A Blueprint for 2020 - The Expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland

Early learning and childcare across the country is going through a period of change over the next few years with the Scottish Government's commitment to almost double the number of funded hours for families currently available from 600 hours to 1140 per year by 2020 and we are looking for your views.

Glasgow City Council is working closely with the government, stakeholders, partners and third sector organisations to see how a new, improved and flexible service for Glasgow parents and carers can be in place and delivered by the 2020/21 school term.

The extra hours will be available to all children aged 3 or 4 years and for some 2 year olds and it will all be about flexibility for families.

Once in place, families will have more of a choice in how they use services in the city - including whether they use all of their child's funded hours, during school term-time or spread throughout the year.

Survey of views - we want to hear from you

To help shape the development of the plans, the council needs to hear from parents, carers, families and any interested parties who currently use early years and childcare services in Glasgow.

By taking part in the survey, the views and experiences of families will be used to design a bespoke service that will enable us to meet the commitments for our children by 2020.

Councillor Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills & Early Years said: "It's crucial that we hear from as many people as possible who access early years and childcare in the city at the moment.

"Only then can we have true picture of families' needs, assess demand and importantly manage expectations.

"This is a really exciting development in early years and parents and carers have the opportunity to help us shape a service that will meet their needs as much as possible.

"The key is flexibility and about designing a bespoke service that might be made of a number of elements including nursery provision, child minders and private provision - whatever works best for parents and carers.

"We want to listen to what our families need to enable them to work or learn and have the confidence in the council to provide a quality early years service for their children."

The survey will not take any longer than 10 minutes to complete and the deadline for submissions is Friday 14 July 20217

Click here to start answering the questions.