, the SPCB decided that:

• the crèche space should remain unchanged at least until the end of the parliamentary session in 2007, and

• in light of wider work to review the Parliament’s education and outreach services, and use of Holyrood’s Main Hall, parliamentary officials should prepare ‘legacy paper’ options for the next elected SPCB to consider how best to maximise future use of Parliament’s public spaces for engagement.

Also for the next elected Corporate Body, post-May 2007, will be a legacy paper recommendation that the Parliament should conduct a review of all of its childcare policies, which will have been in place for eight years following the Parliament’s establishment in 1999.

More information on the crèche

For further information, the Scottish Parliament media contact is:

Eric MacLeod : 0131 348 5389

email: eric.macleod@scottish.parliament.uk

For public information enquiries, contact: 0131 348 5000 or 0845 278 1999 (local call rate)
Text phone: 0131 348 3415 RNID Typetalk calls welcome
email: sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk

Visit our website at: www.scottish.parliament.uk