Nursery and pre-school education to be extended

The OIC is working on arrangements to provide children in Orkney with up to 600 hours of free nursery and pre-school education a year.

The Children and Young People Bill will require local authorities to extend the level of early education and childcare they provide. Locally, the annual entitlement of 475 hours will increase to 600 hours for three- and four-year-olds, as well as looked-after two-year-olds, from August 2014.

In Orkney, two-and-a-half hour nursery and pre-school sessions are currently provided five times a week during school terms. Orkney Islands Council is proposing two models to deliver the full 600 hours and aims to trial both for a year from next August.