THE parents of a three-year-old girl who has been denied a nursery place claim Fife Council have breached her rights.

Janine and Callum Norris have appealed after Adara, who had been attending McLean nursery while big brother Rory is at the school there, was told she can't go back.

The couple were "horrified" to discover places were allocated, in the council's own words "entirely at random", and were made to "feel our daughter is of no significance".

They said: "When schools do return and we are dropping our son off at McLean, our daughter will have to walk past her nursery, her friends, her teachers.

"When she asks why she is not allowed to go into her class and has to leave, the only answer we can give her is that the council did not value her enough or make any effort to consider her needs, and instead left it down to chance, tough luck."

Last week, the Press told you that Adara was one of 385 children in Fife who have not been allocated a place for next term, which is due to start in August.

The council letter advising that she had not been allocated a place contained a list of nurseries where places were available – with McLean one of those listed!

Adara is 15th on the waiting list and Janine said: "It's a waiting game and no-one knows what will happen.

"No-one answers your questions or tries to help, it's very frustrating.

"I just feel extremely anxious about the whole thing and it's keeping me awake at night."

In a letter to the council's chief executive, Steve Grimmond, the Janine and Callum stated: "Taking our child out from a place she is already settled and secure in, to give places to children who have never attended McLean and allocating our daughter no place at all is unconscionable.

"This is completely against GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child), The Rights of the Child (UNESCO) specifically articles 3 and 12, and The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, specifically section 46 and 47."

They added the decision flew in the face of the council's own 'Opportunities for All’ plan, which aims to maintain a "strong focus" on the wellbeing and mental health of children, and added: "Her needs and mental health are certainly not being met."

The couple told Mr Grimmond: "We were horrified to learn that 'places are allocated entirely at random'.

"You had all the information to hand to make a considered judgment but instead a random lottery method was applied.

"This is inexcusable or, at best, is just lazy."

They continued: "We don’t believe you did your best for our daughter; you didn’t even come close. This needs to be fixed.

"We understand you cannot please everyone but you could have done so much better than this.

"You are not placing the child at the centre, it’s not child-focused and is certainly not based on their current wellbeing.

"We feel our daughter is of no significance, she completely does not matter.

"Her feelings and voice are not being heard. It is thoroughly disappointing."

Janine told the Press: "It's been an absolute shambles from start to finish.

"Not allocating places to children who were already there is completely unfair. You can't mess three- and four-year-olds around in this way.

"They're using coronavirus as an excuse but those applications were handed in two months before lockdown."

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