Child care hubs for Moray key workers to close
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Moray Council has confirmed its emergency childcare provision will cease after next week.
This comes after the announcement by the Scottish Government that the requirement for local authorities to provide the emergency hubs will end a week on Friday.
The hubs have been operating in Moray since March 30 to look after the children of keyworkers during the height of the covid-19 pandemic.
A number of private, voluntary and independent childcare providers will now continue their provision in Moray beyond the end of July.
The council says that families who may be affected by this will be contacted directly.
The local authority also states that closing the emergency childcare hubs at the end of this month will allow it more time to plan for the reopening of schools and nurseries.
This is widely expected to happen on August 10 for staff and on August 12 for pupils – although the Scottish Government is waiting until next Thursday to announce the definite dates.
Moray Council's head of education, Vivienne Cross, said: "We’re extremely grateful to all hub volunteers who have staffed the emergency childcare hub throughout summer and to the teams behind the scenes who devised our, out of the ordinary, summer programme.
"As we see emergency and key services returning to previous levels we’re confident that winding down our hub provision on July 31, in-line with Scottish Government guidance, will allow us time to prepare schools used as hubs for the start of term.
"We’re aware that some parents and carers were expecting to have a form of emergency childcare for the final weeks of the summer holidays and we encourage them to make their normal holiday arrangements if possible."
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