Aberdeen City Council’s Capital Programme Committee today (9th February) welcomed the increase to its funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) provision.
The final two new nurseries, located at Duthie Park and Hazlehead, are due to open next week, subject to sign off from the Care Inspectorate. Aberdeen City Council will run and manage its first two outdoor nurseries which will provide a new and exciting option for children to learn and play in the great outdoors.
The programme for improvements to the Early Learning and Childcare settings offers all eligible children 1140 hours at a variety of setting including 27 city locations which have been reviewed by the Council’s internal design team and appointed consultants to recommend a consistent overall approach at existing facilities as well as new builds and this includes:
- 8 new standalone facilities
- 2 extensions and refurbishments to standalone nurseries
- 1 extension to a school to form a new nursery
- 2 refurbishments within existing school nurseries
- 1 refurbishment of a non-operational building to convert it into a nursery
- 1 refurbishment and extension to a non-operational building to convert it into a nursery
- 12 minor work refurbishments of existing nursery settings
Capital Programme Committee Convenor Councillor Marie Boulton said: “The opening of the two new outdoor nurseries will represent a further increase in our capacity and ensure that there is a choice of learning settings allowing us to meet more children’s needs.
“The pandemic created real challenges in delivering this ambitious ELC programme but the positive feedback from both staff and families has endorsed that it has all been worth it.”