New childcare has been found for some of the youngsters who will be affected by the closure of a Castle Douglas nursery in the summer.
Treasure Island Nursery will close for good at the end of July, creating a problem for families as other facilities in the town are already close to capacity.
But council officials believe they have found places for most of the children who attend Treasure Island.
Castle Douglas and Crocketford councillor John Young raised the matter during last week’s education committee.
He said: “We have a very well regarded nursery in Castle Douglas closing in July. Seventy youngsters currently attend that nursery. As far as I’m aware there’s very little capacity elsewhere in the town.
“Could someone outline what will happen if there’s no suitable placements for the present youngsters who attend that nursery?”
The Scottish Government early learning and childcare (ELC) scheme provides funding so that all three and four-year-olds, as well as some youngsters aged two, can have 1,140 hours of free childcare a year. Education officer Rosemary Smith told Mr Young: “Thirty families who were eligible for early learning and childcare would be affected by the closure and we would need to secure a place for them.
“As of today three families are outstanding so we have managed to work with families to find alternative provision.
“We are continuing to work with those outstanding families to understand what the need is and find them alternative provision.
“A number of them have moved to Castle Douglas nursery. There is another provider in the town that offers all year round provision.”
One of the issues affecting Treasure Island was the low rates it received from the council for providing ELC.
The hourly rate the council pays to private, voluntary or independent (PVI) nurseries is £5.26 per child – one of the lowest rates in Scotland. They also receive £1.77 for a meal per day, per child.
A report for the committee proposed increasing the hourly rate to £5.53 and the meal allowance to £3, although Dumfriesshire Private Nurseries Association had pushed for a bigger rise.
Both payments are due to be backdated to the start of 2022 but it was suggested the backdated amount should be from the start of the academic year in August, 2021.
It was agreed to backdate the cash to January, with officers to “look if it’s affordable to backdate them to August”.
Strategic planning and business development manager Susan Martin said instructions for the payments would go out once the meeting had finished.
She added: “They should be with them very quickly.”
Members also agreed to receive a further paper on setting sustainable rates following further guidance from the Scottish Government.
Councillors were told only around half of Dumfries and Galloway’s PVI nurseries had responded.
