MORE THAN 700 new nursery places are set to be created in West Fife after Fife Council unveiled its model on how it will deliver additional early learning and childcare hours.

With youngsters set to get 1,140 hours instead of the current 600 hours by August 2020, the area looks likely to get three new nursery centres while refurbishments and extensions are also planned at existing facilities.

The former Pitcorthie Primary School site is likely to be the place where a brand-new facility will be created in South Dunfermline while new-builds at Halbeath Community Centre and Rosyth Resource Centre have also been proposed.

Revamps at Inzievar, Tulliallan, St Serf’s and Touch primaries will be carried out and existing crèches at Duloch and Carnegie leisure centres are also set to be turned into nursery centres.

Members of Fife Council’s education and children’s services committee received an update on the proposals at their meeting on Tuesday.

Head of education and children’s services, Shelagh Mclean, said: “A number of innovative settings will be developed as part of the programme to deliver additional capacity.

“Fife Sports and Leisure Trust have identified additional capacity available in three of their leisure centres, namely Cowdenbeath, Duloch and Carnegie. These spaces were previously used to deliver crèche services for the Trust. We are planning to develop these to offer funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) instead. 

“Work will be required to upgrade these facilities to meet current Care Inspectorate regulations but we hope that all these settings will be available to deliver funded ELC by August 2019.”

The new childcare provision will equate to 30 hours per week based on a school term, however, the proposed model offers several flexible choices for parents including full-year provision and the option of partner provision delivered by either private nurseries, playgroups or childminders.

In order to cater for all the new places, efforts are already ongoing to train and recruit enough early years staff to work in the centres with Fife College increasing the number of places on its HNC childhood practice courses and Fife Council increasing its Early Years Officer Apprenticeship programme.

Dunfermline North councillor Helen Law said she was disappointed that there were no facilities being proposed in her ward. “I have for quite some time been promoting the Paton Street area,” she said.

“There are various provisions across Dunfermline but not in Dunfermline North where there are about 5,000 houses being built.”

Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman said: “The big winners in Dunfermline and West Fife will be Rosyth, Halbeath and Dunfermline South where new facilities will be supported by Scottish Government funds to the tune of some £25m.

"For example, Rosyth Resource Centre, which was closed by Social Work just last year, will now be brought back into service as a nursery and, once redesigned and rebuilt, will become a great addition to the educational offer in Rosyth. 

“Similar type new-build projects are lined up for Halbeath and Dunfermline South. There will also be a number other nursery refurbishments at sites including Carnegie Leisure Centre, Inzievar Primary School in Oakley, Tulliallan Primary in Kincardine and a new-build facility in Hill of Beath.”

Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville added: “Considering the increasing population in the area as new houses are built, it’s important that the council is planning ahead to ensure that provision can meet demand.

"Parents in Pitcorthie will be surprised to see the former primary school site being earmarked for use, considering that the previous council administration decided to close a perfectly good school there. However, I’m pleased to see that the new administration has its priorities right, planning appropriately for the future.”