Councils giving evidence to a major inquiry on early years have called for more direction and guidance from the Scottish Executive on how to deliver integrated services for babies and toddlers.
Four local authorities - Edinburgh, Argyll and Bute, Shetland Isles andStirling - gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's educationcommittee last week.
"We were all agreed the Executive needs to give more direction and needsto be clearer about how it expects local authorities to spend the fundsthat it sends down," said Carolyn Martin, early years and childcareservices manager at Edinburgh City Council. She said there was also areal need to simplify funding streams.
The councils also highlighted real problems around the sustainability ofchildcare including the difficulty of maintaining services in ruralareas with small populations and less demand.
