THE focus on expanding nursery provision in Scotland has switched from the quality of education on offer to the quantity of hours available, a headteachers' leader has said.

Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS), described the shift as "disappointing" because research has shown the potential negative long term impacts on children of participation in some "lower quality settings".

The warning comes just weeks after an independent study by the Edinburgh-based Child’s Curriculum Group revealed a 30 per cent reduction in the number of nursery teachers in the past 10 years – but only a four per cent drop in children.

Mr Dempster, whose union represents primary headteachers, said: "The government has recognised the value of high quality nursery education and the long term positive impact it can have on pupil outcomes, but in seeking to deliver these benefits that focus has been lost.

"Instead, the focus is on quantity of time available in nursery provision, which is about freeing up parents for employment, rather than the quality of service on offer."

The Child’s Curriculum Group study, which was funded by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union, said the reductions meant there was now a ratio of one teacher for every 84 children.

In recent years, local authorities have replaced teachers with lower-paid child development officers – previously called nursery nurses – partly on cost grounds, but also because they work longer hours.

Councils argue child development officers are now better qualified than ever before following the introduction of new qualifications up to degree level and their use allows them to open nurseries for longer in order to meet the demands of working parents.

However, research has consistently highlighted the importance of teachers in nursery education.

Mr Dempster said he was not criticising the efforts of other members of staff in pre-primary settings, but wanted to highlight the conclusion of research studies that trained teachers and leaders were crucial to the quality of pre-school education.

He added: "Unfortunately, over time, that commitment of access to a nursery teacher for all nursery age children has been diluted and then replaced with an altogether different goal. Increased hours.

"With increased hours as the core purpose the educational input becomes an expensive part of the mix and as a result the increase in hours is more focussed on provision of childcare – not education.

"While I entirely understand the motivation for this new policy purpose, it is disappointing - not least because the same research that helped set us on this journey also pointed towards the potential negative long term impacts of early participation in some lower quality group care settings."

The report by the Child’s Curriculum Group published in February found that notions of "teacher access" were "ill defined and inconsistent" and said a growing demand was being placed on primary headteachers and promoted primary staff to visit nurseries rather than having dedicated staff on site.

It said: "Local authorities vary in their commitment to, and ways of, employing teachers. Not all three and four-year-old children in funded early learning and childcare settings currently have access to a teacher.

"In some local authorities, the nursery teacher’s role is being reduced and in some cases, despite the Scottish Government requirement for nursery children to have access to a registered teacher, such teachers are no longer employed."