THE difficulties faced by working parents to access free nursery care under a flagship Scottish Government policy has been recognised by the First Minister.

Nicola Sturgeon has written to campaigners accepting there is "merit" in their suggestions for improving delivery and recording information about how many families are missing out.

Under SNP legislation, families are entitled to a mandatory 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds.

However, a recent survey found fewer than one in six councils in Scotland have enough childcare capacity to meet the needs of working parents.

The study by the Family and Childcare Trust said only 15 per cent of local authorities had enough childcare for parents who worked full-time, down from 23 per cent in 2013.

In her letter to the Glasgow-based campaign group Fair Funding for Our Kids, Ms Sturgeon said: "Your suggestions were to identify a single person to audit the delivery of the early learning and childcare policy nationally.... and to identify the scale of the problem.

"I have now had time to consider all your proposals carefully and I agree there is merit in the three suggestions you make."

Ms Sturgeon said she agreed that national statistics on nursery registrations could be improved, adding: "The chief statistician acts independently of government in assuring the quality of the statistics, but I will write to him asking that he looks at ways to further improve the data that is collected.

"I should make clear that the Cabernet Secretary for Education Angela Constance is responsible for overseeing the delivery of this policy and will take forward national discussions on these issues. However, I have asked officials to consider options for ensuring independent oversight."

A spokeswoman for Fair Funding for Our Kids gave a cautious welcome to the commitments.

She said: "Right now, across Scotland, thousands of three and four-year olds are missing out on the 600 hours of free nursery care they are guaranteed by law.

"We are glad the First Minister has agreed to act on some of our suggestions so far, and we look forward to meeting her and Ms Constance soon and hope this might be the start of a proper review of how the policy is actually being delivered on the ground.

"At present, there is no clear information about the number of children who are not able to access their free nursery place and the Government can't possibly hope to address this important issue until they can accurately gauge the scale of the problem nationally."